Today’s classic socially conscious song of the day is “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song).” It’s a progressive song, a protest song, a song arguing for justice, equality, and the power of the people.
“If I Had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays of the folk group the Weavers back in 1949 and was first released as a single by the Weavers in 1950. Believe it or not, the lyrics were considered so controversial at the time that no music publisher would touch it. Pete Seeger remembers:
“The message was that we have got tools and we are going to succeed. This is what a lot of spirituals say. We will overcome. I have a hammer. The last verse didn’t say ‘But there ain’t no hammer, there ain’t no bell, there ain’t no song but honey, I got you.’ We could have said that! The last verse says ‘I have a hammer, I have a bell, I have a song,’ Here it is. ‘It’s the hammer of justice, it’s the bell of freedom, the song of love.'”
Peter, Paul and Mary released their version of “If I Had a Hammer” in July of 1962. It had been a staple of their live act—and the acts of legions of other folksingers—for several years. Peter, Paul and Mary’s single hit #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Grammy Awards for Best Folk Recording and Best Performance by a Vocal Group. Their version also helped to expose the song to a broader audience; it was eventually adopted as an anthem for the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
Trini Lopez recorded a somewhat more uptempo Latin-ized cover of “If I Had a Hammer” a year after Peter, Paul and Mary’s version. His 1963 single did even better on the charts, hitting #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching #1 in Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, and Sweden.
“If I Had a Hammer” is one of those tunes that we all learn sometime when we’re young and to which we know all the words. That’s a good thing, because they are good and powerful words, about the power to effect change. I’ll leave you with a verse that makes my point:
If I had a song
I’d sing it in the morning
I’d sing it in the evening
All over this land
I’d sing out danger
I’d song of out a warning
I’d sing out love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land, oh
“If I Had a Hammer” is that song.
