An American Songbag
Woody Gurthrie: “This Land Is Your Land”1940s
Bob Dylen: “Blowing in the Wind,” 1962
Bruce Springsteen: “Born in the USA” 1984
Leonard Cohen: “Democracy" 1992
Woody Gurthrie,
This Land Is Your Land
This land is your land, This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
The four corners of USA
Nature as an American identity
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
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.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land 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.
© Copyright 1956 (renewed), 1958 (renewed), 1970 and
1972
History in Song
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/history.html#top
Bob Dylan, “Blowing in the Wind”
1962
Blowing in the Wind
How many roads must a man walk down,
before they call him a man
How many seas must a white dove sail,
before she sleeps in the sand
How many times must the cannonballs fly,
before they are forever banned
* The answer, my friend,
is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind
THE VIET-NAM WAR
My Lai, March 16, 1968
Photograph by Ronald L. Haeberle.
Nagasaki, 1945
How many years must a mountain exist,
before it is washed to the sea
How many years can some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free
How many times can a man turn his head,
and pretend that he just doesn't see
* The answer, my friend,
is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind
1. A mountain washed to the sea:
Environmental devastation or a
symbol of USA
2. Race relation and the civil rights
movement
How many times must a man look up,
before he can see the sky
How many years must one man have,
before he can hear people cry
How many deaths will it take till he knows,
that too many people have died
* The answer, my friend,
is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind
Bruce Springsteen:
“Born in the USA” 1984
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said “Son, don’t you understand now”
I had a brother at Khe Sahn 溪山
Fighting off the Viet Cong 越共
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon 西貢
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary 監獄、感化院
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
精煉廠、煉油廠
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.,
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.,
I’m a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.,
I’m a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.
Leonard Cohen “Democracy”
DEMOCRACY
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
We Remember - Tiananmen Square,
Beijing, June 4, 1989
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
1. Sermon on the Mount
2. the battered heart of Chevrolet
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild
bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on ...