Dear reader, peruser, skimmer, or digger: No two singers in this world have the same list of favorite songs. Here’s some of mine. If you like any of them well-enough to make them your own, and adapt them to your own life and times and purposes, I’m proud to help pass ’em on to you.
This collection is a kind of sequel to another songbook, “American Favorite Ballads,” which we put together four years ago, so I quote from my introduction to that volume: “… If you love one of these songs, you can make it your own by singing it; through the years it will become part of your life, as little by little you change the tune in subtle ways, or add or subtract verses. As a matter of fact, without a certain amount of creative rearranging some of the songs in this book will be impossible to sing. For example, you will probably have to adjust the pitch of many songs to fit the range of your voice, or voices …”
SOURCE The Bells of Rhymney and Other Songs and Storiesfrom the Singingof Pete Seeger (New York.: Oak Publications, 1964), 4–5.
Some of the songs here sound best (I think) sung by one person. Some sound best with no accompaniment whatsoever. But others, especially the spirituals and gospel songs, just beg for harmony to be added, or a group of singers to repeat phrases after a leader. “I’m On My Way” is one of these.
Some songs will need a lot of singing till you find out how to best adjust the tune to all the verses. The best ballad singers I know often hold notes at unexpected points, and the little four-line melody thus never sounds twice the same, even if it is repeated for twenty verses. We had the devil of a time trying to decide how to write down the fast banjo tunes like “East Virginia” and “Little Birdie” because they are never sung twice the same either. Perhaps they should have all be in 1/4 time, and no attempt made to squeeze ’em into a 4/4 mold.
Some songs will need a lot of subtle sharpening or flattening of notes, or slurs, to make the melody flow well. In many spirituals and blues, for examples, not only is the third note of the scale customarily sung more or less flat, but also the seventh note. And the fourth or sixth note may be sharpened slightly. It is impossible to get all these subtleties into music notation, try as one may. Maybe it’s just as well we can’t. As it is, the would-be singer is bound to use his or her own creativity to bring the song to life.
I’m afraid I’ve been pretty inconsistent in spelling songs in various foreign languages. But in any case, you ought not to try and pick up a song in a language you don’t know just from a book. Get someone who knows the language to help you with the subtleties, or at least listen carefully to phonograph records. Otherwise you run the risk of butchering the poor song (something I have done too often myself). And unless there is a really meaningful and poetic translation, I’d rather not ruin the song by singing a second-rate set of English words.
Well now, in any case, I hope you enjoy these songs. They are, like you and me, products of a long, long human chain, and even the strangest ones are distantly related to each other, as are we all. And may there be many links to come.
Yours for peace, freedom, jobs for all, lotsa good picking and singing, instruments that stay in tune, and people likewise.