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Last Updated: May 6, 2009 - 12:23:47 PM |
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."
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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