[78-L] Pete Seeger: Good-Bye

[Michael Biel]

Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" program today played back most of the
interview she did with him in 2004 and ended with a few minutes of her
interview with him from four months ago.  It is an inspiring hour,
filled with a lot of his philosophy and extraordinarily detailed
information about the creation of many of his important songs.  He
explains how Dave Guard returned the copyright to him of "Where Have All
the Flowers Gone", and it would have been a good coupling with the story
about how he attempted to pay royalties of "Wimoweh" to Solomon Linda's
family, but that story was not included on this program. 
http://www.segerfile.com/wimoweh.htm   Today's program and the other
interviews she has done with him are at democracynow.org  .

My daughter Leah saw him at the Feb 15, 2003 anti-war rally in New York
City where she was at the front of a crowd of nearly half a million
people.  Amy Goodman was the only one covering the rally -- all the
regular media were scared to cover something anti-war in that political
climate and pretended it wasn't happening -- and I can see Leah in the
crowd shots.  Seeger's choice of song was surreal:  "Somewhere Over the
Rainbow".  We both saw him at the memorial to Alan Lomax.  Other than
that I did not have a chance to see him perform live, although his
half-brother Mike came to Morehead quite often in the 80s and I made
recordings of him.  I first heard of him when my sister returned from
summer camp with "The Weavers At Carnegie Hall".  Her boyfriend had seen
a Seeger performance in the Berkshires and raved about him, and this was
the only album she could easily find in 1958.  Ironically he became an
NSA computer expert and is a flaming dittohead -- I doubt he ever
listened to the words of the songs.  But I DID.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Pete Seeger: Good-Bye
From: Cary Ginell <soundthink at live.com>
Date: Tue, January 28, 2014 9:55 am
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

I don't know what to play first, but I'll start with my Hootenanny 78 of
"The Hammer Song" by The Weavers. 

Cary 

> On Jan 28, 2014, at 6:52 AM, "Robert Shirer" <rshirer at neb.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> It had to happen sometime, but one is never ready. Pete was always a
> presence, retained his amazing vocal prowess long after most people would
> have stopped singing. But even after the voice left him, he could still
> move crowds to sing for, and ultimately, with him. 
> 
> One of my quixotic record-collecting targets is to be acquire all of his
> recordings. There are a few obscure political campaign 78s and a stray
> Folkways album or two I'm missing, but I've managed to find quite a few over
> the years. I know what corner of my record room I'll be visiting today.
> RIP, Mr. Seeger.
> Bob Shirer 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of David Lennick
> Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 7:57 AM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Pete Seeger: Good-Bye
> 
> To quote the title of Harry Richman's autobiography, a Hell Of A Life. You
> can't pick a favorite by this guy, but I'll nominate Little Boxes and Other
> Broadsides.
> 
> dl
> 
>> On 1/28/2014 5:29 AM, David Jessup wrote:
>> http://news.yahoo.com/folk-singer-activist-pete-seeger-dies-ny-0652174
>> 08.html
>> 
>> "Children's Concert at Town Hall" remains a favorite; in my hands since
> age 8 or so and joined by the reissued/expanded CD.
>> 
>> David Jessup