July 3rd: This Land is Your Land
On the eve of July 4th, this week's Friday Music celebrates the great Woody Guthrie, whose "This Land Is Your Land" exemplifies how to turn passive into active. Withered by continually having to listen to Kate Smith's ecstatic version of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America"on the radio, Woody decided to fight back with his own populist song. The wonderful verse
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
was not only a critique of the exclusionary ownership of land by the wealthy, but also a brilliant revelation of the socially constructed or made-up nature of concepts like private property claiming to define reality (there's nothing on the other side, yo ho!). If you click on the link, you'll see that the message on Woody's guitar also conveys this revolutionary idea in a different way and is a lesson to remember this July 4th: the lyrical music of resistance inspires social movements and undermines the authoritarianism of tyrants.