Buzzflash
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Mixx it!
Reddit"You outlasted the bastards, man," Bruce Springsteen told the roaring crowd.
I think that was my favorite line at the rollicking birthday concert celebrating Pete Seeger's 90th!
There were other uplifting, astonishing moments Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, at a five-hour concert which Seeger only OK'd because it raised much-needed funds for his Clearwater project--a non profit organization which the oft-maligned bard started in 1969 to clean up his beloved, polluted Hudson River.
Fifteen thousand people, of all ages, (okay, median age was probably 55) danced, clapped and sang along as Seeger did a soaring version of "Amazing Grace" and the saintly looking Joan Baez sang " Where Have All the Flowers Gone."
Arlo Guthrie reminded us that Pete, like his father Woody, "believed in the power of the people singing songs to change the world." Richie Havens reminded us why "Freedom" is a great anthem for all times. Tim Robbins and his son, strumming the guitar, to "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore." Ruby Dee entranced with her enchanting reading of a poem (for peace) written by Pete's uncle before he joined the Foreign Legion. In between, a startlingly youthful Emmylou Harris recounted correspondence she had with Pete as a young folk singer; Tom Morello and Taj Mahal teamed up on "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"), and John Mellencamp offered up "If I Had a Hammer." Congressman John Hall, once the lead singer for one of my favorite groups, "Orleans," joined in several rounds.
Toward the end of the five-hour Seeger-apoza, Springsteen announced to the crowd, "Pete's gonna come out," and "He's gonna look like your granddad--if your granddad could kick your ass." If character and integrity keeps you youthful, and I believe it does. Seeger looked all of 25--of strong backbone and spirit and moxie and with keen eyes which are the stronger for having seen the best, and the worst, of our country's history.
In so many ways, Pete is a repository of American history in himself. As Springsteen said, he has a "stubborn, nasty, defiant optimism," and he serves as "the stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself."
Springsteen also told the crowd about his own youth, growing up in a town that endured race riots, and how times have changed: "Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man."
He spoke about "This Land is Your Land," which he said Seeger moved from an anthem of the labor movement to one of the civil rights movement, and he described preparing for their duet on the song at Obama's inauguration, in freezing weather,( Pete had packed his long underwear), when Seeger said: "I know I want to sing all the verses--all the ones that Woody wrote, even the two that usually get left out."
"There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn't say nothing; That side was made for you and me."
As Springsteen and Tom Morello sang a rousing, yet sober, version of " The Ghost of Tom Joad," it seemed that there was enough humanity in that one concert hall to fill all of nation with amazing grace in these hard times. As New Jersey's and the nation's bard summed it up: "Pete sings all the verses, all the time--especially the ones we'd like to leave out of our history as a people."
Share this article
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
RSS
Curious? why is a non-profit trying to raise money to clean up a river that's the responsibility of the state governments of New York and New Jersey? The governors could have easily requested federal funds from the $800 billion dollar spending bill Obama approved a few weeks back.
Posted by ACook at 05/04/2009 @ 10:30pm
Fifteen thousand people, of all ages, (okay median age was probably 55) danced, clapped and sang along as Seeger did a soaring version of "Amazing Grace" and the saintly looking Joan Baez sang " Where have all The Flowers Gone."
~KvH
Wish I could have been there. At the very least I'd have lowered the median age --if imperceptibly.
Not big on Sainthood generally, but I'd guess Pete is about as close as it gets.
Happy 90th, great soul.
:-)
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 10:38pm
ACook at 10:30pm
You cute, Kookster. I bet you laugh heartily at your clever barbs.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 10:40pm
ACOOK; The Obamanation that makes desolation and the Demoncrats have better uses for your tax dollars than our infrastructure!
"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study that seeks to discover a link between drinking and having sex among homosexuals in Argentina.
The study will send researchers to six bars in Buenos Aires to interview both patrons and proprietors in an effort to discover what it is about those bars that may encourage the risky behavior.
The study began on Sept. 30, 2008, and runs through Aug. 31, 2010. It already has cost taxpayers $198,776. By the time the project ends, it will have cost $403,902, according to NIH.
The grant, awarded to the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the division of NIH that studies the effects of alcohol and alcoholism.
The study's primary focus is to determine the relationship among drinking, bars frequented by homosexuals, and risky sexual behavior to see if certain bars in Argentina might be good targets for HIV-prevention campaigns."
Don't we all feel the hope and change more now?
Posted by comancheamerican at 05/04/2009 @ 10:51pm
Hail, hail the gangs all here!
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 10:54pm
Hail, hail the gangs all here!
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 10:54pm
Don't we all feel the hope and change more now?
~comancheamerican
Well, I'm sure there's a grant in there for you too, Comanche --seeing as the U.S. guberment stole your ancestral land and all. But I'm glad you stick by 'em all the same.
As long as it's Repugnants that run the machine, of course.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 11:00pm
Guess its all part of the "brave new world" of the Obamanation Demoncrat Oligarcy, you know a world where unwilling disapproving taxpayers fund leftist college queers doing "RESEARCH" in Argentina homosexual bars! Gives new meaning to the old expression " and a gay old time had by all"! The hope and change just never ends!
Posted by comancheamerican at 05/04/2009 @ 11:19pm
Off topic, but fascinating all the same.
Cool new pic just popped up at Astronomy picture of the day:
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090505.html
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 11:19pm
~comancheamerican at 11:19pm
Haven't taken the time to investigate the actual truth and/or details of what you've posted, Comanche, but I'm reminded of the Republican outrage at spending (in the stimulus bill) on an investigation into the --as yet unexplained-- serious decline in the population of honey bees.
Fuck the bees!
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 11:25pm
Bees..hmmm. I believe I saw where it was a foreign mold, fungus or bacterian agent, so the question has already been answered!
Posted by comancheamerican at 05/04/2009 @ 11:49pm
Bees..hmmm. I believe I saw where it was a foreign mold, fungus or bacterian agent, so the question is alread actively being explored! There is the latest study by the CRS 5-8-2008 referencing a multitude of causes suspect.
The pathogen. Paenibacillus larvae is the most serious honey bee pathogen and causes American foulbrood (AFB), which is a disease of larval honey bees. ...
! parasites, mites, and disease loads in the bees and brood; ! emergence of new or newly more virulent pathogens; ! poor nutrition among adult bees; ! lack of genetic diversity and lineage of bees; ! level of stress in adult bees (e.g., transportation and confinement of bees, overcrowding, or other environmental or biological stressors); ! chemical residue/contamination in the wax, food stores, and/or bees; ! a combination of these and/or other factors.
Apparently it is a wordwide ongoing problem and study already funded!
Posted by comancheamerican at 05/05/2009 @ 12:03am
Cool new pic just popped up at Astronomy picture of the day:
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090505.html
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 11:19pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Absolutely! Forget all the other space junk, fix hubble or replace it!
Posted by comancheamerican at 05/05/2009 @ 12:25am
"Apparently it is a wordwide ongoing problem..."
~Comanche "Great Spirit" American
Hmmmm.
I think you might be on to something here, Comanch. Maaaybe the root cause is related to a disconnect between us humans and the nature that surrounds us.
I'll get back to you after I've meditated on the issue a bit more. Time for a vision quest.
Peyote. That's where I'm headed.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 12:26am
Hmmm.
I'm gonna hope against hope that some useful understanding has been reached here.
Peyote is a beautiful thing.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 01:23am
Hmmmmm.
(Peyote?) Meditation music:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj5EvUTyi7Q&NR=1
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 01:30am
I think I'm in love......with life (in all its myriad forms).....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxl8OhYKRRg&NR=1
Peace, out......all
:D
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 01:38am
Final (cogent) point, I'm currently wearing a steam pressed shirt from my brothers collection that I recently pulled out a year after his untimely death from the common flu.
I couldn't get my own shirt pressed when I was there for the funeral even though there were 62 launderers (I counted them in frustration) in his small town outside of Atlanta --it was a Sunday.
Oh, the irony.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 01:57am
We all love Pete here except .. guess who? Yeah, the right wingers . Whatever, flubadubs.
Posted by Sorelish at 05/05/2009 @ 02:19am
~Sorelish at 02:19am
"Right versus left" has often --on some gut level-- struck me as a bit trite. Perhaps a more fruitful analysis might involve a life affirming perspective versus the all too common ignorance of living complexity, beauty and "value".
Just a thought --here's hoping that might allow for a slightly more tasteful menu for intellectual digestion.
;-)
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/05/2009 @ 02:58am
Happy Birthday Pete! May you have many more.
Posted by chaoszen at 05/05/2009 @ 07:38am
You can Donate to the Clearwater Project here:
http://www.clearwater.org/
Posted by chaoszen at 05/05/2009 @ 07:42am
commancheamerican-Can you please tell us how Obama is linked with that study and how Obama is linked to these types of studies that have been going on for decades?
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 08:17am
RIO, same question as always...
What's your escape plan?
Or going to further support the idea that...
even YOU don't believe your own hyperbole?
Posted by Mask at 05/05/2009 @ 09:57am
I'm planning an escape to Mexico now that I've been assured that the swine flu was part of a Marxist plot and nothing to fear.Or was it supposed to be a Zionist plot?I never can keep all of the plots straight.
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:06am
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:06am
RIO's lack of a plan...or desire for suicide under the "Obama tyranny"...
rapidly indicating that the old blowhard doesn't even believe his own bullflop! If he did, why wouldn't he have some way out? Or is it not as "dire" as he's telling us????
Posted by Mask at 05/05/2009 @ 10:19am
Mask-Sounds like those who claimed that Bush/Cheney were going to put us into concentration camps,but stayed in America,anyway.
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:28am
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:28am
Well, in RESE's case, he lived upto his word, he said-
"I'll shut up if it doesn't happen!"---Posted by RESE 05/22/2007 @ 09:58am
(I have a sneaking suspicion though that PLUNGER changed his nick...heheh)
Posted by Mask at 05/05/2009 @ 10:33am
Mask-Plunger appears to still be on.It will be interesting to see if Rio stays on after none of what he says happens.
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:37am
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 10:37am
But he'll be predicting it for (hopefully) seven MORE years. And naturally (and dishonestly) always say it's "just around the corner".
It is funny that ol' RIO is now "new RESE"!
Posted by Mask at 05/05/2009 @ 11:25am
Mask-It was predictable that the Reeses would be replaced by the Rios once we switched from a Republican POTUS to a Democratic POTUS.
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 11:29am
You cute, Kookster. I bet you laugh heartily at your clever barbs.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 05/04/2009 @ 10:40pm
Seriously, Kool, how come neither state is in court filing lawsuits aganist all those polluters that line the Hudson river?
Any violations against the Clean Water Act is probably one of the more easier cases to win.
Posted by ACook at 05/05/2009 @ 11:52am
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 11:29am
But the RESEs havent' "dropped it"...seen others on other blogs who merely switched the "focus of evil" from Dubya to Obama saying "He's no different. He won't reveal how AIPAC is preparing to laser-tatoo us all with Bar Codes for control and death camps!!!!!!" (Or is that OneVote?...heheh)
Posted by Mask at 05/05/2009 @ 12:22pm
Mask-Some people are just more paranoid than others.Some have gone away now that Bush is gone,but,you are correct, the truly paranoid are still around.
Posted by i'm nobody at 05/05/2009 @ 12:24pm
"There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn't say nothing; That side was made for you and me.".
You cannot support the right to privacy on one hand and oppose the right to private property. Without the latter, how much privacy can you have?
Until Pete and his followers are more remorseful about the effects of the communism they supported all these decades, they've lost me. The title of this article should be more aptly named "Still Full of Ourselves after all these years".
Posted by stevenkalka at 05/05/2009 @ 1:16pm
Thanks Kalka - there's an Easy Ignore if I ever saw one...
Happy Birthday Pete! 10 more, at least, please!
I sure hope they are making a DVD of this event... Bruce and Morello doing Tom Joad is just icing on the cake!
Posted by sjduskin at 05/05/2009 @ 1:59pm
with the key of peyote, I opened the doors of perception, peered inside, and saw you all looking out.
Posted by gren at 05/05/2009 @ 3:38pm
Yes, Pete Seeger sure did outlast the bastards-that's great! I wasn't in NYC for that show on Sun. May 3, I was there in spirit. Actually, I serenaded myself with Pete Seeger music pretty much all day that day, most of it solo music, but a handful of songs he did with the Almanac Singers and a handful of ones he did with the Weavers. How many out there are familiar with this live album he did in 1962, called "Bitter & the Sweet"? It's my personal favorite album he's ever done ("Turn! Turn! Turn!", Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and an instrumental, "Living In the Country" were originally from that album) but there's tons & tons more great tunes he's given us over the years. BDT, Newark, Delaware
Posted by bdt at 05/05/2009 @ 3:43pm
Even though Obama sent birthday greetings to Seeger's birthday party, he refused to allow Cuba's leading singer to perform at it!
U.S. State Department fails to issue visa for Silvio Rodríguez
> Act NOW to demand entry for Cuban artists and professionals > > US-Cuba Cultural Exchange > uscce@cubaresearch.info > http://www.cubaresearch.info/uscubaculturalexchange > > May 3, 2009 > > Following is the text of an email from Silvio Rodríguez regarding the > failure of the United States State > Department to issue him an entry visa. Rodríguez, Cuba's premier> singer-songwriter and co-founder of that country's New Song Movement, was > to perform at Pete Seeger's 90th birthday concert in New York today, Sunday, May 3. > > Rodríguez's entry into the United States to perform might have been a > major breakthrough following years of wrong-headed U.S. policy towards Cuban > artists and professionals. Instead, the State Department, while not > explicitly denying the visa, allowed it to be tied up such that it was not > approved, at least not in time (as of this writing) for the very performance > for which it was solicited. > > You can help. Take a moment and call the U.S. State Department and express > your sentiment that Cuban artists be allowed to enter the United States to > share their work with appreciative and deserving American audiences. Tell > them that it is an embarrassment that an artist of the stature of Silvio > Rodríguez be denied entry into the country to join hands with Pete Seeger > along with the dozens of other performers who joined with him today. > > Thanks to Bill Martínez for all the work involved in the visa solicitation. > > U.S. State Department Switchboard: 202-647-4000 > > Also, call the White
Posted by lastmarx at 05/05/2009 @ 6:28pm
Happy birthday Pete! Your music made my childhood & versions carried on & the spirit carried on by others have made my daughter's.
commancheamerican -- the Argentina study *began* Sept 30, 2008, meaning it will have been approved and funded even deeper back in the Bush II presidency. Doubtless things you will like as much will be funded under Obama -- but this one belongs to you guys.
Then of course there's the question, would it really be better to take public health actions based on making stuff up? Guess Iraq is evidence on a much grander financial scale that many conservatives do favor that approach to shaping interventions, eh?
You could fund 100,000 such studies with the $ piled up and set alight (never mind the hundreds of thousands sacrifice on the pyre to propitiate the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeldian self-apotheosized demi-god egos -- talk about demons) in that poor country.
Posted by Fudu at 05/05/2009 @ 6:36pm
I don't know about Pete's political views but as a musical entertainer he pretty much sucks.
Give me Soundgarden or something.
Muddy invented electricity Pete, get with the program.
Posted by bleedingheart at 05/05/2009 @ 9:36pm
In the Seeger spirit, I would remind his idolators, of whom I (mostly) am one, that he suspended his "premature antifascism" during the Nazi-Soviet pact which dismembered Poland and permitted the Nazis to overrun Europe without worrying about Stalin. He became an antifascist once again when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. We are all frail, and a hero ain't nothin' but a sandwich.
Posted by JFHill at 05/05/2009 @ 9:40pm
Amazing how a man of Peace and Learning can bring out all these eminently Ignore-able wingnuts in one thread. Oh well, just makes them easier to herd into the Iggy pen.
Just checked with Clearwater dot org and they ARE going to make a DVD of the celebration - but it will take a couple of months. Keep an eye on their site.
Again, Happy Birthday to Pete!
Posted by sjduskin at 05/06/2009 @ 4:16pm
Let's see ... you are a Madonna ass kisser and you actually dare to write about Pete Seeger? Generic liberals such as yourself always show up when its cool to be in.
Posted by SuperAmanda at 05/07/2009 @ 09:43am