THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Live 04 Sep 1985 version

[Spoken intro:] Whoa! Whoa. Oh, thanks, thank you. Yeah, I'd like to just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much. I wanna say that... oh. I'd like to uh... do this song for you. This is, I guess, about the greatest song that's ever been written about America. And uh... it was written by Woody Guthrie, and I guess what's so great about it is it gets right to the heart of what the promise of our country was supposed to be about. And as we sit here tonight, it's a promise that is eroding for many of our fellow citizens. I don't think that if you talked to some of the steelworkers from the Monongahela Valley or Gary, Indiana, or East Los Angeles, or some of the farmers in the Midwest, or some of the unemployed right here from Detroit, I don't know if they believe you. I don't know if they think that this song was true anymore. And I'm not sure that it is. But I know that it ought to be, and I know that no matter what anybody says, you can, you can make a difference in this song being a little more true every day. So... but you gotta try. (chuckles) (cheers) Anyway, I'd like to do this for you, wishing you all the longest life with the best of absolutely everything.

Once I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me the endless sky
I saw below me a golden valley
Well this land was made for you and me

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
Through the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
It cried this land was made for you and me

Well the sun came shining as I went strolling
Through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
And the bells were ringing and the fog was lifting
And I seen this land was made for you and me

One Sunday morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw the people
And they were hungry and they were wondering
If this land was made for you and me

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forests to the Gulf Stream waters
Yeah this land was made for you and me

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 04 Sep 1985 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, MI, during the Born In The U.S.A. Tour. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement and is one of nine on this tour that feature an extra verse.

Ticket stub for the 04 Sep 1985 show at Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, MI

Available Versions

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Page last updated: 01 May 2015