Everybody Has the Right to Live

Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs

The song "Everybody Has the Right to Live" - originally by Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, on the 1968 album Everybody's Got a Right to Live (which featured several references to the Vietnam War) - was updated in 1971. In the May/June 1971 edition of Broadside Magazine, Pete Seeger wrote a letter, with rewritten lyrics, referencing the My Lai massacre: "can't you hear the women and children over in My Lai, Lt. Wm Calley, why do we have to die?". Seeger's letter said: "Dear Sis and Gordon: There was much music in D.C. May 1-5 as well as April 24. Enclosed are some of the new verses Rev. Kirkpatrick and I made up for 'Everyone Has the Right to Live'."1 "Sis and Gordon" referred to Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen - who founded the mimeographed publication Broadside, in 1962, to promote contemporary folk and protest songs. It also had a music label: Broadside Records. It usually published both lyrics and notations of songs, as well as articles and interviews about folk music, and newspaper clippings of current events. While many of the songs would have been played at the folk clubs and festivals, not all of the artist recorded the songs. Sources1Broadside No. 113↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: We are down in Washington fighting an old-age sin / Nothing but mass murder done by old-age men / Everybody's got a right to live / And before this campaign fails / We'll all go down in jail / Everybody's got a right to live / Can't you hear the women and children over in My Lai / Lt. Wm Calley, why do we have to die? / Our brothers and sisters are demanding that we share / Soil, rocks, minerals, the oceans and the air / No more will some be rich while others born to die / All around this old world, you can hear people cry / Here we are in Washington, we've come in hope and pain / To see if some folk will listen / Or will they turn their heads again / We haven't got much time left, the sands are running out / Peace, freedom, justice, you can hear the whole world shout

Notes

Updated lyrics for the My Lai massacre published in Broadside Magazine #113, unrecorded

About the artist

Iconic American contemporary folk singer, Pete Seeger (born 3 May 1919 in Manhattan, New York, USA, died on 27 January 2014, same location) played a key role in the 1950s contemporary folk revival and the 1960s anti-war and Civil Rights movement. He often wrote political songs, protesting against war, segregation, and calling for environmental protection. His body of songs referencing the Vietnam War is significant in both themes and volume: "The Willing Conscript" on the album Broadside Ballads Volume 2 (1963); "Beans in My Ear", "King Henry", and "The Draft Dodger Rag" on Dangerous Songs!?…

Themes

Anti-War · My Lai · Anti-Calley

In collections

My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Pete Seeger Songs