Monday, January 19, 2009

Freedom Highway



(HBO took the concert video off youtube so I've replaced it with this version featuring Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie.)

Lyrics to This Land Is Your Land :

(Woody Guthrie)

[Chorus:]
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,
This land was made for you and me.

As I went 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 roamed and I rambled, and I followed my footsteps
To the sparking sands of her diamond deserts,
All around me a voice was sounding,
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, then I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling,
A voice was chanting as the fog was lifting,
This land was made for you and me.

One bright sunny morning, in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office I saw my people,
As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering if,
This land was made for you and me.

Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me,
Was a great big sign that said, "Private Property,"
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking my freedom highway,
Nobody living can make me turn back,
This land was made for you and me.

* I watched the We Are One event last night on HBO — inspiring, moving, joyful and brilliantly conceived to call forth, with love and jubilation, the enduring character of America, the America I love. Check local listings and make time to be inspired, renewed.

Oz is in the crowd someplace with his grandson and another young Austinite.

Susan Bright



* And this one is from the Staple Singers, 1965 — in celebraton of MLK day, 2009.
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8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you! for posting the Freedom Highway clip! It makes me cry to watch Severs, who sang the song "in my day" with so much anguish. To see him now, for him to live to "this day", with such joy is one of the inaugural's most touching. I am of Barack Obama's mother's generation and surely regard her role in these festivities as crucial.
All best, Lois

9:07 AM  
Blogger oZ said...

thanks for the post SB, the concert was very moving. We got there late, but just in time to see a beautiful sunset and all the monuments awake in their golden light.

It started warming up in the late afternoon a lot, so the cold is not a big factor.

9:36 AM  
Blogger NS said...

Gracias, Susan. I have become so jaded over the years where politics is concerned, but this clip is indicative of ALL the hope and promise for change that millions of us are seeking. Seeger is still amazing and the faces in the crowd (including Geo Lucas!) singing and dancing in harmony and faith and hope is almost overwhelming.
con abrazos, Cindy

10:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you! I don't get HBO so I didn't get to see the wonderful music.
Hurrah for the people!
fd

11:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for keeping me on the distribution list for your blog. I enjoy reading it.

Ken Martin

Note: The Good Life will stop publishing this month --thanks to Ken and Rebecca for many years of community work.
SB

11:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I listened to the inspirational concert on KUT-FM, after fruitlessly flipping through the TV channels to find it. The national televised airwaves apparently did not hold the rights to broadcast it for all the people. Too bad that that the freely donated performances were reserved for a financial elite, the HBO subscribers.

1:57 PM  
Blogger Charlie Loving said...

One of your most inspired OZ, thanks.

2:17 PM  
Blogger respectisthehub said...

Great and joyous postings, Oz!

Two nights ago, at our own inaugural celebration, a friend stepped up to the mike after the musicians were done playing.

He convinced everyone present in the room to join hands and sing, "We have overcome."

It's been thirty years since I've seen a moment uncynical enough for an ordinary crowd of people to hold hands and sing that song.

Never in a fevered dream did I imagine a day where "shall" would change to "have."

9:34 PM  

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