Maybe! The song may have been in the public domain since 1973. It’s one of those interesting but meandering stories that’s hard to untangle. The short version is that Woody Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 but didn’t copyright it until 1945. That original copyright was never renewed and so therefore would have expired 28 years later. But in 1956 Ludlow Music, which seems to have been Guthrie’s publisher, filed for its own copyright and apparently did keep it up to date. Why two simultaneous copyrights were allowed isn’t clear. So earlier this year the same law firm that successfully sued to get “Happy Birthday” put in the public domain tried to do the same with “This Land.” (You missed that breaking news about “Happy Birthday”? Tsk, tsk!) If the suit is successful, one requirement will be the refunding of all licensing fees paid since 2010.
Woody Guthrie, author of of the song and non-renewer of the copyright, is a fascinating figure in American folk music. His mother had Huntington’s disease and was institutionalized in 1926 when Guthrie was 14, leaving him and his siblings basically on their own. Their father was living in Texas and the rest of the family was at their home in Oklahoma. I’m reminded of my mother’s upbringing in Florida during the 1920’s: She was the youngest of six children and her mother died when she was six months old. The kids were all farmed out to relatives, with my mom going to her mother’s sister, Aunt Ella. I’m not sure what happened to the other two girls. The boys ended up at a “fish camp” owned by their father, my grandpa Ferguson, who had left his wife at some point before my mom’s birth. My mother therefore never knew her father to speak of at all, and it’s frightening to wonder what would have happened to those children had there been no adults around to take them in. In Guthrie’s case, this lack of any kind of support network is exactly what happened. Guthrie had an older brother Roy who tried to support the rest of the children, but Woody had to cadge odd jobs, beg meals, and sometimes sleep at friends’ homes.
These early experiences, plus Guthrie’s travels in the 1930’s with Dust Bowl farmers, inspired him with a great sympathy for the jobless and desperate. As the Great Depression rolled on, he became more and more irritated by Irving Berlin’s song “God Bless America,” which was being played constantly on the radio, performed by Kate Smith. I think we all love that song—I certainly do. But Guthrie had a point: Yes, America was the land of the free even while the storm clouds gathered overseas. But what about the storm clouds at home, as millions of people were trying to survive from day to day? He felt that the song was an idealization, which of course it was. So he decided to write his own. We even know when and where he wrote it: February 23, 1940, in his room at the Hanover House Hotel in New York City, where Guthrie was establishing himself as a musician. The original lyrics included two verses that are rarely included in performances: one that mentions a wall that says “no trespassing” and one that describes hungry people standing in line at the “Relief Office” in the shadow of a steeple. So when Guthrie emphasizes that “this land was made for you and me,” he’s not pushing a feel-good hey-let’s-all-sing-around-the-campfire kind of mood. He’s saying,”America was made for everyone. Don’t forget about the poor!” To me, getting the full backstory makes the song even more meaningful.
I don’t usually address musical issues in these posts, but here the story of where Guthrie got the melody is an interesting window in his creativity. All sources agree that he got the tune from the old Gospel song “Oh My Lovin’ Brother (When the World’s on Fire),” which was sung by the Carter Family. If you listen to the two songs you’ll hear that while Guthrie did indeed use part of it he then inserted his own musical line for “this land was made for you and me.” I’ve posted versions from YouTube below for both performers. A fascinating look at a lost musical world!
© Debi Simons
