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Traditional British. New last verse by Pete Seeger, 1982 © 1993 by Sanga Music, Inc. Listen to a clip (157K) |
Pete Seeger - voice, 12-string guitar Paul Winter - soprano sax Gaudeamus - chorus with The Cathedral Singers |
"The Water Is Wide" has long been one of the most widely known love laments in Britain. In both England and Scotland it has been in folk song collections for over a century or two, and known by a half-dozen or more names. I learned it from my sister Peggy. When she was going to Radcliffe in the mid-1950's, I visited Cambridge. I'd seen the song in a book and I'd passed it by as one more of those weepy-waily sentimental songs. I was twenty-eight at the time and impatient with weepy-waily songs.
Ten years later, at a party in my sister's house, I heard this version of it. She'd dropped the waily-waily verses and emphasised the poetic verses. It means an awful lot to me now because I keep thinking of the ocean of misunderstanding between human beings. And we can sing all sorts of militant songs, but if we can't bridge that ocean of misunderstanding we are not going to get this world together.
OTHER PAGES ABOUT PETE:
- The Musicians who accompany Pete on PETE
- Grammy Award for PETE
- Pete about PETE
- Track List with album clips and notes
- The Making of PETE
(the music friendly ISP)