Peggy Seeger

Overview

Margaret “Peggy” Seeger born New York, NY June 17, 1935. American folksinger and songwriter; denied passport for visits to China and Russia; song “Four Minutes to Midnight” for Greenham Common; “March With us Today’ 1961 for Aldermaston March; “Four Minute Warning”, “Brother Won’t You Join the Line” re nuclear exchange; “Ballad of the Unknown Soldier” 1969 re Vietnam.

Quotations

We're marching on Trafalgar Square, Oh yes, oh!
Today we're marching to declare that bomb has got to go!

That bomb it weighs a ton or so;
Can kill a million at one go.

Fall-out here and fall-out there;
And strontium 90 everywhere.

This overcrowded world is small;
But it's better than no world at all.

Oh dropping bombs is all the rage;
But I'd rather live to a ripe old age.

The Prince was born the other day;
The very first words I heard him say

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust;
If the bomb doesn't get you then the fall-out must.

(“The Bomb Has to got to Go!”, 1969; photo Alchetron)