Discover Top Posts Tagged with #pete seger

For him, playing music was a deeply political act. It was his hope that one man and his banjo–around the pot of which he’d famously written, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender”—could do their part to change the world for the better.

#nell boeschenstein #pete seger #music #activism #politics #guernica daily

R.I.P Pete Seger..

#pete seger #which side are you on

RIP Pete Seeger, who spent his life demonstrating the power of song. This is just one of many examples:

Pete Seeger - Waist Deep In The Big Muddy

Pete Seeger, 1983:

"Most of my life I have assumed that the kind of songs I sing would not normally get played on the airwaves. I pointed to examples like Woody Guthrie’s song, "This Land Is Your Land" to show that they don’t have to get played on the airwaves. If it’s a real good song, it will get spread around anyway.

But in 1967 I wrote what I thought was a real good song, and I knew there wasn’t time for it to get around the country. People were being killed every day in Vietnam. I had a recording contract with Columbia Records at that time, and my friends there even agreed to put out a record of it; but the sales department just laughed at us both. The records stayed on the shelves and weren’t even sent to the stores.

But two young comedians had a successful television show, and they asked their bosses if I could be a guest on their show. The Smothers Brothers were turned down by CBS TV at first, but finally they said O.K. I flew out to California and sang some songs that had been sung by American soldiers in four different wars-the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, and lastly this song, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” It was a story song, kind of an allegory, describing a bunch of soldiers training during World War II and the captain tells them to ford a muddy river. But as it gets deeper the sergeant urges they turn around. The Captain says, “Don’t be a Nervous Nelly. Follow me.” But the Captain is drowned and they find his body stuck in the old quicksand. And the last verse says, “Every time I read the paper, those old feelings come on/We are waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool says to push on.”

Son of a gun, when the show was supposed to be played on the air, the song had been scissored out of the tape by the higher-ups at CBS Television. Now the Smothers Brothers did a clever thing. They took their argument to the newspapers and they got lots of free publicity. They said, “CBS censors our best jokes, they censored Seeger’s best song. It ain’t fair.” Finally in the month of January, 1968, the word came from New York, “O.K., O.K., you can sing the song if you want.”

On 48 hours’ notice I flew out to California, taped the song, and this time 7 million people saw it and even got some extra newspaper publicity. Only one station, I think, in Detroit, scissored the last verse out of the tape.

Did the song do any good? No one can prove a damned thing. It took tens of millions of people speaking out, before the Vietnam War was over. A defeat for the Pentagon, but a victory for the American people.

Of course, a song is not a speech, you know. It reflects new meanings as one’s life’s experiences shine new light upon it. (This song does not mention Vietnam or President Johnson by name.) Often a song will reappear several different times in history or in one’s life as there seems to be an appropriate time for it. Who knows.”

Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94

#pete seger #music #politics #folk music #eric

Toshi-Aline Ohta Seeger, wife of folk music icon Pete Seeger, passed away overnight on Tuesday, July 9th. She was a mother, an organizer, an activist and filmmaker … and an essential part of all of her husband’s work. She was 91.

Toshi Seeger Passes - Sing Out!

If you never knew much about Pete's wife, you would learn about Toshi from this documentary about Pete's life.

#Toshi Seeger #Pete Seger #in memoriam #celebs