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Live 28 Apr 1981 version
[Spoken intro:] This is a song... it was written by Woody Guthrie. And back, back in the States where I guess it's, I guess it's the same everywhere now where unemployment and things are so bad that it seems that when times get tough there's always that, that resurgence of people with common interests seem to turn against each other. Now in the States there's always like, you always see more about like the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialists. (boos) And it's... this song was written as... I guess it was written as a dream that the land that, that you live in and the land that I live it was put there, put there for us and that it's no... and that it doesn't belong to any one group of people, one race or one color or religion. And it's hard to, it's hard to sing it when it's so far away from, from being true, it seems, and when it seems so far out of people's hearts and lives. But it's a dream that is... it's about, it's just about being human and about just decency and respect and being able to live free.
Well once I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me an endless sky
I saw below me a golden valley
Oh this land was made for you and me
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
Through the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was crying
It said this land was made for you and me
The sun came shining as I went strolling
Through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
And the bells were ringing and the fog was lifting
And this land it was for you and me
Well from California to the street of New York
From Harlem County to Liberty City
To the streets of Brixton and the people wondering
If this land is made for you and me
Well this land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forests to the Gulf Stream waters
Oh this land is made for you and me
The above lyrics are for the live 28 Apr 1981 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Sportpaleis Ahoy, Rotterdam in The Netherlands, during The River Tour. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement. This version is one of eight on this tour that feature Springsteen's own "Liberty City" verse. Here Springsteen adds a reference to the 1981 Brixton riot that took place earlier in the month.
List of available versions of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND on this website:
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND [1988 studio version]