Live 30 Sep 1985 version
[Spoken intro:] Thanks. I'd like to uh... just take a second and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much. (cheers) Oh, I'd like to do a song for you, that I guess uh... is about the greatest song ever written about America. And it's by Woody Guthrie.... and what's so great about it is it gets, it gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about. And I guess I don't know if you talk to some of the unemployed steelworkers from East L.A. or Pittsburg or Gary... there are a lot of people out there whose jobs are disappearing. I don't know if they feel this song is true anymore. And uh... I'm not sure that it is but I know, I know that it ought to be. So, uh, I'd like to do this for you reminding you that with countries, just like with people, it's easy to let the best of yourself slip away.
Well once I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me the endless sky
I saw below me a golden valley
Now this land was made for you and me
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
Through the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
It cried this land was made for you and me
Well the sun came shining as I went strolling
Through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
And the bells were ringing as the fog was lifting
And I seen this land was made for you and me
One Sunday morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw the people
And they were hungry and they were wondering
If this land was made for you and me
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
Yeah this land was made for you and me
The above lyrics are for the live 30 Sep 1985 performance of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA, during the Born In The U.S.A. Tour. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement and is one of nine on this tour that feature an extra verse. Video footage for the complete live 30 Sep 1985 version of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND (including the spoken introduction staring from "I'd like to do a song for you ...") was broadcast on ABC during the 27 Feb 1986 episode of 20/20.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band wrapped up the Born In The U.S.A. Tour with a series of four consecutive sold-out concerts at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA: 27 Sep, 28 Sep, 30 Sep, and 02 Oct 1985. The 30 Sep 1985 show later became one of the main sources for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes eight recordings from this show. Video clips for two of these songs were released on Springsteen's Video Anthology / 1978-88 home video in 1989. Additionally several pro-shot clips from this show appeared in the BBC documentary Glory Days and in the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 in 1986.
List of available versions of THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND on this website:
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND [1988 studio version]