The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has lifted a famous tune from America's folk music songbook and is using it to lampoon The Dow Chemical Co.'s opposition to exporting liquefied natural gas.
Woody Guthrie used to say his guitar killed fascists; now his seminal work "This Land is Your Land" has been rewritten as "This Gas Is Dow's Gas" to tweak the nose of the chemical giant and major gas consumer (see Daily GPI, March 12).
"With what right does Dow seek to restrict the freedom of other companies to sell their products in the global marketplace?" said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. A CEI video featuring Lewis on vocals, guitar and mandolin pokes fun at Dow:
"This gas is your gas. This gas is my gas. From the great Marcellus to the Permian Basin. We didn't drill it. We didn't frack it. This gas belongs to Dow and me."
Before CEI is taken to task for appropriating Guthrie's song, it should be noted that the folk music legend laid his own lyrics down on top of a pre-existing tune in response to the song "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin. So the free market capitalists are merely following in the footsteps of the liberal from Oklahoma, like Bob Dylan did, sort of. "This Land" was written in 1940 and published in 1945.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has lifted a famous tune from America's folk music songbook and is using it to lampoon The Dow Chemical Co.'s opposition to exporting liquefied natural gas.
Woody Guthrie used to say his guitar killed fascists; now his seminal work "This Land is Your Land" has been rewritten as "This Gas Is Dow's Gas" to tweak the nose of the chemical giant and major gas consumer (see Daily GPI, March 12).
"With what right does Dow seek to restrict the freedom of other companies to sell their products in the global marketplace?" said CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis. A CEI video featuring Lewis on vocals, guitar and mandolin pokes fun at Dow:
"This gas is your gas. This gas is my gas. From the great Marcellus to the Permian Basin. We didn't drill it. We didn't frack it. This gas belongs to Dow and me."
Before CEI is taken to task for appropriating Guthrie's song, it should be noted that the folk music legend laid his own lyrics down on top of a pre-existing tune in response to the song "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin. So the free market capitalists are merely following in the footsteps of the liberal from Oklahoma, like Bob Dylan did, sort of. "This Land" was written in 1940 and published in 1945.
