Download PDF file of We Shall Overcome

Download PDF file of an arrangement for marching band of We Shall Overcome.

I’m not saying that this isn’t a good song but I can’t sing this any more. I’m old and I remember the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. King and the Kennedy brothers, the war in Nicaragua, the Gulf War and the War in Iraq, the seemingly endless mass murders in schools, churches, synagogues, supermarkets and in the streets; and now the present horror show with concentration camps in authoritarian countries that are unaccountable to the citizens of the United States. The increase in stateless people in endless peregrination as they search for a place to settle has long been foreseeable given the totally predictable damage we are doing to the environment. Yet we who foresaw it have been incapable of doing anything to prepare for this time, while those who use cruelty and viscousness as their tactic of choice to enrich themselves leapt on the unprotected. The truth is, I am not certain that we shall overcome. Yet, the joy I take in building solidarity with the poor and the good-hearted is very great. What is a collection of protest songs without, We Shall Overcome? The PDF has two harmonized versions, the second one is very churchy, with a kind of Southern Baptist feel to it. You could play it on a Wurlitzer organ with the vibrato turned up high to get the full effect; and I have just added an arrangement for brass band for which I wrote a descant obligato for piccolo, which I am stupidly proud of.

Here is a recording from 1965 of Joan Baez (who else?) singing We Shall Overcome.