Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Posted by: fred simon on 26 September 2007
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Words are insufficient, in quantity and quality, to recommend this film highly enough. Some people say there are no more heroes. Pete Seeger is a true hero ... as a man, as a musician, as an American, as a citizen of the world. His integrity, his humanity, his steadfast courage, and his unalloyed commitment to a better world are unassailable. (Not to mention his spearheading the miraculous clean-up of the Hudson River.)
It was almost too much to take watching the clip of Pete singing his anti-Vietnam anthem Waist Deep In the Big Muddy on The Smothers Brothers Show, with this line from its last verse: Every time I read the paper, those old feelings come on/We are waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool says to push on. Having been blacklisted from radio and TV for 17 years(!) for expressing his opinions, The Smothers had the courage (and the cachet) to give him the forum he deserved ... the man who introduced the song We Shall Overcome to Martin Luther King, Jr. and to the civil rights movement in America, a man who unfailingly championed human rights for his entire career, for his entire life.
He built his first house with his own hands as a young man, and he still swings a mean ax at age 88. (Not to mention his fantastic and innovative banjo chops!) Long live Pete Seeger, and please go see this film ... if it doesn't bolster your hope for humankind, nothing will.
All best,
Fred