[Bernard Marx]

The song I couldn’t remember was “This Land is Your Land.”

The Communist national anthem, written and performed by an authentic Communist. How easily we were seduced.

[Tax-chick]

*shrug*

I always thought it was very Manifest Destiny, “This land was made for you and me.”

[Fiji Hill]

I prefer the gospel song whose melody Comrade Guthrie ripped off when he wrote "This Land":

The Fire Song--The Carter Family

[Responsibility2nd]

Yet today, Guthrie would be far to the right of many Republicans.

[Let_It_Be_So]

I read the lyrics and don’t find reference to communist ideology written therein. What are you talking about? (must have missed it somewhere)

[Mrs. Don-o]

He wasn't much of an ideologue. Never joined a party, let alone "The" Party, he wrote for a Communist paper but didn't write politics, played in Left-wing venues because they'd have him.

He was sharp enough to see that the Left opposed the Klan, and that appealed to him because his father had been a Klansman, and had participated in the lynching of a couple of people in Oklahoma: Woodie detested that.

He saw that the Left opposed Hitler, and that appealed to him because he despised Hitler. He didn't analyze the convoluted propaganda, let alone produce it. If he sang anti-Fascist, the Communists hired him. That gave a genuine redneck guitar-picker a certain elan in 1940.

His subtitle for "This Land Is Your Land" was "God Blessed This Land for Me."

This isn't Stalinism: it 's pure Woody.