| "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)", often
abbreviated to "Turn! Turn! Turn!", is a song written by
Pete Seeger in the late 1950s. The lyrics, except for the title
which is repeated throughout the song, and the final verse of the song,
are adapted word-for-word from Chapter 3 of the
Book of Ecclesiastes, set to music and recorded in 1962. The song
was originally released as "To Everything There Is a Season" on
The Limeliters' album Folk Matinee and then some months later
on Seeger's own The Bitter and the Sweet.[1]
The song became an international
hit
in late 1965 when it was
covered by the American
folk
rock band
The
Byrds, bowing at #80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching #1 on the
Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965, #3 in Canada (Nov. 29, 1965), and
also peaking at #26 on the
UK Singles Chart.
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the
Book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the
King James Version (1611) of the
Bible[2]
(Ecclesiastes
3:1-8), though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the
song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed to
King Solomon...
The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things:
laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on. The
lines are open to myriad interpretations, but as a song they are
commonly performed as a plea for
world peace, with an emphasis on the closing line: "a time for
peace, I swear it's not too late." This line and the title phrase "Turn!
Turn! Turn!" are the only parts of the lyric written by Seeger himself.[1]
The song is notable for being one of a few instances in
popular music in which a large portion of scripture is set to music,
other examples being
The Melodians' "Rivers
of Babylon",
Sister Janet Mead's "The
Lord's Prayer", and
U2's "40"... |
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