Songwriter: Bob Dylan

Producer: Sis Cunningham

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
And who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Pete Seeger

Peter Seeger (3 May 1919 – 27 January 2014) was born in New York, New York and was destined for a life in folk music. He became a protege of Woody Guthrie and in time he became one of the most famous American folk singers. His father was Charles Seeger, a musicologist and prothselitizer of decidedly leftist political views. Seeger’s father and mother were faculty members at the Julliard School of Music. Seeger founded The Almanac Singers in 1940 and later joined The Weavers in the 1949, but that group ran into the buzzsaw of the Red Scare in 1955. The members were blacklisted by Sen. Joe McCarthy’s Senate sub-committee on un-American Activities as Communist sympathizers. Seeger made a comeback in the 60s with several folk songs supporting international disarmament, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and environmental causes.

Seeger was a thin man, almost painfully so, but he had a strong tenor voice and a gregarious stage presence. He played the 12-string guitar and (his own modified, longneck) 5-string banjo. He sang topical songs, children’s songs, humorous tunes and earnest anthems, and was always encouraging his audience to sing along. His social views were always to the He sang for the labor movement in the 40s and 50s, for civil rights and for an end to the Vietnam War in the 60s, and for environmental and international human rights from the 70s until his death.

Seeger was a mentor to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Don McClean. He eschewed stardom, seeing himself as part of a continuing folk music tradition, constantly recycling and revising music that had been honed by time.