Why I woke up singing this song in my head I can't tell you. Maybe it's a guy thing, I don't know. After all, if I had to guess who wrote the lyrics - if I didn't already know - I'd guess it was a guy. Yup, it was a guy: Pete Seeger? But why a hammer anyway, I began thinking? Why not some other tool or object even. I mean if I'm going to fix something? Why's it the hammer the guy's gotta reach for first. Why not that little springy magnetized screw driver that comes in real handy for those of us who always manage to drop those very small pieces into the tightest of spaces. Now that's the tool I'd want to associate with fixing things - I mean come on!: do you really want to reach for the hammer when you're having problems with love, justice or freedom. It's almost embarrassing that this FOLK song comes out of the Progressive era. Okay, some of us didn't experience that - (besides it didn't really get widely heard till Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in the sixties) so one might more likely visualize the salving meme of a flower being inserted into the barrel of a rifle, as opposed to a HAMMER or a sickle (it's kind of a socialist laborers' anthem, right?!: "Danger!" "Warning!" - Paul Revere would have appreciated this lyric, being a silversmith/dentist, AND a rebel)! But still it could have been a shovel, or a needle, or an anchor, or... I'm still holdin' out for the springy magnetized screw driver. But what the heck is that thing called anyway? And would I be able to say it fast enough or even remember it. So... now I'm imagining how easily heralded messages carried across the ancient deserts could have gotten misconstrued on account of such an imperfect word chosen perhaps only because it fit the meter? I guess we're right back to where we started: through Poetic License(?), however questionable, it would appear the poet does sometimes have the last word! So what if he smashed the distributer cap on your car - he can "buy a new one."
wiki- link on the lyric
