A Song for Earth Day 2013: “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie

Guanella Pass, Rocky Mountains, Colorado  Image credit: Ellen Mackey 2012

I saw Woody’s son Arlo in concert about 20 years ago.

He told us about how his dad had written a song about the Gulf stream waters and the redwood forests.

And he also told us about another verse,

“I saw a sign that said no trespassing

But on the other side

It didn’t say nothing.

That side was made for you and me.”

To see other “subversive” verses written by the champion of the common man, see this story by NPR.

Lots of Woody Guthrie’s work is available for free download on Freegal. So are versions of “This Land is Your Land” by Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

How Many Roads Can a Man Walk Down?: Bob Dylan Voted into Academy of Arts and Letters

 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [vocalists Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.] image credit

Who would have thought, back when this photo was taken, that someday the prestigious Academy of Arts and Letters would come a-knockin’?

As the Associated Press points out, the Manhattan-based Academy was designed to keep people like him out

They were averse to all these modern things: jazz musicians, modernist poets.

And now the smart-alecky kid who intoned about rolling stones (and getting stoned, for that matter) is joining a group of mostly classical composers, along with Stephen Sondheim, Jasper Johns and Philip Roth.

Forgive me, I can’t help but think of a couple of Dylan songs that sum up the news: “The Times, They Are a Changin’” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

Freegal has dozens and dozens of Dylan’s albums available for free download. You can find his classic sound on The Essential Bob Dylan, which includes the above songs as well as “Just Like a Woman,” “Lay Lady, Lay,” “Forever Young,” “I Shall Be Released,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,”  “Hurricane,” and a bunch of others.

Other albums of note: MTV Unplugged, Blues, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks.

He also has a Christmas album Christmas in the Heart. If you like people growling out “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” this is the album for you

Incidentally, Freegal also has dozens of Joan Baez albums, including her love/hate song for Dylan “Diamonds and Rust.”