We Shall Overcome
Monday, November 28, 2005, 10:50 AM
Click here to view the arrangement of We Shall Overcome
I was recently working on an arrangement of
We Shall Overcome, a well-known and historically significant anthem of the American civil rights movement. When arranging a piece, I generally like to base my work off of as many recordings as I'm able to get my hands on, and I also check around online and in fake books to see what chords are suggested in other arrangements. In this case, the chord progressions that I was able to find online were completely different from any recording that I could find. The fake books weren't much better. Any musician knows not to completely trust a fake book, but it seems to me that there should be an accurate transcription of this song, so I've posted mine here.
This arrangement is based off of the recording of the SNCC Freedom Singers with Pete Seeger. The recording can be found on the 4 CD Set,
American Roots Music, published by Palm Pictures, and also on the CD
Sing for Freedom, published by Smithsonian Folkways Records.
This song doesn't really have any one recognized composer. For information regarding it's history, please consult the
Wikipedia entry.
