THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Live 06 Sep 1985 version

[Spoken intro:] Thanks. Thank you. I'd like to take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much. Let you know that we appreciate it. And uh... I know some of you guys waited a long time in line for tickets and things. And... I want you to know we appreciate that. But uh... I'd like to do a song, this is, I guess, about the greatest song that's ever been written about America. And it's by Woody Guthrie. And uh... I guess what's great about is it kinda, it gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about. And uh... as we sit here tonight, with over 30 million people living at or below the poverty line, that's a promise that's eroding for many of our fellow citizens. And uh... I don't know if you talk to uh... some of the steelworkers up in Gary, I don't know if they think that this song is true anymore. And the steelworkers in East Los Angeles, or in the Monongahela Valley, Pennsylvania. I don't know if they believe that this song is true anymore. I'm not sure that it is, but I know that it ought to be... that the only way that it's gonna be true is if somehow, in some way, we try to make it so every day. But uh... anyway, you gotta be vigilant because with countries, just like with people, it's easy to let the best of yourself slip away. So 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
Now 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 as the fog was lifting
But 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
Well this land was made for you and me

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 06 Sep 1985 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, IN, 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 06 Sep 1985 show at Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, IN

Available Versions

List of available versions of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND on this website:

Page last updated: 01 May 2015