Back in 1971 warmed-over
sixties folkie Pete Seeger penned this little ditty:
“Words, words, words in my old bible
How much of truth remains?
If I only understood them
while my lips pronounced them
Would not my life be changed?”
How much of truth remains?
If I only understood them
while my lips pronounced them
Would not my life be changed?”
It goes on. Seeger riffs on the Constitution, oral tradition and written history in much
the same vein. But his tone is meditative rather than rebellious. He has no new
“truth” to declare with his usual hippie bravado. In fact, he seems to wish he
could find some of that rare truth in all those “words, words, words”.
Because, yeah … if he understood them, his
life would most surely have been different.