It's A Terrible Thing Being A Patriarch.

Song, Songs Kept Them Going And Going; They Didn't Realize The Millions Of Seeds They Were Sowing. They Were Singing In Marches, Even Singing In Jail. Songs Gave Them The Courage To Believe They Would Not Fail.

I Never Intended To Make A Living From Music. That's The Funny Thing. I Wanted To Be A Journalist.

My Mother Wanted Me To Learn How To Read Music. She'd Given Fiddles To My Two Older Brothers, But They'd Rebelled. I Came Along And My Father Said, "oh, Let Peter Enjoy Himself." What She Did Was Leave Musical Instruments All Around The House. Whistles, Marimbas, Squeeze Boxes, A Piano And Organ. By Age Six Or Seven, I Could Bang Out A Simple Tune On Almost Anything. I Developed A Good Ear, So I Didn't Learn To Read Music Until I Taught Myself At Age Eighteen, 'cause I Was Hearing So Many Good Songs I Couldn't Possibly Remember Them All.

And When One Person Taps Out A Beat, While Another Leads Into The Melody, Or When Three People Discover A Harmony They Never Knew Existed, Or A Crowd Joins In On A Chorus As Though To Raise The Ceiling A Few Feet Higher, Then They Also Know There Is Hope For The World.

The American Indians Were Communists. They Were. Every Anthropologist Will Tell You They Were Communists. No Rich, No Poor. If Somebody Needed Something The Community Chipped In.