This Land Was Stolen is our interpretation of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ version of This Land is Your Land, the Woody Guthrie protest song from 1940. According to Wikipedia, the song was
based on an existing melody, a Carter Family tune called “When the World’s on Fire”, in critical response to Irving Berlin‘s “God Bless America.” When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song “God Blessed America for Me” before renaming it “This Land Is Your Land.”
When LA BAMBA was preparing to play one of our first gigs, with Extinction Rebellion Los Angeles, one of the Native American organizers pointed out that the song’s lyrics – despite its liberal connotations – ignore the fundamental issue of Native American rights to these lands. In recognition of the fact that Los Angeles is Tongva land, we rewrote the refrain and retitled the song, as well as transposing and arranging Sharon Jones’s version especially for our band.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings released their slow, bluesy version – with all 6 of Woody Guthrie’s verses – in 2004. This article talks more about the history of the song and Sharon Jones.
Score and Learning Tools
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Original Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings version
This land was their land, this land is their land From California, to the New York Island From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters This land was stolen, and it ain't free As I went walking down the ribbon of a highway I saw above me oh that endless skyway Now I saw below me that golden valley And I said: this land was stolen for you and me As I was walking, now they tried to stop me They put up a sign that said Oh it said: private property Well on the back side you know it said nothing But all sides were stolen, and it ain't free SOLOS One bright sunny morning, well, in the shadow of a steeple Down by the way I fell off it I saw my people You know my day spent hungry I stood wondering I was wondering why this land was stolen, and it ain't free This land is their land, this land is their land From Riverside, California to the Staten Island Well on down to Western Georgia oh don't forget to say Philadelphia oh down to Mississippi, oh Houston Texas oh L.A. YEAH You know this land is their land, this land is their land This land is their land