Live 18 Apr 1981 version
[Spoken intro:] This song, uh... when I was about 26, we played in Memphis, Tennesee. And... and it was after the show, it was late at night, me and Steve, we got into a car, into a taxi, and we went down to, to where Graceland was... is. And the gates were all locked up and there was a light on in the, in the house. And I said, "Steve, I gotta go in and see, to see if he's home". And I climbed up over the wall and I jumped down on the other side and I ran up to the front door and I was saying, "Now, what am I gonna say? 'Is Elvis home?' Nah" (chuckles). And I got to, I got just about to the front door and a guard came out of the woods and told me I, we had, I had to leave so I walked out. But I used to dream all about, about what would've happened if, if I'd got in or if he'd opened up the door, and... Especially after, after he died, I thought for a long time about how somebody that had so much could lose so heavy. And... and this song, this, this song is about... oh the last time, the last time that I'd seen, I'd seen Elvis in concert, my two favorite songs he sang was, one was called "How Great Thou Art" and the other one was, uh, "The American Trilogy". And it seemed... and I remember because I, I went hoping to see him, you know, do, do all, do all old stuff, all the rocking stuff, but in the end it seemed like the songs that were closest to him and that he sang with the most heart was a song that was about the land that he grew up in and a song just about the god that he believed in, who I guess he hoped would save his soul, and... But this song, this is a song about freedom. It's a song about not, not having to die when you're old in some factory or about not having to die in some big million-dollar house with, with a lot of, uh, nothing pumping through your veins.
Well once I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me the endless sky
I saw below me the golden valley
Oh this land was made for you and me
Well the sun came shining and I was strolling
Through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
And the bells were ringing and the fog was lifting
Oh 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 Forests to the Gulf Stream waters
Oh this land was made for you and me
The above lyrics are for the live 18 Apr 1981 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Palais Des Sports De Saint-Ouen in Paris, France, during The River Tour. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement. This version in particular is shorter than the others — Springsteen omits the "I roamed and I rambled" verse.
This concert was rescheduled from 20 Apr 1981.
List of available versions of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND on this website:
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND [1988 studio version]