In the final moments of Netflix’s documentary Knock Down The House, newly elected congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez remembers the first time she visited Washington, D.C. She was five years old and had somehow convinced her late dad to let her tag along on a road trip with his buddies. Now, sitting in front of the United States Capitol, she couldn’t help but remember what her dad told her as he pointed at the Washington Monument and D.C.’s other tourist attractions.
“He said, ‘This is our government. It belongs to us,’” Ocasio-Cortez says fighting back tears. “So all of this stuff is yours.” Moments later, late soul singer Sharon Jones' song ends Knock Down The House, delivering the same message AOC’s dad told her years ago: “This land is your land.”
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Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ 2005 cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” is the only song in Knock Down The House. And it’s a powerful choice for a documentary about four progressive women – AOC from New York, Amy Vilela from Las Vegas, Cori Bush from St. Louis, and Paula Jean Swearengin from West Virginia – looking to take back a government that doesn’t feel much like theirs at all.
Written in 1940, Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” became an alternative national anthem for those, who like him, didn’t care too much for Kate Smith’s version of Irving Berlin’s "God Bless America,” according to NPR. That song, which was playing on the radio non-stop at that time, was too saccharine an ode to America, in Guthrie’s opinion.
See, his song only sounds sweet because it starts with this notion that America is for everyone. But listen and you hear Guthrie getting angrier and angrier about the true state of things. “I see my people and some are grumblin' and some are wonderin',” he sings. “If this land's still made for you and me.”
Earlier this year, Guthrie’s daughter Nora told NPR that “the whole idea of a 'land' is your spot on earth. A spot where you can claim safety, sanity." That need to claim a safe space still carries a lot of weight in the progressive movement, which is probably why his song still does, too. “This Land Is Your Land” is what protestors sang to passengers who had been detained at JFK airport in New York City by President Trump’s proposed travel ban.
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Jones is much more assertive in her delivery than Guthrie ever was. When she sings “this land is your land,” there is no question that she’s willing to fight to keep it that way and understands that she might have to. Nothing in America is free and she knows that, which offers a modern update on this timeless classic.
The passion behind this funky horn-laden version turns it into a call to arms. This may be your land and my land, but we’re going to have to work together to keep it that way. Something Ocasio-Cortez seems to understand, too.
Jones is singing this one for the people, which is fitting since Guthrie’s daughter told NPR that despite the suggestions from fans that “This Is Your Land” should be the actual national anthem, the family’s always disagreed. The song, she said, "belongs to the people — not the government." It’s why this song feels like an appropriate anthem for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the very same can be said of her, too.