The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #21900 Message #3384950
Posted By: Joe Offer
02-Aug-12 - 03:50 AM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Tomorrow (Peggy Seeger)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tomorrow (Peggy Seeger)
Hi, Maxina-
I hadn't noticed it before, but The Peggy Seeger Songbook has a date on each page which is usually much earlier than the copyright date. For "Tomorrow," the date is 1984. Here are Peggy's notes:I've only been arrested once, and that was when I was involved during the 1980s predominantly with feminist and nuclear issues, which were merged by the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. In 1983, Cruise missiles were due to arrive at Greenham from the U.S.A. and an enormous demonstration assembled at the Houses of Parliament on November 15. Then came the news that the missiles had actually arrived several days earlier, and were now ensconced at the base. The demo reacted accordingly. Thousands of us just sat down at rush hour in Parliament Square. I was right at the gates and was arrested with several hundred other people. The details of the arrest and of the next twelve hours is another story. So many people were rounded up that night that criminals had a field day as all the police and police stations in London were taken up with nuclear demonstrators (see "Villains' Chorus"). My trial was held in February 1984. I wrote this song to sing in court as part of my defence, the substance of which was that my action had been carried out because I was in fear of my life. Before I got through one verse I was sent out for contempt of court and taken down to the cells by the very policeman who had originally arrested me. It wasn't as dramatic as it sounds—but I got fined more than the two fellows who bravely climbed Big Ben to put antinuclear slogans across his clock-face.
-Joe-