Is This Song Your Song Anymore?: Revisioning Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"
2002; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1350126
ISSN1945-2349
Autores Tópico(s)Musicology and Musical Analysis
ResumoAfter drifting around New York for almost two months at the beginning of 1940, sleeping on succession of friends' couches, and busking for tips in Bowery saloons, songwriter and political activist Woody Guthrie settled into the shabby surroundings of Hanover House, hotel located near the jumble and noise of Times Square. There, on February 23, he wrote God Blessed America, whose six verses ended in the refrain God blessed America for me. Afterward, he did not show much interest in the song and did not perform it often.' Then sometime before the end of April 1944, when Moses Asch first recorded him singing it, Guthrie decided to change the title to Is Your Land and the refrain to land was made for you and me. Over the years, this song has surpassed simple popularity and found its way into our national consciousness, evidenced by great many Americans' familiarity with the melody. Many people can sing all or part of the chorus-and few even know Woody Guthrie wrote the song. This recognition cannot be attributed directly to its commercial achievement, however. For example, if we look to Billboard magazine as typical measurement of song's commercial status, we find none of the many versions of Land has reached the top ten, forty, or even hundred in terms of sales. Yet even without this type of commercial success, it has become as Clifton Fadiman describes Guthrie and his work as whole: a national possession, like Yellow-
Referência(s)