Music Notes

If I Had a Hammer

My eighth track is from a defunct band, Peter Paul and Mary. They released If I Had a Hammer in 1962, but it has a history which stretches back thirteen years past this folksy trio.

Originally written by preacher Lee Hays in 1949 and set to music by Pete Seeger, it was viewed with distrust by others, as a progressive rallying cry by an artist with Communist ties. With this understanding, the song was squelched and kept mostly under wraps during the "Red Scare," until Peter Paul and Mary reworked the melody and made it a hit among sixties hippies.

The original author, Hays, only had "brothers" in the lyrics; when women complained it should be more inclusive, he balked and said it didn't flow as well with "brothers and sisters." But Seeger accepted the modification, making it an inseparable part of the song which was then taken up by the trio.

It was rather hard to find the full backstory on this song; I ended up reading an interview with Pete Seeger from the Washington Post all the way back from 1983 to get fascinating firsthand scoop. Link here,   but it's behind a paywall and you'll have to visit it in Incognito mode and quickly hit the x-shaped "stop loading" button on your browser toolbar to freeze the page so you can read it. Such is the result of a capitalist society…

My mom introduced me to If I Had a Hammer a few years ago. I like it; easy to remember, simple to understand, and a piece of American history from a time of division and unrest. I chose this as having a deeper, more hopeful and more socially aware theme than the other popular Peter Paul and Mary song Puff the Magic Dragon, which made me feel like crying the few times I heard it. If I Had a Hammer, on the other hand, is encouraging and thoughtful.

Words: 325.