Nobody Living Can Make Me Turn Back

I was trying to watch Bound For Glory yesterday, and, as always, didn't make it. The movie, about Woody Guthrie, seems to go on forever.

But it got me thinking about Guthrie's most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land." The lyric stinks. The first couplet is so bad, I can't even listen to the rest. (It was written in response to a song by Irving Berlin--now there's a guy who knew how to write a lyric.)

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a folk song. We don't judge them by normal standards, like rhyming and scanning, because it's about authenticity. But this sucks so much I have to say something.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island

First, the way it's sung (to make the rhyme work), you pronounce "Island" "EYE-LAND." No one says it that way. They say "EYE-lnd."

Second, no one says "the New York Island"! They say "New York." In fact, I'm not even sure what he's talking about. Manhattan? Staten Island? Long Island? Ellis Island?

As you may know, Woody ripped off the melody. Couldn't he have taken all that time he saved and spent it making the words work?