“Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds

On Saturdays our companions are musicians.

Every Saturday is Music day in the series, and for these “Stories of Turning,” there seemed no better song than the classic, “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds. Watch and listen below. Then check out the brief notes and commentary just below the YouTube recording.

I always thought “Turn, Turn, Turn” was a Byrds song, but it was written by the inimitable Pete Seger in 1959 and first recorded by The Limeliters in 1962. While Seeger’s tune is there, the rhythm, instrumentation (with banjo) and harmony of the Limeliter’s rendition sounds like a jaunty polka.

In 1965, the year American ground troops arrived in Viet Nam, the Byrds released “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season).” With a sound that Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn called “Beatley,” and a drum cadence borrowed from Phil Spector, the song topped the charts by December of that year.

Pete Seeger took the lyrics, of course, straight from Ecclesiastes chapter three—in the King James Version. But between the phrase, “To everything” and “there is a season,” Seeger masterfully inserted the three commands, “Turn, turn, turn.” In the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, each “season” of life holds two opposing actions. “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to dance, and a time to mourn; a time to gain, and a time to lose.” What might pass simply as an observation of how life plays out, becomes—in Seeger’s version—a call to action. To each season we are urged to turn–turn into the paradox of life, lean into the colliding opposites. Trust that the seasons we turn away from in fear can also be life-giving. Trust that God can hold us in the tension, even when we can’t hold ourselves.

Lent is a season of opposites—death that leads to life. Turn! Turn! Turn!

COMPANIONS ON THE WAY
Introduction
Stories of Turning
Week One
Stories of Wild Places
Week Two
Stories of Dogged Faith
Week Three
Stories of Mercy & Forgiveness
Week Four
Stories of Simplicity & Joy
Week Five
Stories of Prayer & Surrender
Week Six
Stories of Transforming Love

February 17, 2024 by David Anderson 1 Comment Filed Under: Lent, Uncategorized