American Land

What is this land of America, so many travel there
I’m going now while I’m still young, my darling meet me there
Wish me luck my lovely, I’ll send for you when I can
And we’ll make our home in the American land

Over there all the woman wear silk and satin to their knees*
And children dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees*
Gold comes rushing out the river straight into your hands*
If you make your home in the American land*

There’s diamonds in the sidewalks, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

I docked at Ellis Island in a city of light and spire
I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire****
We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands
And I made my home in the American land

There’s diamonds in the sidewalk, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

The McNicholas, the Posalski’s, the Smiths, Zerillis too**
The Blacks, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans and the Jews
The Puerto Ricans, illegals, the Asians, Arabs miles from home***-*****
Come across the water with a fire down below******

They died building the railroads, worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they’re dyin’ now
The hands that built the country we’re all trying to keep down

There’s diamonds in the sidewalk, there’s gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land

** “Zirilli” is Bruce’s mother’s surname from Italy.
** On 19 Oct 2006 at Plaza De Toros Las Ventas, Madrid, Spain, Springsteen also added “the Spanish”.
** On 30 Oct 2006 at Globe Arena, Stockholm, Sweden, Springsteen replaces “the Jews” by “the Swedes”.

AMERICAN LAND is written by Springsteen, and is inspired by HE LIES IN THE AMERICAN LAND, a poem by Andrew Kovaly, a Slovakian immigrant steelworker, and that Pete Seeger later translated and set to music. The only verse that Springsteen kept from HE LIES IN THE AMERICAN LAND is the first one:

Ah, my God! What is this land of America?
So many people traveling there
I will go too, for I am still young
God, the Lord will grant me good luck there

You, my wife, stay here ’til you hear from me
When you get my letter, put everything in order
Mount a raven-black steed, a horse like the wind
Fly across the ocean to join me here

Ah, but when she arrived in this strange land
Here in McKeesport, this valley of fire
Only his grave, his blood, his blood did she find
Over it bitterly she cried

Ah, ah, ah, my husband, what have you done to this family of yours?
What can you say to these children, these children you’ve orphaned?
Tell them, my wife, not to wait, not to wait, not to wait for me
Tell them I lie here, in the American land