THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Live 29 Dec 1980 version

[Spoken intro:] (crowd cheering loudly) I'm here, I'm here (chuckles). [tests guitar and harmonica] This is uh... (long pause) Now this is a song that uh... there's a book out right now, it's called "Woody Guthrie: A Life". It's by, it's by this fella named Joe Klein, Joe Clean [the correct name is "Joe Klein"]. And uh... it's really, it's really a great book and this is... this song was originally, it was written at the time it was uh, it was a... it was written as a... as an angry song, it was an answer to Irving Berlin who'd just wrote "God Bless America". And... and this song was written as uh, as an answer to that song, it was written as an angry song. And uh... it's just about one of the most beautiful songs ever written, anyway. (crowd cheers) Let's do this for you ???.

Well I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me the endless skyway
I saw below me the golden valley
Well this land was made for you and me

I roamed and rambled, I followed my footsteps
Through the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was calling
It said this land was made for you and me

Well this land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
Through the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
Well this land was made for you and me

Now the sun came shining and I was strolling
With the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
And a voice was sounding as the fog was lifting
It said this land was 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 Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
Oh this land was made for you and me

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 29 Dec 1980 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY, during The River Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement. This live 29 Dec 1980 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND was included on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986. Some parts of the spoken introduction (the parts in red above) are edited out on the official release.

The Live/1975-85 box set liner notes indicate that the recording of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND is taken from this 28 Dec 1980 show in Uniondale, NY, but that's incorrect. It's actually taken from the following night's show in Uniondale, NY.

The 29 Dec 1980 Show

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band rounded up the 1980 leg of The River Tour with three concerts at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, on 28, 29, and 31 Dec 1980. The three shows were recorded live with the Record Plant Remote Truck by Toby Scott, assisted by David Bianco and Jim Scott, and later became one of the main sources for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes six recordings from these shows. Four additional recordings were released as B-sides and on compilation albums.

Promotional poster for the 29 Dec 1980 show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
(Taken from Brucebase)

Ticket stub for the 29 Dec 1980 show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
(Taken from Brucebase)

In July 2019 the complete 29 Dec 1980 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The 24-track/30-IPS reel-to-reel master tapes were transferred and restored by Jamie Howarth in Spring 2019 using the Plangent Process. The audio was mixed by Jon Altschiller, with additional engineering by Danielle Warman, and mastered by Jon Altschiller.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Nassau Coliseum, New York 12/29/80

The Live/1975-85 Box Set

With the Born In The U.S.A. album and tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band reached the highest level of rock stardom. Columbia Records was expecting a follow up studio album and tour that would, like it's predecessor, achieve a huge commercial success. Instead, Springsteen released Live/1975-85, an over-three-hours-and-a-half-long live compilation album consisting of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Live/1975-85

The set was produced by Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Bruce Springsteen, and hit the stores on 10 Nov 1986. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs. Live/1975-85 is the first album to be credited to "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" instead of "Bruce Springsteen" only.

The highly-anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line on Monday morning before opening and one New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies. Live/1975-85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13 times platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live.

Other Official Releases

The live 29 Dec 1980 version of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND can also be found on one Bruce Springsteen promo-only sampler and one various artists promo-only sampler.

Bruce Springsteen -- The Future Of Rock'n'Roll / 70's To 80's

2xCD - CBS/Sony (XADP 90009~10) - Japan, 1988

Japan-only promotional 2-CD set sampler compiling 28 tracks from Bruce Springsteen's first nine albums plus two 1988 live B-sides.

The Future Of Rock'n'Roll / 70's To 80's track list

Disc 1: (70's)
01- THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Oct 1975 (early show) version]
02- BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
03- RACING IN THE STREET
04- KITTY'S BACK
05- BADLANDS
06- GROWIN' UP
07- PROVE IT ALL NIGHT
08- 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY)
09- BACKSTREETS [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
10- FOR YOU
11- TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT
12- THE PROMISED LAND
13- ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) [Live 07 Jul 1978 version]
14- BORN TO RUN

Disc 2: (80's)
01- BORN IN THE U.S.A. [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
02- BRILLIANT DISGUISE
03- DANCING IN THE DARK
04- CADILLAC RANCH [Live 06 Jul 1981 version]
05- WALK LIKE A MAN
06- WAR [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
07- JOHNNY 99
08- HUNGRY HEART [Live 28 Dec 1980 version]
09- I WANNA MARRY YOU
10- MY HOMETOWN [Live 30 Sep 1985 version]
11- THE RIVER
12- GLORY DAYS
13- OUT IN THE STREET
14- TOUGHER THAN THE REST [Live 27 Apr 1988 version]
15- SPARE PARTS [Live 09 Jul 1988 version]
16- THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND [Live 29 Dec 1980 version]

Various Artists -- An American Reunion

CD - Warner / Sony (PR CD 8724) - USA, 1993

US-only sampler issued to coincide with Bill Clinton's 1993 presidential inauguration.

Credits

Thanks Francesco Esposito for the corrections.

Available Versions

List of available versions of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND on this website:

Page last updated: 06 Jan 2018