Pete was a man was a mighty mighty man was a mighty fine man was he
He sang in places large and small ofttimes he'd sing for free
He sang so many songs that came from every time and place
You could not help but sing along as part of the human race

Back in the 1930s depression ruled the land
Pete sang songs about struggles of the workingman
For those whose road was rocky, with no money to ride
There was no doubt, that folks like Pete, were always on your side

And in the early 50s he had a big pop hit
But he never cared about those things, integrity was it
So when the right wing congressmen insisted that he talk
He took the First Amendment told them to take a walk

Pete was a man was a mighty mighty man was a mighty fine man was he
He sang in places large and small ofttimes he'd sing for free
he sang Irish ballads, Russian ballads, lullabys and blues
You could not help but sing along, it was the human thing to do

When the civil rights movement needed songs to sing
Pete sang an old spiritual to Martin Luther King
He changed a few words round, singing as he strummed
Got half the country singing ‘we shall overcome’

He was banned on TV, as the 60’s turned more bloody
Till the Smothers Brothers insisted, he sang ‘waist deep in big muddy’
He sang of war and peace, and the struggle for liberation
although his music wasn’t played on many radio stations)

Pete was a man was a mighty mighty man was a mighty fine man was he
He sang in places large and small ofttimes he'd sing for free
He sang with abandon, with the joy of a young kid
You could not help but sing along, and be glad that you did

He saw the Hudson River, so dirty you could not swim
He said let’s try to clean it up, they all laughed at him
He slowly stopped those factories from making it their sink
And now the Hudson River, is clean enough to drink

I first heard ‘if I had a hammer’ at my summer camp
I still remember that feeling, like someone had lit a lamp
Then I got home and told my mom, and my jaw it hit the floor
Pete Seeger had been my mom’s summer camp music counselor

Pete was a man was a mighty mighty man was a mighty fine man was he
He sang in places large and small ofttimes he'd sing for free
He sang so many songs that came from every time and place
You could not help but sing along as part of the human race

© M. Skliar 2014