[Fiji Hill]

Even as a young kid, I knew this song would be immortal.
Unless Barack and leftists schools ban it from being song.
This is when I'll know the end is near.

It is said that when "God Bless America" was popular, the Communist balladeer Woody Guthrie wanted to come up with an atheist song that would express similar sentiments. So he wrote "This Land {Is Your Land}," which he eventually recorded in 1951.

However, "This Land" rips off "The Fire Song," a gospel tune written by Blind Willie Davis in 1928, and which was regularly performed by the chorus choir on the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, a Christian broadcast in the 1940's and 1950's that had an audience of tens of millions. The Carter Family's 1930 hit version of "The Fire Song" can be heard here.

[JimmyMc]

Thank you for the history lesson.
Alice's Restaurant's by Arlo is still a classic. So few people know about it.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"However, "This Land" rips off "The Fire Song," a gospel tune written by Blind Willie Davis in 1928"

That's the whole point of folk songs. They take and re-use bits of other peoples songs. Nowadays, you would be sued in court for that, but back then it was a common thing to do. Most of Woody's songs had stolen melodies.