Select Page

Sip for Peace Meditation – Bill Goodman

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, much of the folk music in the United States was inspired by and dedicated to a peace movement – to put an end to war. Musicians like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger inspired a peaceful activism with power songs. Bill Goodman, the nephew of Pete Seeger and lifetime family friends with the Guthrie Family is helping us remember the beauty of this music by recording two of his favorites.

When I asked about acquiring the rights to use the songs for “Sip for Peace”, he reminded me of Woody Guthrie’s original intent for his music and provided me with this quote and regaled me with wonderful family stories.

Two Peace Songs

My Peace


Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Arlo Guthrie

 

My peace my peace is all I’ve got that I can give to you
My peace is all I ever had that’s all I ever knew
I give my peace to green and black and red and white and blue
My peace my peace is all I’ve got that I can give to you

My peace, my peace is all I’ve got and all I’ve ever known
My peace is worth a thousand times more than anything I own
I pass my peace around and about ‘cross hands of every hue;
I guess my peace is justa ‘bout all I’ve got to give to you

The video below is a live performance by Woody Guthrie’s son, Arlo as he explains that this was one of his father’s last songs. You’ll hear him talk about …. “And I’m pretty sure that, if more people took care of the little peace, the big peace would just take care of itself.”

Peace Call

Words and music by Woody Guthrie

Open your hearts to the paradise,
To the peace of the heavenly angels,
Takes away that woeful shadow dancing on your wall;
Take to the skies of peace, oh friends,
Of peace of the heavenly Father;
Get ready for my bugle call of peace.

Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the bugle sounding,
Roaming around my land, my city and my town;
Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the horn and voices ring louder,
While my bugle calls for peace.

Thick war clouds will throw its shadows,
Darkening the world around you,
But in my life of peace your dark illusions fall;
Think and pray my union way,
Kiss everybody around you;
Get ready for my bugle call of peace.

Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the bugle sounding,
Roaming around my land, my city and my town;
Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the horn and voices ring louder,
While my bugle calls for peace.

If these war storms fill your heart
With a thousand kinds of worry,
Keep to my road of peace, you’ll never have to fear;
Keep in the sun and look around
In the face of peace and plenty;
Get ready for my bugle call of peace.

Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the bugle sounding,
Roaming around my land, my city and my town;
Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the horn and voices ring louder,
While my bugle calls for peace.

I’ll clear my house of the weeds of fear
And turn to the friends around me,
With my smile of peace, I’ll greet you one and all;
I’ll work, I’ll fight, I’ll sing and dance,
Of peace of the youthful spirit;
Get ready for my bugle call of peace.

Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the bugle sounding,
Roaming around my land, my city and my town;
Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the horn and voices ring louder,
While my bugle calls for peace.

Toast Peace With Tea

We are as teabags in hot water

Our flavor is refreshing as we get stronger

May I call for peace to keep on flowing

And toasting Peace With tea

And we keep flowing in our call for peace

And toasting peace with tea.

Toasting Peace With Tea

by Bill Goodman

Bill Goodman is a musician and songwriter. He plays piano, banjo, guitar, autoharp and harmonica. He is also a songwriter who learned from his uncle, Pete Seeger and in the company of a folk music community of family and friends. He knows the peace songs of the ’60’s and ’70’s intimately, like dear, old friends and knows their relevance and importance for today.

Our photo of him is from the book, Gettysburg Replies, a book of essays published by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, edited by Carla Knorowski, Ph.D.  Bill shares his thoughts on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address along with past presidents, with his uncle, Pete Seeger, and artists like Ken Burns as they reply to Lincoln’s most fundamental truth, “… that all men are created equal.”