Well May The World Go featuring Pete Seeger & Larry Long

From the Album Well May The World Go (Smithsonian Folkways)
(Spoken words & lyrics by Pete Seeger)

“Pete Seeger born May 3rd, 1919, and it is now October 24th, I think, 1996, and we are sitting at the table in 526 Texas Street, San Francisco, Larry Long and me.

“My father said the truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch, and all you can do is circle around it and point and say it’s somewhere in there. You can’t put your hand on it and touch it; you can’t put your hand on that furry, quivering body. All you can do is say it’s somewhere in there.

“I have to tell you right now I was greatly influenced by my father. I was five years old, and he gave me a dime, and he said, ‘Go next door and buy something that costs a nickel.’ But when I was at the store, I met a neighbor boy. He said, ‘Pete, you got a nickel left over. Why don’t we buy a piece of candy? We’ll share it.’ I said, ‘Well, I was supposed to bring it back.’ (he said) ‘Oh, tell him it costs ten cents.’ Well, at age five I didn’t know any better. We bought the candy and shared it. And when I got back, I said it cost ten cents. My father got down on his knees in front of me and held both my hands. He said, ‘Peter, you know it didn’t cost ten cents. Don’t you know you never have to lie to us? Never. We love you.’ (I said) ‘I bought a piece of candy.’ He says, ‘you could have bought the candy. That would have been all right. But you never have to lie to us.’ And it was the most important lesson I guess I ever got in my life.’

Well may the skiers turn
The swimmers churn
The lover’s burn
Peace may the general’s learn
When I’m far away

Well may the world go
The world go
The world go
Well may the world go
When I’m far away

“A draftee in the days of the Vietnam War wrote me how he was at bayonet practice, and the Sergeant hollers, ‘ What is the spirit of the bayonet?’ And we were all supposed to shout back, ‘To kill! To kill!’ And the sergeant now shouts, ‘What does that make you?’ We were all supposed to shout, ‘A killer, a killer.’ And I said, ‘What a thing to do to take ordinary decent young men and make them shout that.’”

Well may the fiddle sound
The banjo play the old hoe-down
Dancers swinging round and round
When I’m far away
“Try and do a good job with the people you know near you. It’s nice to travel. But – and I suppose while you’re young it’s the best time to travel. You can learn by traveling. The world can be your university, as Maxim Gorky once said. But in the long run, find this part of the world that you really like that you can stick to. It might be the same town you were raised in, but it might be another place. It might be a valley, it might be a desert, it might be a swamp, but find some area that you really like enough, so you’re going to stick there the rest of your life.”

Fresh may the breezes blow
Clear may the streams flow
Blue above, green below
When I’m far away

Well may the world go
The world go
The world go
Well may the world go
When I’m far away
“I think the world’s going to be saved by people who fight for their homes. This is the lesson of the American Revolution. That’s what beat King George. It was all the farmers shooting’ out from behind the stone walls.”

Well may the skiers turn
The swimmers churn
The lover’s burn
Peace may the general’s learn
When I’m far away

Well may the world go
The world go
The world go
Well may the world go
When I’m far away

“Everywhere I go I tell this: When I meet somebody who says there’s really no hope – – you know, things are going to get from worse to worse, and this is the last century of the human race, I tell them: ‘Did you expect to see our great Watergate president leave office the way he did?’ They say, ‘No, I guess I didn’t. I say, ‘Did you expect the Pentagon to have to leave Vietnam the way it did?’ They say, ‘No, I didn’t. I say, Did you expect to see the Berlin Wall come down so peacefully, the way it did?’ They say, ‘No, I really didn’t expect that.’ Then I say, ‘Did you expect to see Mandela head of South Africa?’ They say, ‘Oh no, no I really didn’t expect that, I thought he’d rot in jail forever, the rest of his life.’ ‘Well,’ I say, ‘If you couldn’t predict those things, don’t be confident that you can predict there’s no hope.”

Well may the fiddle sound
The banjo play the old hoe-down
Dancers swinging round and round
When I’m far away

Well may the world go
The world go
The world go
Well may the world go
When I’m far away

Fresh may the breezes blow
Clear may the streams flow
Blue above, green below
When I’m far away

Well may the world go
The world go
The world go
Well may the world go
When I’m far away

*The melody to “Well May the World Go” is from the traditional song “Weel May the Keel Row,” New Castle-On-Tyne.

Words & Music by Pete Seeger
Arranged, produced & adapted by Larry Long

Appears on

Listen Now

Well May the World Go is exclusively available on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Larry’s music is available on Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Bandcamp and select e-tailers