31 quotes
All songwriters are links in a chain.
At the audition, your assignment is to find something new in the song. Something you've never noticed before. A breath carried over, a thought that ties the whole thing together. Then take the risk and do it.
How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981)
I have been singing folksongs of America and other lands to people everywhere. I am proud that I never refused to sing to any group of people because I might disagree with some of the ideas of some of the people listening to me.
Statement to the court (1961)
In the largest sense, every work of art is protest. … A lullaby is a propaganda song and any three-year-old knows it. … A hymn is a controversial song — sing one in the wrong church: you'll find out. …
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of peace... I swear it's not too late.
Turn! Turn! Turn! (1954)
I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.
I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail.
Shh. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Notice the pitches, the volume, the timbre, the many lines of counterpoint. As light taught Monet to paint, the earth may be teaching you music.
How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981)
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (1955)
If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land.
Misattributed If I Had A Hammer (1949)
Well I got a hammer,
And I got a bell,
And I got a song to sing, all over this land.
It's the hammer of Justice,
It's the bell of Freedom,
It's the song about Love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
Misattributed If I Had A Hammer (1949)