"Is this land made for you and me?"

When Woody Guthrie finally got sick and tired of hearing Kate Smith on the radio during World War II singing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" he sat down and wrote an alternative narrative that he called "God Blessed America for Me."

The song didn't catch on right away.  Folk singers weren't very much in vogue what with the war going on and all.  Besides, the lyrics were a little, well, seditious ... especially for a nation that fighting the good fight -- and with God on its side:

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;

By the relief office, I'd seen my people.

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,

Is this land made for you and me?

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;

That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

The song was finally published in 1951 under a new title, "This Land is Your Land."  But it was the McCarthy era and these three verses were omitted from the published version that was sung by generations of school children.

More than half a century later, 90 year-old Pete Seeger restored the progressive lyrics when he performed the song at the inauguration in 2008 ...