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Johnny Cash doing If I Had a Hammer (Johnny was another Leftie… he was a socialist!)
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Peter, Paul, and Mary ‘s version of If I Had a Hammer
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My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went! But I’m STILL a contender!
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I was listening to the above song from the Weavers reunion in 1980. Lee Hays, who did the intro, died the next year, at the age of 67 (Hays wrote the lyrics for If I Had a Hammer, Pete Seeger wrote the music)… Pete Seeger just died at 94 this year, and Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman are still alive n’ kickin’. Some people think that reaching the “Six-Oh” is the end of the line. Not on your life! I don’t have the same zip as I once did, and it takes me longer to heal if I take a tumble, but I’m still pickin’ and I’m still grinnin’. God has given me tolerably good health and good friends, and little much else. However, I’m not morose, down inna dumps, or envious… I’m gonna keep swinging until the day I die! Yet, I’m beginning to have an understanding of what Browning meant in Rabbi Ben Ezra… grow old with me, the best is yet to be; this is the last of life for which the first was made.
I intend to stay feisty and lively… and that’s the way youse guys like it, isn’t it? By the way, I’m still handing out the AKs, axe handles, Molotov cocktails, and RPGs at the backdoor. DON’T let the bastards grind ya down… shoot back! Even if they zap ya, ya didn’t die a bloody coward (like Rush Limbaugh, Richard Cheney, Bill O’Reilly, and Willy Romney). Be a happy warrior… and spread goodness and decency where and when you can, even if the plug-uglies try to squash ya.
Thank God for your life… it’s the best gift that you ever had… pass me the jug… this was thirsty work…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Pete Seeger: His Leftism and the Revival of Folk Music (Link to VOR podcast)
Tags: Activism, American folk music, Capitol Hill, death, Folk music, grief, If I Had a Hammer, memorial, Music, musicians, peaceful protests, performing arts, Pete Seeger, political activism, political commentary, Protest, protesters, protests, Turn Turn Turn, United States, USA
Pete Seeger in Moscow in 1965
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You can measure impact in many ways. Sometimes, it’s in language… do people adopt your idioms or phrases? Other times, it’s economic… do your ideas generate money for yourself or others? Still, for others there are subtler ways of feeling the presence of someone in our lives and in our culture. Pete Seeger passed at the age of 94 on Monday. He leaves behind a legacy of music, social activism, and a collection of songs cultivated from years in the field. He’s credited with helping to revive the genre of folk music and to popularise it. With hits ranging from If I Had a Hammer to Turn, Turn, Turn, he brought anthems that resonate still.
Click here to save this 5:51 podcast in English… to listen to the rest, click on the link below and click on the audio link on the page
29 January 2014
Andrew Hiller
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/us/2014_01_29/Pete-Seeger-and-the-revival-of-folk-music-2993/