I read that Comrade Woody wrote “This Land Is Your Land” to be an atheist/Communist alternative to “God Bless America”—and perhaps the new national anthem for a Soviet America. So he wrote the lyrics and then stole the melody from “The Fire Song” (”When the World’s on Fire”) the Christian hymn attributed to blues singer Blind Willie Davis and shared by Ding-Dong-Daddy in post #176.
Thanks for the background. I wasn’t aware that the melody was not written by him. I knew that he wrote the song as a protest song and was angry when it ended up being viewed by most Americans as a patriotic song that celebrated America.