If I Had a Hammer

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning," to bring a warning and to create love between "all of my brothers." Similarly with bell and a song. And the singer has hammer, bell, and song: The hammer of justice, etc.
AUTHOR: Words: Lee Hays / Music: Pete Seeger
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, The Weavers)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "If I Had a Hammer" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 1, #1 (1950), cover, "The Hammer Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 38-42, "The Hammer Song"/"If I Had a Hammer" (3 texts, 3 tunes, the original, the Peter, Paul and Mary version, and a version to be lined out, plus a Spanish translation)
NOTES [68 words]: According to Seeger's Where Have All the Flowers Gone, p. 38, The Weavers recorded this, but on a small label before they became popular, so they never really got much use out of it. Libby Glisser insisted on changing the line "(I'd hammer out) love between all of my brothers" to "...love between my brothers and my sisters," which Lee Hays opposed. I suspect it made the song more successful, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550I

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