If I Had a Seeger

I caught the last half of PBS's "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" the other night and need to see the first part. A traditional, laudatory bio, it captivated me. Even though there was not a lot that was new to me, it is impressive to review his impact musically and politically. A bit like Zelig or Forrest Gump - he's on the Top 40, he's banned from TV as a Communist, he's teaching MLK "We Shall Overcome," etc.

Here's a link to more:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html

At camp, the Seeger songs we sing are, to the best of my knowledge:

Where Have All the Flowers Gone
If I Had a Hammer
We Shall Overcome

I don't think we ever sang "Turn, Turn, Turn," though I do remember singing it at progressive Catholic masses as a child. Not to mention "Blowing in the Wind" with that phrase changed to "the answer is living in all men," which always annoyed me - and nowadays would be considered sexist...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a version of Pete Seeger singing "I know an old woman who swallowed a fly" on one of my daughter's CD's. I think the title of the CD is "Gather 'Round" if you are interested.:) Can't remember if we sang it at girls' camp or not, but it would have fit right in!

Joe said...

Thanks - I know the song a little. It was never sung at Girls' Camp while I was there, but you are right that it would sure fit it.