THIS LAND THAT I LOVE; Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie and the Story of Two American Anthems, by John Shaw

THIS LAND THAT I LOVE;

Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie and the Story of Two American Anthems

By John Shaw

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published November 5th 2013 by PublicAffairs

            For my first review I’m introducing a book actually penned by my cousin, John Shaw which is achieving great critical acclaim.  It’s also the most recent book I’ve read!

John now lives in Seattle and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  He graduated from the University of Michigan and has been a livelong devotee of music, been an amateur musician and has even written original scores and lyrics.

            In high school he was part of a rock band that performed around the region.  For one of his gigs I took them to the party in our funeral limousine, the band made a grand entrance and wowed the crowd.  His love of music is apparent throughout this book and the work itself is a true labor of love.

            First off, I’ll admit I’m bias on this one, but the work is exceptional.  John worked hard, did an enormous amount research, including many trips to the Library of Congress and doing personal interviews with other authors and researchers.  The book was released late in 2013, just in time for Christmas.  He literally hit the jackpot when Public Affairs Publishers took on his work and it was published nationwide as a true work of American History.  Since, it hit the shelves, he’s been reviewed by the New York Times and many other major media reviewers and has been celebrated in music and literary circles. As a history junkie, I couldn’t put it down. 

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THIS LAND THAT I LOVE, tells the story behind two of America’s most beloved musical anthems; Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”   He also delves deep into both Berlin’s (born Israel Beilien) and Guthrie’s biographies and features biographies of other influential songwriters of the era who influenced both men.

Berlin composed God Bless America as a tribute to the freedom and opportunities America gave him.  Berlin and his family fled Russia as the Pogroms were driving Jews out of Europe in the late 19^th Century.  Initially homeless as a child and young man, Berlin found opportunity and success in the United States and went on to a legendary musical career, penning many of the greatest ballads of the 20^th Century.

As Kate Smith sang his God Bless America, it was an instant hit and was played constantly over the radio waves.  American’s couldn’t get enough of it.  It drove Woody Guthrie nuts.

Guthrie was down on his luck and grew up in the dust bowl days of Oklahoma.  He was struggling to make it as a musician just didn’t identify with the America Berlin was celebrating.  Guthrie composed This Land is Your Land as a rebuttal to Berlin’s view of America.  It characterized the rambling spirit of vagabond in the wide, open spaces of the Midwest. 

John goes into great detail analyzing the lyrics and explaining the meaning behind all the stanzas we know and love in both songs.  It’s a real eye-opener.  He reveals the deep meanings of each line based on the opposite experiences of both men.  They both came from the same humble beginnings and had a profoundly different American experience.

The book also discusses and interprets our great American music heritage and were many of our most beloved tunes came from and the circumstances that created them.  It was fascinating to learn that Katherine Lee Bates, who penned America the Beautiful, was inspired to write the poem, which later became a ballad, based on her observations in a train trip across the young nation heading to a job at Colorado College.  I was fascinated to learn that the lyrics from that song, “Thine Alabaster Cities Gleem” actually is a reference to her visit to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and is a reference to the “White City” of that Great Columbian Exposition at end of the 19th century.     

You probably have forgotten that Martin Luther King Jr., cited lines from My Country Tis of Thee in his 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  The book is full of “gee-whiz” moments like this you probably thought you knew, but really didn’t.

It is also a rich study of musical genres.  From ragtime to folk, from patriotic to gospel, and from country to rock; he explains nearly every era of American music and how it came to be.

Toward the end he looks at some more current tunes such as Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA and how it was inspired by Berlin and Guthrie.  He also talks about how music from Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, and other classic musical’s, was influenced by both men.  Most of the music from that show was based on people’s experiences in Westward expansion.  For example, “The Farmer and the Cowman” highlights the struggle between how ranchers and farmers got along while competing for land.  He points out that much of our musical heritage is directly based on shared cultural experiences.  Music is a reflection of who we are and this academic work goes directly to the heart of what it means to be American.

Without spoiling too many secrets, it’s a great read for anyone who appreciates music and American history.  It’s amazing how our collective history parallels our music.  He does a superlative job of bringing it all together and making us feel great about our nation.  This book should be included in any academic history curriculum.

If you need a “feel good” book about America, this is one you absolutely need to read.