Halifax journalist Alex Boutilier demanded This Land Is Your Land be Song No. 1 on the Top 100 Political Music Countdown. I'm contrarian by nature though, and dropped it to No. 10.
Here's Boutilier's defense:
This Land is Your Land has got to be #1. I’m not saying, of course, that anybody who has a lick of political sense is a communist, as Woody was labeled by various critics and friends. To paraphrase Woody: he was never a communist, but he was in the red all his life.
But listen. If you have a song that was recorded in the 1940’s that is still taught to school children – in Canada, no less – and still has some of the verses censored, you’ve got yourself one king hell of a political song.
Verses of Woody Guthrie they don't sing at summer camp:
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
This land was made for you and me.
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.
