As I went walking the ribbon a highway
saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me the Golden Valley
sing it out now this land was made
In the diamond of the redwood forest
Over the frozen water
This land was made for you and me,
this land is your land,
from California to New York Island,
from the rainforest
to the Boston waters,
this land was made for you and me.
Now some of you are singing just beautiful,
but we need a little harmony.
All the high tenors, and all the basses,
and the contra mezzo -sopranos.
Everybody got it getting on us.
I mean everybody.
If there's anybody who's not singing,
oh, people say, who are you?
I stood there whistling
This land was made for you and me.
Sing it out now!
This land is your land.
This land is my land.
You don't ever want
to go to the highlands,
to the forests,
to the ghostly forests.
This land was made for you and me.
Was a great high wall there,
tried to stop me
Was a great big sign there,
said private property
But on the other side,
it didn't say nothing
This land was made for you an d me
I think Woody would be glad to know
that people are making up new verses
to this all over.
I've heard verses in Spanish
from New Mexico,
that's a nice idea,
there ought to be verses in
French an d German
and Italian and Polish and Yiddish
and Choctaw and Cherokee an
d Kiowa also.
You ever hear this verse,
this land is your land,
but it once was my land,
before we sold you Manhattan Island.
You pushed our na tions
to the reservations.
This land was stole by you from me.
Now, there was a friend of mine,
a fine young black singer
named Jimmy Collier
singing this in Washington,
D .C. back in 1968 in the Poor People's Campaign.
We were singing it together.
Up comes old Henry Crow Dog
from the Sioux Indian delegation.
points his finger right in Jimmy's chest.
He says, hey, you're both wrong.
It belongs to me.
Jimmy stopped in the middle of the song.
He says, maybe we shouldn't
be singing this song.
But Henry Crow Dog
had a great sense of humor.
He says, no, if we're down here together
to get something done.
Let's all sing it.
This land is your land.
This land is my land.
From California to New York Island.
From the redwood forest
to the blue forest.
This land was made for
you and me.
Woodland and grassland
and river shoreline
to everything living.
Bugs and snakes and microbes,
fin fur and feather,
we're all here together.
That's ecology.
This land was made for you an d me.
One more time!
This land was made for you and me.