Det danske Fredsakademi

Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 3. maj 2009 / Time Line May 3, 2009

Version 3.0

2. Maj 2009, 4. Maj 2009


05/03/2009
Folkemusikeren og humanisten Pete Seeger fylder 90.

Tribute to Pete Seeger on his 90th birthday
By Paul J. Stamler, host, 'No Time to Tarry Here'
If I could have, I would've played 2 hours of Pete Seeger recordings. But I had to observe the rules laid down by Soundstream et al...and, at least this particular week, there wasn't room to go outside them.
Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson - No Time to Tarry Here - - private tape
The Monkees - Seeger's Theme - Missing Links, v. 2 - Rhino, 1990
[a rarity; in the late 1960s, one of the monkees -- i think michael nesmith -- recorded an electrified arrangement of the theme song from pete's 'goofing-off suite', in which he played all the instruments. it wasn't released until this 1990 compilation came out; i was working at the public library that year, and got to listen to all the new cds as they arrived. it's a delight]
[i began by playing musicians who influenced pete in his early years:]
Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Derby Ram - Minstrel of the Appalachians - Riverside, 1956
[pete started out playing 4-string banjo but was dissatisfied with the sound and the music available for it. his father, the folklorist charles seeger, in the late 1930s took him to a folk festival in asheville, north carolina, run by lunsford, a country lawyer, song collector and performer who introduced him to the 5-string banjo, as well as to...]
VA/Samantha Bumgarner - Georgia Blues - Hard Times Come Again No More, v. 1 - Yahoo; orig. Columbia, 1924
[bumgarner was one of the first 'hillbilly' performers to record; she and friend eva davis walked into columbia's studios not long after fiddlin' john carson's first record had been a regional hit. they recorded six sides, all wonderful. bumgarner seems to have been the first *clawhammer* banjo player pete heard]
Pete Steele - Last Pay Day on Coal Creek - Banjo Tunes and Songs - Folkways, 1958; rec. 1957
[another big influence; steele was a kentucky-born banjo player with a wide range of styles; one of them the up-down galloping style shared with lunsford. that style became the pete seeger 'basic strum', learned by several generations of banjo players, including me. steele recorded for the library of congress in 1938; in 1957 ed kahn visited steele, now living in ohio, and made some more modern-sounding recordings. steele had lost none of his skill or fire]
[more influences:]
Woody Guthrie - Tom Joad - Dust Bowl Ballads - RCA Victor, 1964; orig. Victor, 1940
[pete idolized woody, as a musician and a human being. they wandered the country together, first in a car bought on their non-existant credit and then, when it was repossessed, on freights. woody, of course, was from oklahoma, which was hard-hit by the dust bowl. he doesn't seem to have read steinbeck's 'the grapes of wrath', but when the movie came out, he sat through three showings one afternoon, then showed up at pete's greenwich village apartment with a bottle of scotch. 'okay to use your typewriter, pete?' pete assented, and woody set to work. he kept it up for hours; eventually pete went to sleep, but could hear woody get up now and again, try out a verse, then go back to typing. when he got up in the morning, the lyrics to 'tom joad' were sitting on top of the typewriter, woody was asleep under the table, and the bottle of scotch was empty]
Lead Belly - Fannin Street - Bourgeois Blues - Smithsonian/Folkways, 1997; orig. n.d.
[lead belly was another hero to pete, and the inspiration for him to take up the 12-string guitar. fannin street was the main lowlife area in shreveport, louisiana; lead belly's song includes some astonishing machine-gun-quick guitar playing]
Paul Robeson - John Henry - Songs of Free Men - Columbia Masterworks Heritage, n.d.; orig. Columbia, 1945
[http://www.archive.org/details/Paul-Robeson-collection-91-100 -ht]
[robeson was one of the first people to put folk songs onto a concert stage, in the 1920s. his style was very much that of the concert hall; his settings, often arranged by friend and accompanist lawrence brown, were very much classically inspired. pete admired robeson as a person, a singer and an activist, but preferred a radically-different style of performing, one that involved the audience as participants rather than just listeners. in time, he'd become the song-leader par escellence]
[enough songs without hearing pete. in 1941 pete, along with woody, bess hawes, lee hays and millard lampell, formed the almanac singers, originally to sing at union rallies and political events. they would eventually perform traditional material as well. they were a pretty loose bunch; members would drift in and out, and woody would call them 'the only group i know that rehearses on stage':]
Almanac Singers - Talking Union - Sing Out - Magnum, 1996; orig. Keynote, 1941
[the almanacs' first recording was a set of union songs on the tiny, left-wing keynote label. it woulf be reissued in 1955 along with new recordings by pete and a chorus, on a historic folkways lp. the song was woody's, mostly, although pete seems to have written the last verse]
Almanac Singers - The Golden Vanity - The Complete General Recordings - MCA, 1996; orig. General, 1941
[the almanacs also made two albums -- back then they really were albums, 3 or more 78 discs in a folder, with cover -- of mostly-traditional material, including this traditional ballad]
Union Boys - You Better Get Ready - That's Why We're Marching - Smithsonian/Folkways, 1996; orig. c. 1944
[after the debacle of the hitler-stalin pact and the antiwar campaigning of communist parties worldwide, then the sudden reversal of policy when hitler invaded the soviet union, the left -- particularly communists -- threw themselves into the war effort. pete got together with burl ives, tom glazer, brownie mcghee and sonny terry as the 'union boys', making a series of recordings with them while he was home on leave from the army]
Almanac Singers - The Sinking of the Reuben James - Sing Out - Magnum, 1996; orig. Keynote, 1942
[the reuben james was the first american ship sunk by german submarines; woody wrote this tribute to the 100 men who were lost, to the tune of the old song 'wildwood flower', with pete adding a chorus]
[after the war the country went through a succession of shocks, including a wave of strikes and the beginnings of the cold war, that helped solidify opposition to the democratic party. in the 1946 elections, republicans took over congress and the country took a major turn to the right -- among the new faces on the washington scene were joe mccarthy and richard nixon. labor unions, for the most part, made deals with employers: their members would get good wages and benefits, but the union would kick out its radical core members who were promoting more militant approaches. the almanacs found themselves unwelcome at union rallies, and after the discouraging failure of henry wallace's progressive party campaign for president -- he finished behind the dixiecrat strom thurmond -- the almanacs split up. pete and lee hays started woodshedding with friends ronnie gilbert and fred hellerman; they made a few recordings for the children's record guild and the microscopic charter label. when pressed for a name, they called themselves the weavers; bandleader gordon jenkins, also an a & r man for decca, signed them to the label:]
The Weavers w. Gordon Jenkins' Orchestra - Goodnight, Irene - The Best of the Decca Years - MCA, 1996; orig. Decca, 1950
[their first recording, lead belly's 'goodnight, irene', recorded complete with jenkins's syrupy strings, was a smash hit, the biggest-selling record in history up to that point. the weavers had several more hit records, of traditional songs, woody's songs, lee hays's songs. then, suddenly, their career crashed; they'd been blacklisted. they took what hays called 'a sabbatical that turned into a mondical and a tuesdical']
The Weavers - Darling Corey - The Weavers at Carnegie Hall - Vanguard, 1955 [in 1955 manager and folk-music impressario harold leventhal got them to do a reunion concert at carnegie hall, by telling each of them that the others had agreed. it was a great success, and leventhal had the foresight to have it professionally recorded. the recording put the weavers back into the limelight, and although pete would leave in 1958, they'd keep performing until 1964, with a brief reunion in 1980. this was their signature concert opener, adapted from b. f. shelton's 1927 victor 78]
Peter Seeger & Bernie Asbel - Mad as I Can Be - - Bell 78, 1947
[this song's a bit out of sequence, but i needed it here to keep within the rules of radio. this was a bitter reaction to the country and congress's rightward turn, which threatened to systematically undo all the progressive legislation of the new deal and war years. bernie asbel, a new york songwriter, eventually became a highly successful author of children's books]
The Weavers - Follow the Drinking Gourd - Folk Songs of America and Other Lands - Decca, 1950
[one more from the weavers' early years, an adaptation of a song from the underground railroad, giving slaves the directions to freedom]
[a bit of folklore 101:]
VA/Solomon Linda & his Evening Birds - Mbube - Secret Museum of Mankind, v. 4 - Yazoo
[linda, a zulu singer from south africa, and his group recorded this song in 1939. it proved extraordinarily popular in south aftrica, and gave its name to a vocal style. in the early 1950s, folklorist alan lomax played a copy of the song for pete]
[Alexander, Mary: Mbube: Linda's Lion sleeps at last http://www.southafrica.info/about/arts/mbube-210206.htm -ht] Pete Seeger - Wimoweh - With Voices Together We Sing - Folkways, 1955 [unfortunately, pete had a cold at the time, and misheard the vocal refrain as 'wimoweh'. he adapted the song for the weavers, then for his own performances. he'd begun touring solo, teaching and cajoling his audiences to sing with him. by 1955 he'd honed his art to the point where he could teach a complex four-part song to a crowd; in this recording, you hear him teaching the basses, altos, tenors, and finally the sopranos. as they sing -- four radically different parts -- he sings in falsetto over them. it's a remarkable performance]
Kingston Trio - Where Have All The Flowers Gone? - The Best of the Kingston Trio - Capitol, early 1960s
[pete wrote this song, an adaptation of a short poem in mikhail sholokhov's novel 'and quiet flows the don'. he recorded it on a folkways lp, then forgot about it. joe hickerson, who would later head the archive of folk song at the library of congress, was a camp counselor at the time; he added the last two verses, closing the song's circle, and sang it to his campers. that's the version we all know; the kingston trio had a major hit with their recording in the early 1960s]
Joan Baez - Sagt Mir Wo die Blumen Sind? - Farewell, Angelina - Vanguard, 1965
[in germany, marlene dietrich liked the song, had it translated into german, and recorded it. the recording was a smash hit in europe; pete, meanwhile, said he thought the german translation was actually better than his english original; the words 'fit in the mouth' better. i don't have dietrich's recording -- it's been a fixture on wfmt's 'midnight special' for decades -- but i do have joan baez's version. english or german? you decide]
[three of pete's adaptations:]
VA/Mass meeting, Hattiesburg, Mississippi - We Shall Overcome - Voices from the Civil Rights Movement - Smithsonian/Folkways, 1997; rec. 1964 [in the early 1950s pete, frank hamilton and guy carawan were regulars at the highlander folk school -- now highlander center -- which taught the techniques of grass-roots organizing to people, particularly poor people, from across the southeast. (among the participants: rosa parks and dr. martin luther king, jr.) at one of their summer sessions, a union organizer brought in the adaptation of a hymn, 'we will overcome' which had become a rallying song for striking tobacco workers. (it turned out to have a long history in the labor movement.) the three singers spread the song to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but only after pete had changed the words to 'we shall overcome', again because they fit better in the mouth. it spread around the world]
Pete Seeger - He Lies in the American Land - American Industrial Ballads - Folkways, 1956
[after his refusal, in 1955, to name names before the house committee on un-american activities, pete's blacklisting from the musical mainstream was virtually complete. he re-invented himself and, in a sense, went underground, performing on college campuses, at schools and summer camps, anyplace he could make a few dollars and spread the idea of singing. in the process, he lit the fire under what would become the second wave of the folk revival -- in one san diego concert, he inspired the performing careers of joan baez and the kingston trio's dave guard -- which would intern lead to the revolution in american rock music of the 1960s. he also, fearing that if he entered prison for contempt of congress he'd be killed, began recording as much material as possible for moses asch of folkways, who put pete on a weekly retainer so he could feed his family. during those years he averaged one album every two months, an astonishing level of productivity that would leave a treasure trove of recorded music. one lp was a collection of industrial folk songs, ranging from the c. 1800 lament of a worker displaced by machinery to modern times. for this song, pete adapted andrew kovaly's lament for a workmate killed on the job]
Pete Seeger - Abiyoyo - Abiyoyo and other Story Songs for Children - Folkways, c. 1967
[one of pete's mainstays in those wilderness years was children's concerts. i remember one he did at mandel hall in chicago in 1955; my parents said that if i was really good i could also go to the grownups' concert that night. i was and i did; i remember being impressed as pete chopped a log in half on stage while singing a work song. this adaptation of an african story and lullaby has always been one of my favorites of pete's work]
[another way pete made ends meet during his wilderness years was to work as a session player on other people's records, to make field recordings, and to produce records for moe asch:]
Jean Carignan - Winnipeg Reel - Old Time Fiddle Tunes Played by Jean Carignan - Folkways, 1960
[jean carignan was a quebec cabdriver who was also a monstrously good fiddler. pete backed him up brilliantly on banjo. an old pal of mine, a banjo player, used to say that he wasn't really sure about pete until he'd heard him back up a fiddle player. he heard this, and then he was sure]
Children of Edgewood, Illinois - Fudge - Skip-Rope Games - Folkways [on one trip pete took a tape recorder with him and recorded an entire album of kids' rope-skipping games. he found many in one day; clearly the kids of edgewood were creative jumpers]
Kim Loy Wong and his Wiltwyck Steel Band - This Land is My Land - Kim Loy Wong and his Wiltwyck Steel Band - Folkways, 1959
[kim loy wong was one of the first steel-drum players in new york; pete produced this album for folkways, then made a film showing wong's technique for making his drums out of oil barrels and playing music on them. yes, it's really 'this land is your land', and it sounds just fine on steel drums. i've also heard it played as a polka by a local band in cumberland, maryland, and it sounds just fine that way too]
[happily for all of us, but especially people compiling radio shows under restrictions, pete likes to play music with a lot of different people:]
Pete Seeger & Frank Hamilton - Pygmy Tune - Nonesuch - Folkways, 1959 [pete and frank, who was one of pete's successors singing the tenor part in the weavers, made a mostly-instrumental album for the sheer delight of playing together. it has some delightful pieces, including the title track and this remarkable tune from central africa, which sounds like it could have originated on a kalimba, or maybe one of the banjo's gourd ancestors]
Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie - Lonesome Valley - Together - Rising Son, 1999; orig. Warner Bros., 1975
[pete and arlo have toured together for decades now, musical father-and-son in all but genetics. this is from the first recording they released together. they're still at it; they'll be appearing in massachusetts sometime in the next few months]
Mike Seeger w. Pete Seeger - Well May the World Go - The Second Annual Farewell Reunion - Mercury, 1973
[mike and pete took different directions in traditional music, with mike applying himself to mastering and reproducing a concentrated range of southeastern instrumental and vocal styles while pete leaned more toward an eclectic, world-ranging road. they're both superb musicians, but haven't recorded a lot together. here they mesh beautifully on pete's song, written to the scots tune 'weel may the keel row', more or less. it's pete's parting wish for the world -- except that, happily, he wasn't parting and, 36 years later, is still roaring along]
Pete Seeger - Wasn't That A Time - With Voices Together We Sing - Folkways, 1955
[finally, i chose to end the program with a political song, written by lee hays and poet walter lowenfels during the depths of the mccarthy era. it's an affirmation of their faith, and pete's faith, in the best side of america. it's a faith that's been tried, sorely, over the decades, but it's still a flame. may it burn a long, long time, for pete and for us all]
So that was the program. There was a lot more I didn't have time to play: some rarities, including a soundtrack Pete and Mike produced in the 1950s that was a very early example of multitrack recording, some off-the-beaten track songs, more influences, some of Pete's "greatest hits" that have been recorded by other folks. So gee, I guess I'll have to play some of those next week. Happy 90th birthday, Pete, and my personal thanks for making me a better and happier person for the last six decades, not to mention turning me on to this wonderful music that I love.
"No Time to Tarry Here" airs Sundays from 2:00 - 4:00 pm central daylight time (1900-2100 GMT) on KDHX-St. Louis, 88.1 FM, and over the net via RealAudio at www.kdhx.org . All programs are archived for two weeks after air.

05/03/2009
Fransk massakre i Madrid, 1809.

05/03/2009

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