MetaFilter posts tagged with PeteSeeger

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest on Youtube

shetterly — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:40:13 -0800

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest on Youtube. Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest had a short run (38 episodes) in the mid '60s, but it included many great folk artists. If you love folk, just click here and start sampling. Where else will you find Kim Loy Wong & the Hi-Landers Steel Band performing "When the Saints Go Marching In", or the Mamou Cajun Band, or Paul Draper's surreal dance improvisation to "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around", or Theodore Bikel and Rashid Hussain singing "Peace"?

The Beast of the Long-Neck Banjo

scruss — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:07:27 -0800

Billy Faier got tired of burning copies of his long-out-of-print albums, and is giving them away: The Art of the Five String Banjo (1957), Travelin' Man (1958), The Beast of Billy Faier (1964), Banjo (1973) and Banjoes, Birdsong and Mother Earth (1987). Faier discovered banjo in Washington Square in the late 1940s, transcribed Pete Seeger's intricate Goofing-off Suite (which you might know better as this movie theme) and gave John Sebastian his first paid recording gig. Banjo, recorded for John Fahey's Takoma Records, is on a different planet from the squeaky-clean folk recordings Faier made in the 1950s.

Folk Music from 1947

RussHy — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:57:24 -0800

To Hear Your Banjo Play is a documentary by Alan Lomax from 1947. It is narrated by Pete Seeger and features Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee among others.

June Carter and Johnny Cash with Pete Seeger

RussHy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:47:00 -0800

June Carter and Johnny Cash appear on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest. June reminisces about the Carter family and A.P. Carter. They all sing It Takes a Worried Man. Johnny sings As Long as the Grass Shall Grow. Finally, June sings I Am Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes.

Don't Say It Can't Be Done! -- This Brave Nation

carsonb — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:52:40 -0800

Pete Seeger and Majora Carter sit down together and bridge the generational gap with a discussion on environmentalism, activism, history, and music. A kind of "living history" project composed of short videotaped conversations, This Brave Nation brings together the most intelligent, passionate and creative voices of one generation with the activists, journalists and artists of the next to dialogue on loves, lives, politics and history. A coordinated effort from The Nation and the The Brave New Foundation.

Cotten pickin' good

not_on_display — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:08:25 -0800

Elizabeth Cotten [previously] sits down and talks with Pete Seeger. She plays the "Wilson Rag," "Mama, Your Papa Loves You," and Pete joins her for "Freight Train." (Lyrics are provided for "Freight Train," so you can all sing along, too.) More footage of Libba being interviewed can be found here. And, because it's such a good song, here's Libba by herself performing "Freight Train."

Pete Seeger condemns Stalin...

Jahaza — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:13:48 -0800

The pleasant but hagiographical Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (production company website w/ trailer) is playing in New York and Los Angeles. The movie is entirely uncritical... prompting this response by Ron Radosh who is interviewed in the film, but whose critical comments were left out. But most interesting is this followup article by Radosh describing Seeger's response and a new song against Stalin. The filmmaker comes out worst in Radosh's account... The closest the movie comes to criticism is when George Pataki (interviewed about RiverKeeper) says something about who he and Seeger didn't always agree politically. The film could at least have talked about the folk song "movement" critically in the way Tom Lehrer did:

One type of song that has come into increasing prominence in recent months is the folk-song of protest. You have to admire people who sing these songs. It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee-house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on. The nicest thing about a protest song is that it makes you feel so good.

The New York times has a more skeptical take than Radosh, reporting on earlier apologies by Seeger, but missing the point by emphasizing Seeger's writings rather than his music... which is of course Seeger's art, and not being clear that the NY Sun articles didn't say Seeger had never repudiated Stalin. Since seeing the movie I've had "Bring em Home" stuck in my head. Watch Seeger sing it on youtube. And Bruce Springsteen reinterpret it. I wasn't able to find a link to the new celebrity version (including among others Ani DeFranco) used in the movie's credits.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

peacay — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:45:36 -0800

a-wimoweh a-wimoweh..
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
via