This Land Is Your Land

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 out of sheer irritation. Sick of hearing Kate Smith's bombastic radio broadcasts of "God Bless America," Guthrie penned a gritty, populist response while staying in a cheap Manhattan hotel. He finally recorded it in April 1944 for Moses Asch. Accompanied only by his aggressively strummed acoustic guitar (which famously bore the sticker "This Machine Kills Fascists") Guthrie sang with a plain, conversational honesty. Though the more radical verses about private property were eventually dropped from schoolroom sing-alongs, the song endured to become the ultimate alternative American national anthem.