Old Devil Time
excerpt (599K)
Words and music by Pete Seeger, 1969
© 1969,1970 by Fall River Music, Inc., and Sigma Productions, Inc.
Pete Seeger - voice, 12-string guitar
Gaudeamus - chorus
It was back in the late 1960's when the telephone rang:
"This is Otto Preminger speaking. (Thick Viennese accent.)
Are you the Pete Seeger who makes up songs and sings them?"
"Yes," I reply
"Well, I want to know if you can write me a song about the will to
live."
"Why, that's my business."
"I have a movie which is about the will to live, and I want a song.
Can you come to New York? You can see a screening of the rough cut of the
movie."
A few days later Toshi and I were sitting in a comfortable apartment eating
a very good meal with Hollywood producer Otto Preminger and his wife. He
was a heavy-set man, ten or more years older than I. A direct and honest
way of speaking.
We saw the movie screened in his living room. It had been made from a novel,
written by a nurse, about three people who leave a hospital at the same
time. They decide to pool their meager resources and get a house. One is
a young man who will be in a wheelchair the rest of his life as a result
of a beating. A young woman is permanently scarred because of car battery
acid splashed in her face by a man she had spurned and then laughed at.
The third is a young man who is an epileptic and will never know when his
seizures may kill him. The story showed the capacity of ordinary people
to survive.
"I need a song to go under the titles of the movie at the beginning
of the picture. Will one month be enough for you? Can we set the date now
for you to fly out to California for the song to be filmed?"
I said "Yes", and during the month spent numerous hours trying
this idea and that, but not really being satisfied completely with any one
idea. Toshi was a little worried.
"Do you think you have Preminger's song ready?"
"Yes, I think so." (I lied.)
We landed at Los Angeles to meet Preminger and a camera crew of four or
five people.
"Can I hear the song now while we are waiting for the plane
to Fresno?"
"Well, I have actually several songs. We'll see which one you think
is best."
I believe I sang three or four to him - some old folk songs with some new
verses. I can't remember which ones. They might have been gospel songs or
spirituals.
"There are still a couple more I have in mind."
I could see Preminger was not enthusiastic about any one of them.
We had a one-hour plane flight to Fresno. It was now or never. I borrowed
pencil and paper from Toshi. With the airplane drone in my ears, I managed
to compose a "new" song. Nothing like a deadline to force something
out of you. From the dregs of my subconscious I scraped five verses. Used
some repetition, and a melody derived from old ballads.
In the Fresno airport I sang it for Preminger and the rest.
"Yes, that will do very well, I think," said he. "Why
didn't you sing that one to me first?"
"I only just made it up in the plane."
"Oh, don't tell me that. You had it all along."
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