We tend to think of the Seeger Sessions as a point in time, a momentary diversion between Bruce’s rock albums. The Seeger Sessions actually spanned a full decade, though–they bridge the Ghost of Tom Joad period all the way through to the Magic era.
Most of the songs that would eventually be released on Bruce’s 2006 album were recorded either in November 1997 or March 2005, but there were a few stragglers recorded as late as January 2006. “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Eyes on the Prize” and “Buffalo Gals” were among the songs recorded in that third and final Seeger session.
But in typical Springsteen fashion, he recorded more songs than he released, and a few are known to remain in the vault to this day, including treatments of “Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore” and “Pretty Boy Floyd.”
One of those holdbacks, though, did finally see an official release just last year: towards the end of 2018, Appleseed Records released an anniversary compilation CD entitled Roots and Branches, and since Appleseed was the genesis of the very first Seeger Session (Bruce assembled the musicians to record “We Shall Overcome” for Appleseed’s Seeger tribute album), Bruce reached into his vault to contribute another track from those sessions.
“If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)” is one of the few Seeger sessions tracks that was actually written (rather than adapted) by Pete Seeger. Seeger co-wrote the song in 1949 with Lee Hays and released it in 1950 with The Weavers.
The song wasn’t a hit for The Weavers, but when Peter, Paul, and Mary covered it twelve years later, it shot into the Top Ten and scored a pair of Grammy Awards.
A year later, the song hit the Top Ten again (all the way to #3, in fact) with a very different arrangement by Trini Lopez.
“If I Had a Hammer” quickly established itself as an American folk classic, and over the years it would be covered by everyone from Sam Cooke to Leonard Nimoy.
Naturally, Bruce covered it too, at the very last Seeger session. Running counter to most previous versions, Bruce’s arrangement is more brooding than clarion. Mark Clifford’s banjo and the dual violins (both Soozie and Sam Bardfeld play on this track) take the song back to its roots–it sounds like an arrangement one might have heard in the heartland in the late 1940s.
Unfortunately, Bruce’s vocals are far from their best here. We have to assume that was by intention, since the other songs from these sessions feature Bruce in fine voice, but “If I Had a Hammer” sounds very much like Bruce just rolled out of bed and started singing.
Nevertheless, “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)” is a fine entry in the Seeger Sessions library and would be a natural and welcome addition to the setlist on the next (fingers crossed) Sessions Band tour.
If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)
Recorded: January 21, 2006
Released: Roots and Branches (2018)
Never performed
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