Turn, Turn, Turn
There are not many legendary rock songs whose lyrics come from the Bible, but one such anthem is the never-to-be-forgotten, Turn, Turn, Turn (to everything there is a Season) written by Pete Seager in 1959 and recorded by the Byrds in 1965. The lyrics – except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the final two lines – consist of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes.
The song was originally released in 1962 as "To Everything There Is a Season" on the folk group the Limeliters' album Folk Matinee, and then some months later on Seeger's own The Bitter and the Sweet.
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version of the Bible, (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon, who would have written it in the 10th century BC, though modern scholarship dates its composition much later, up to the third century BC.
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" had first been arranged by the Byrds' lead guitarist Jim McGuinn in a chamber-folk style during sessions for Judy Collins' 1963 album, Judy Collins 3. The Byrds band was made up of Jim (Roger) McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hilman and Michael Clarke. The Byrds' single is the most successful recorded version of the song, having reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2001, the 1965 recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
To many in my generation, this anthem was a cry for world peace during the Vietnam War.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
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It seems like this is a time when many events from technology, to economics and geopolitics and even relationships are at a crossroads of sorts. So, it got me thinking about the lyrics. I will never be a songwriter or even further from the truth, a biblical scholar but here are a few of my thoughts written in the style of Mr. Seager and King Solomon.
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven
A time to adopt gen-AI, a time to worry about how AI is affecting our children
A time for crude oil prices to fall, a time for natural gas prices to rise
A time for energy demand to grow but a time to leave so many behind in poverty
A time for “clean” energy to grow but a time when “fossil energy” and carbon emissions also grow
A time to capture carbon from the air and store it underground but a time to keep the coal-fired power plants going
A time for AI, robots, Machine Learning to make our lives easier but a time when we struggle with the role of humans-in-the-loop and AI generated friends
A time to spend more time with our smart devices but a time to spend less with our relationships
A time to build trust in our chatbot but a time to lose trust in our fellow man
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time for peace
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late.
Peace be with you, my friends.
This article was not written by ChatGPT, but I did look up details in Wikipedia.
Jim- you need to see today’s Pearls Before Swine comic strip about how to identify a tern…
Jim Obviously no shortage of triggers to put one into a melancholy mood these days. I had read your post and the next thing that popped up on my phone was post about the most frequently stolen cars in Colorado in 2025, which I am sure was a laugh riot that I still somehow chose not to read. Rather than remain on line, I went out for a short walk in the bright late afternoon sunshine, and was surprised to find some manzanita shrubs that I had planted 2 years ago had the most amazing small pink flowers- they had never bloomed before and I surely wasn't expecting to see flowers in mid January. A great attitude adjustment for even a short time. OK- Turn, Turn, Turn is fine- I'm more of a Bells of Rhymney fan myself and sometimes Drugstore Truck Driving Man- but you might want to add the Byrds version of Dylan's Paths of Victory which I find more hopeful about pushing through todays problems to a better future. Or else you can always listen to Don't Worry, Be Happy....