"Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", often
abbreviated to "Turn! Turn! Turn!", is a song adapted entirely
from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible (with the exception
of the last line) and put to music by Pete Seeger in 1959.
Seeger waited until 1962 to record it, releasing the song on
his
The Bitter and The Sweetalbum on Columbia Records. 45%
of the royalties for the song are donated to the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions, due, in Seeger's own
words, to the fact that "[in addition to the music] I did write
six words."
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of
Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the
Bible(Ecclesiastes 3:1), though the sequence of the words was
rearranged for the song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed
to King Solomon and for a time, the book was prohibited by the
rabbis, who deemed it too cynical and depressing.
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.
The song is one of a few mainstream songs to set a large
portion of scripture to music, other examples being The
Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon", Sister Janet Mead's "The Lord's
Prayer" and U2's "40".
The song was published in illustrated book form by Simon
& Schuster in September 2003, with an accompanying CD which
contained both Seeger & The Byrds recordings of the song
(ISBN 0689852355 & ISBN 978-0689852350). Wendy Anderson
Halperin created a set of detailed illustrations for each set
of opposites which are reminiscent of mandalas. The book also
includes the Ecclesiastes text from the King James version of
the Bible.
Handwritten lyrics to the song were among the documents
donated to New York University by the Communist Party USA in
March 2007.
The song was first released by the folk group The Limeliters
on their 1962 album
Folk Matinee, under the title "To Everything There Is a
Season". The Limeliters' version predated the release of
Seeger's own version by several months. One of The Limeliter's
backing musicians at this time was Jim McGuinn (aka Roger
McGuinn), who would later work with folk singer Judy Collins,
rearranging the song for her 1963 album,
Judy Collins 3. Collins' recording of the song was
retitled as "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a
Season)", a title that would be used intermittently by
McGuinn's later band The Byrds, when they released a cover of
the song in 1965.
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" was the third single by the American
folk rock band The Byrds and was released on October 1, 1965 by
Columbia Records (
see1965 in music). The song was also included on the
band's second album,
Turn! Turn! Turn!, which was released on December 6,
1965. The Byrds' single (b/w "She Don't Care About Time") is
the most successful recorded version of the song, having
reached #1 on the U.S. Hot 100 charts and #26 on the UK Singles
Chart. The Byrds' version distinguishes the song as the #1 pop
hit with the oldest lyrics, dating back to the Book of
Ecclesiastes. Many biblical scholars believe Ecclesiastes 1:1
implies King Solomon as the book's author; thus, if true,
giving Solomon lyrical credit for a number one hit.
The song had first been arranged by The Byrds' lead
guitarist Jim McGuinn in a chamber-folk style during sessions
for Judy Collins' 1963 album,
Judy Collins 3. The idea of reviving the song came to
McGuinn during The Byrds' 1965 American tour when his future
wife, Dolores, requested the tune on the Byrds' tour bus. The
rendition that McGuinn dutifully played came out sounding not
like a folk song but more like a rock/folk hybrid, perfectly in
keeping with The Byrds' current status as pioneers of the folk
rock genre. McGuinn explained "It was a standard folk song by
that time, but I played it and it came out rock ‘n’ roll
because that’s what I was programmed to do like a computer. I
couldn’t do it as it was traditionally. It came out with that
samba beat, and we thought it would make a good single."
The master recording of the song reputedly took 78 takes,
spread over five days of recording, to complete. The song's
plea for peace and tolerance struck a nerve with the American
record buying public as the Vietnam War continued to escalate.
The single also solidified folk rock as a chart trend and, like
the band's previous hits, continued The Byrds' successful mix
of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar
playing. During 1965 and 1966, the band performed the song on
the television programs
Hollywood A Go-Go,
Shindig!,
The Ed Sullivan Show, and
Where the Action Is, as well as in the concert film,
The Big T.N.T. Show. Additionally, the song would go on
to become a staple of The Byrds' live concert repertoire, until
their final disbandment in 1973. The song was also performed
live by a reformed line-up of The Byrds featuring Roger
McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman in January 1989. In
addition to its appearance on the
Turn! Turn! Turn!album, the song also appears on several
Byrds' compilations, including
The Byrds' Greatest Hits,
History of The Byrds,
The Original Singles: 1965–1967, Volume 1,
The Byrds,
20 Essential Tracks from the Byrds Box Set (1965-1990),
The Very Best of The Byrds,
The Essential Byrdsand
There Is a Season.
Nearly three decades after the Byrds released the song as a
single, the recording was featured prominently in the 1994
movie
Forrest Gump. The song was also featured in Jim
Sheridan's 2002 film,
In America, although it was not included on the official
soundtrack. Following Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help
from My Friends", the song was the first to play on the first
episode of the television series
The Wonder Years. It was also used in a
Wonder Yearsparody, during
The Simpsons'episode, "Three Men and a Comic Book".
The song has been covered by a number of other artists: