We find ourselves in the midst of a titanic struggle as the fabric of peaceful coexistence collapse about our ears, yet if collective human mind thinks long and hard enough we will get there in the end.
'We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall live in peace someday.'
'We Shall Overcome' - Reverend Charles Albert Tindley, Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger all of whom had a hand in this evolving composition from 1901 onwards, this is the closing verse.
Although musically speaking, in deference to the Woodstock Music festival theme, the first few bars appear to have been derived from a hymn first published in 1792, entitled
O Sanctissima, also published as the
Sicilian Mariners’ Hymn. However, as
The New York Times noted in its Carawan obituary, one Ludwig Van Beethoven had already written a setting of the hymn, wherein '...the resemblance is unmistakable for even the least trained ear, though it diverges after the first few lines'. The Times also found that a version published in the United States in 1794 'was already recognisable as the melody for the song known as
We Shall Overcome'.