Det siger ikke så lidt om den store amerikanske sangskriver og folkemusiker Woody Guthries folkelige appel og spændvidde, at både Bruce Springsteen spiller hans musik og præsident George W. Bush har brugt hans kendingsmelodi “This Land is your land” i sin præsidentkampagne. Det siger måske meget om Guthries humanistisk-politiske brod, at nogle har ønsket at slette de sidst to vers i sangen, hvor Guthrie blandt andet anfægter den private ejendomsret…

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

As I go walking this ribbon of highway
I see above me the endless skyway
And all around me the wind keeps saying:
This land is made for you and me.

I roam and I ramble and I follow my footsteps
Till I come to the sands of her mineral desert
The mist is lifting and the voice is saying:
This land is made for you and me.

Where the wind is blowing I go a strolling
The wheat field waving and the dust a rolling
The fog is lifting and the wind is saying:
This land is made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land is made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

As I went walking, I saw a sign there;
And on the sign there, it said, ‘No Trespassing.’
But on the other side; it didn’t say nothing!
That side was made for you and me

Som bekendt har Bruce Springsteen reaktualiseret Woody Guhtries sange for ganske nylig, og derfor kan der være god grund til at trække en ældre hyldestplade frem i lyset: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie (1989). På pladens 27 numre fortolker en lang række store kunstnere Guthries sange. Fx medvirker Bob Dylan sammen med The Crackers (= The Band), Woodys søn Arlo, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger og mange flere. Pladen giver et godt tværsnit af Guthries sange fra de socialt engagerede sange over balladerne til børnesangene. Her er playlisten.

1. This Train Is Bound for Glory – Arlo Guthrie
2. Narration – Will Geer
3. Oklahoma Hills – Arlo Guthrie
4. Narration – Robert Ryan
5. Rambling Round Your City – Odetta
6. I Ain’t Got No Home – Bob Dylan
7. Do-Re-Mi – Arlo Guthrie
8. Curly Headed Baby – Pete Seeger
9. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt – Bob Dylan
10. Narration – Robert Ryan
11. Pastures of Plenty – Tom Paxton
12. Grand Coulee Dam – Bob Dylan
13. Roll on Columbia/Narration – Judy Collins, Robert Ryan
14. Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done [Great Historical Bum] – Tom Paxton
15. Jackhammer John – Richie Havens, Pete Seeger
16. Hobo’s Lullaby – Joan Baez
17. Narration – Peter Fonda
18. Woman at Home – Country Joe McDonald
19. Narration – Will Geer
20. Deportee [Plane Wreck at Los Gatos] – Judy Collins
21. Mail Myself to You – Earl Robinson
22. Howdido – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
23. Jesus Christ – Arlo Guthrie
24. 1913 Massacre – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
25. Union Main – Judy Collins, Pete Seeger
26. Narration – Judy Collins, Will Geer, Robert Ryan
27. This Land Is Your Land/Narration – Will Geer, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta