Posts Tagged ‘Kate Smith’
Keep Calm and Carry On…
From British designer Lydia Leith, the Royal Wedding Sick Bag…
[TotH to Presurfer]
As we steel ourselves for ever-amplifying coverage, we might recall that it was on this date in 1940 that Woodie Gurthrie wrote (the first version, he varied the lyrics over time) of “This Land is Your Land.”; he didn’t record the song until 1944, nor publish it until 1954.
Guthrie wrote the lyrics (to an extant tune) in response to to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he lifted his pen…as he’d considered writing a retort, he’d thought to name it “God Blessed America for Me”; happily, it surfaced with the title we know.
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