There have been questions from several people regarding the “Trespass Verse” Pete Seeger sung during the Inaugural Concert. Many had not heard it before which was surprising to me. This began an email exchange with several on the history of the song.
This first email here was sent to me by someone did some quick research on the "trespassing” verse and how it became left out for many years.
The second was from Spook Handy, a younger folk singer who knows Pete.
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This Land Is Your Land" was partly a response to "God Bless America". In the earliest manuscript of the lyrics, each verse ends with "God blessed America for me" instead of "this land is made for you and me."
The verse in question appears in that manuscript as: Was a high wall there that tried to stop me A sign was painted said: Private Property, But on the back side it didn't say nothing -- God blessed America for me.
According to a Wikipedia contributor, an early recording includes this verse, with the last like changed to "That side was made for you and me." But the specific recording that allegedly has the "private property" verse is described on the Woody Guthrie website as "This Land Is Your Land (with "No Trespassing" verse)," and the verse is set out like this:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
The Arlo Guthrie website gives the verse almost the same:
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
My guess is that the "private property" words were earlier, but were changed to "no trespassing" shortly after that, when he changed the end of eachverse from "god blessed America for me" to "this land was made for you and me."
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A very short time later I received this email from Spook Handy:
According to Pete Seeger, the original version of this verse is:Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property
But on the back side it didn't say nothing
God blessed America for me.
This was written on Feb 23, 1940 in "NY, NY, NY"
When Pete sang the song in DC, he sang the words slightly differently. He also sang the verse about the hungry people a little differently. The original version of that verse is (according to Pete):
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
by the relief office I saw my people
As they stood there hungry I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.
It is interesting to note a very powerful process of songwriting that happened to this song. The song was originally six verses with no chorus. The first verse was:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to Staten Island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
God blessed America for me.
Three important changes were made that I believe allowed the song to become a sort of alternative national anthem. 1. Refrain - God blessed America for me - would make the song too controversial. It would have been a song of self expression but one that didn't serve the people because the ones who really needed to hear it would be turned off by that God blessed America for me which stands in the face of the patriotic song God Bless America.
This is my opinion and I may be wrong. But it is possible that this song would be well known only among lefties and their offspring if these words were not changed to the more universal and less in-your-face This land was made for you and me. People like me would never have hear the song or discovered the power and the real message behind the song - being that I was brought up in a conservative household. I'd have probably voted for John McCain if those words were never changed. Or George would be on his turn illegitimate term. Who's to say?
2. Staten Island - being an obscure geographical reference - was changed to the more universally known New York Island.
3. Being that the first verse captures the most universal description of the refrain, it became the chorus. All the other verses are great but they are more specific and not as good candidates for being a chorus.
You can see this process at work in Pete Seeger's Turn Turn Turn. He took a psalm out of the Bible, and made the first few lines into a chorus that repeats four times. The rest of the words - after being changed around a little to make them more lyrical - became the four verses. But Pete took it one step further. He added the words, Turn Turn Turn. I don't believe the word Turn is in the psalm. But now, not only is there a very memorable chorus that repeats four times. There is now the word Turn that repeats 24 times in the song.
This is the story as best as I can relate it straight from Pete's mouth.
Spook Handy
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
www.spookhandy.com
www.myspace.com/spookhandy
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Comments
Enjoy knowing about this song--one of my all time favorites. Seeger is a smart man.
Would you do this for Hey, Buddy can you spare a dime? I heard an NPR thing about it and the song is quite complex.
My FIl named my husband Al from that song.
Good post.
Monte
It is as Pete Seeger calls it, “the folk process”
One must remember Woody wrote over 2000 songs and they are still finding them, many without music to them, only lyrics.
(And Jane - that story about your son is awesome. Zero tolerance = zero sense most of the time.)
To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8
The Turn, Turn, Turn, Turn addition was genius.
Thanks for sharing your incredible knowledge and your obvious love with music. You are my music resource here.
Ah lyrics. . . as a song writer myself, I can tell you, a song is never finished.
You can post about these songwriters forever and I will read and rate everyone of them. I do love the folk.
Geez, your writing is good. Thanks so much for this post.
... a farm child song:`Does God love Uncle Cargill?
Land Land Land. Wild Willie's Mustard (I love that!),
Let Justice Roll down like a River, Don't Turn Back.
`
The songs are chirpy. Children enjoy, and You Folkmuse may be familiar him?
All the lyrics are great. *A HOME LIKE THIS* compact disc.
Off-topic but essential: Sobule's song I Kissed A Girl (she now calls her song "I Kissed A Girl (Classic)") is magnifique!
This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California to New York Island ...
[etc. to the final line:]
This land WAS STOLEN FROM you and me.
Do you know anything more about that version? At one point I had it in print and it was at least a page long. I wonder of Seeger and Springstein have seen it.