Change the National Anthem to "This Land Is Your Land"

by Nate Segal

"This Land Is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie is my first preference for replacing "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of our country.

• The tune is catchy and easy to sing, while "The Star-Spangled Banner" can only be sung properly by the rare person who has a broad vocal range.
• Young people can easily master the lyrics. When we learned "America the Beautiful" in grade school, I didn't catch on to the opening words "for spacious skies." I thought that there was an English adjective "forspacious."
• Woodie Guthrie, the song's composer, knew a "down home" America. He was born in Oklahoma's Indian Country. I thought that he was a descendant of Indians, although I haven't found any support for this idea. See Guthrie's biography in Wikipedia.
• Some call the song a "folk tune" and say that the melody comes from an American gospel hymn (Wikipedia, "This Land Is Your Land").

The down side of the song is that "Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses than appear in recordings or publications" (Wikipedia, "Woodie Guthrie"). Also, Guthrie "was [allegedly] associated with United States communist groups" (Wikipedia, ibid.).

Listen to Guthrie sing this song >>

Photo from Wikipedia, "Woody Guthrie"

Also, see an article "Only in Oklahoma: This man was our man" by Gene Curtis of the Tulsa World from 3/17/2007.