About The Song
The Seekers performing ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ is beautiful … the bright Australian sunlight, the cloudless skies, the dusty vineyards of Chateau Yaldara in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, the bluish-purple hue of the grapes … the young, ponytailed Judith Durham … . Even the boys, Athol, Keith and Bruce, are looking sharp and in the prime of their lives.
There’s something Edenic about the whole thing, too. Beginnings, or at least, much earlier times, are signalled, looking back from the perspective of today … Australian music starting to show itself to the wider world, the sense of a more natural, unencumbered era, and, to those of us of a certain age, memories associated with our childhood.
It is certainly fitting, in another respect, that the Seekers are singing ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ in a setting with Biblical resonance, given that Pete Seeger, who wrote the song, lifted the words almost intact from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, a rich source of inspiration for many writers across the centuries.
Judith Durham’s clarion, bell-like voice delivers the song superbly. The call for peace in the world, at its conclusion, remains as relevant as ever.
Video
Lyrics
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under Heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
And a time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under Heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
And a time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sow
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear, it’s not too late
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under Heaven