I've spent way too much time this morning listening to various versions of this wonderful old song after its tune for some reason starting running through my head.
Often misidentified as a Quaker hymn, it isn't. Quakers didn't engage in congregational singing as a rule when it was introduced.
The original lyrics have been tracked to a poem attributed to "Pauline T." that was published in The New York Observer during 1868. Baptist preacher Robert W. Lowry added a tune and published the result during 1869 in a little volume entitled "Bright Jewels for the Sunday School."
Comes along Pete Seeger a century later to fold "How Can I Keep from Singing?" into the emerging folk movement --- after eliminating the explicitly Christian references and adding a 1950s verse by Doris Plenn that referenced the witch hunts targeting communists, gay folks and others branded "un-American" during that decade.
In the decades, it's gone around the world in versions both Christocentric and not, adapted as an anthem by folks who believe (or don't believe) all sorts of things. All would agree, I guess, that we'd be better off as a human race if we sang more and squabbled less. Here's the Seeger version.
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