Song for Day 27 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Peace Will Come" by Melanie Safka

Day 27 - "Peace Will Come" by Melanie Safka

Songwriter Melanie Safka.

     Fair Warning:  If you are too young to remember Melanie, prepare to fall in love.

     Born February 3rd, 1947, Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk, known simply as "Melanie", was the daughter of immigrants:  a Ukrainian father fleeing the famines there, and an Italian jazz-singing mother.  A 1969 spoken word piece, "Candles in the Rain", about her experience singing at Woodstock as the crowd lit the sky with candles, matches and lighters [before this was cool], lead to her first #1 hit in America:  "Lay Down".  In 1971 came "Brand New Key", aka "the roller skate song", stricken from some radio playlists for "sexual innuendo" (WTF?).  Much of her success came from "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma",  (performed here with Miley Cyrus) and covers like "Dust in the Wind" (by Kansas), "Ruby Tuesday"  and "Wild Horses" (Rolling Stones).  She was Billboard's No. 1 Top Female Vocalist in 1972.  From Wikipedia:

      In 1970, Melanie was the only artist to ignore the court injunction banning the Powder Ridge Rock Festival, playing for the crowd on a homemade stage powered by Mister Softee trucks.

      Melanie is what has become an endangered species:  an advocate for peace in a world dominated by hawks hawking weaponry.  She's not about to go quietly, as evidenced by her trademark hit:   "Peace Will Come", about selling raffle tickets predicting humankind's future.  For those of us under sixty, two questions arise:

1.  How successful have pacifists been?  Ignore the distracting news about pissants with pipe bombs 70+ years after we were dropping atomic ones;  watch how much harder arms manufacturers and their governments have to work to stave off the threat of peace. 

2.  The song is optimistic, albeit cautiously.  So why does it make your mother cry?

Lyrics:

There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one
There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one
For sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land
With the velvet hill in the small of my back

And my hands are playing the sand
And my feet are swimming in all of the waters
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

Well sometimes when I am feeling so grand
And I become the world
And the world becomes a man
And my song becomes a part of the river
 

I cry out to keep me just the way I am
According to plan
According to man, according to plan
According to man, according to plan

Oh there's a chance peace will come
In your life, please buy one
Oh there's a chance peace will come
In your life, please buy one

For sometimes when we have reached the end
With the velvet hill in the small of my backs
And our hands are clutching the sand
Will our blood become a part of the river

All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man
There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one.
There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one

For sometime when we have reached the end
With the velvet hill in the small of my backs
And our hands are clutching the sand.

There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one
There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one...

    You were warned.

Editing Note:  While various lyric listings cite Tom Paxton (who did release a different song with the same title in 1970) as an author, discographies include "Arranged By – John Abbott, Lee Holdridge" but do not mention Paxton.  Thanks to "BOHICA" on DailyKos for the heads-up!

Links:

Song for Day x of a 4 Year Funeral - Index of Titles