Pete Seeger on NPR tonight and I wept.

[Raven]

Where have all the battle songs gone? We stopped a war and removed a president and the glue for us all the was the songs...folk songs...battle cries...Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Biaz. It was the common language of those times...I think it made us stronger. Now what do we have to sound a common call!?

[Zomby Woof]

1. Ah Pete

What a world he has seen unfold in nearly 9 decades. The last of the folk giants.

The only common call these days is the hum of the SUV's with cell phones ringing in them...

I want no part of that world, though.

[skooooo]

2. seems like it's comedians today..

...Al Franken, Jon Stewart, etc.



No offence, but I've always found Pete a little stuffy.

[tridim]

3. That's a great point

It's the Internet too.

Joan Baez and Dylan would never get a record contract in todays bubblegum world.

[Raven]

4. Yes, maybe it's humor today but

you can't sing it in the shower or in the car or when you need to give yourself a lift. Zomby has it right...this world is a shitty place.

[candy]

11. He's old,that's why he's stuffy. It's plain,old ageing.

He's a geezer.

[peacefreak]

21. Gandalf was a geezer, too.

It's called the voice of experience.

[candy]

23. I'm a geezer too!(female)---Who's Gandalf?

[peacefreak]

26. An Old Wise One.

A Sage. One whose word should be considered. From The Lord of the Rings.

[mitchum]

30. He was stuffy as a young man

An odd combination of stridency and enervation

[nosmokes]

5. the internet?

moveon.org

democratic underground

buzzflash

tompaine

motherjones

and a gazillion other sites.

as for music, there's rap and hip hop that highly politically conscious, as well as world music, and blues artits and rock music and, and, and... it's out there - don't despair, really. i even heard a zydecko band doing a political tune a few months back when i was down in louisiana.

[SOteric]

6. I suspect it's in large part

because Clear Channel decides which artists are overplayed in pretty much every market.

[supernova]

7. I have to agree

radio playlists are so much more narrow than they used to be. It's always the same inoffensive top 50 songs. Blech.

Except for local college radio, I hardly listen to commercial radio anymore.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender"...

...inscribed on Pete's banjo...because he reportedly could not get behind Woody Guthrie's "This machine kills hate" motto on his guitar. I always thought that story said all there needed to be said about Pete...

:toast:

[OneBlueSky]

10. I've seen that banjo up close and personal many, many times . . .

in fact, I was with Pete one Sunday evening many years ago when he was performing at a church in Beacon NY (his hometown) and this little kid sat on his banjo and busted it . . . didn't phase Pete in the least . . . "We'll fix it," he said . . .

one thing people should know about Pete is that, for most of his career, virtually every performance he did was a benefit of some kind, for which he received no remuneration . . . eventually, when the ole bank account ran dry, wife Toshi would say something like "Peter, you have to go to UCLA and do a concert!" . . .

Pete Seeger is one of my heroes, and I treasure the time I was able to spend with him way back when . . .

[mdmc]

14. A Hudson Valley kick for the folk giant!

I saw Pete play at the Strawberry Fest in Beacon earlier this year.
www.clearwater.org

:kick:

[havocmom]

9. Go to the left of the dial - see if there is a community radio station

in your area and listen to un-main-steam stuff. If there are no decent community stations in your air, take the search to the web.

My favorite it KXCI - Tucson (kxic.org)

Yeah, no songwriter really taking it to the streets like they used to. The ones who get heard are the ones who make $$$ for their distributors and big business just doesn't promote protest (or even critical thinking). There are some artists out there, Raven. You just have to look hard to find them. Give KXCI a fair hearing before you give up on humanity altogether.

Back around the 94 midterm election cycle,or maybe it was 96 presidential time, KXCI played the hell out of a Austin Lounge Lizards' song which really blasted the radio hate mongers for blaming the nation's woes on those most victimized by them.

Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs by the Austin Lounge lizards

It's been five years since we had a raise in pay
And they disallowed my business lunches today
Somebody must have changed the rules of the game
So we've found a convenient scapegoat we can blame

It's those teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(They're too lazy to work)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(They're stealing our jobs)

Somebody ran this country deep into debt
I called up Congress, but nobody's called back yet
Sometimes I get so mad I can't think straight
We're looking for relief and it feels so great to hate

All those teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(They're on the Dole)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(They're speaking espanol)

Who's to blame for the things we're so angry about?
Who's to blame for uprisings, downsizings, and the drought?
Who's to blame for the end of the good old days?
Who's to blame for that backwards-cap-wearing craze?

It's those teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(Let's build a thousand-mile fence)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(It's just common sense)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(Like the Berlin Wall)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs
(Land mines and all!)
Teenage immigrant welfare mothers on drugs

[candy]

12. Did you really cry?

Were you crying for the times or were you crying for lost youth?

[mdmc]

15. Its not that

When you see Pete, and hear him, there is something... real. And when Toshi (his wife) is with him, I feel a sense of comfort or connection that makes me unafraid.

:kick:

[candy]

22. I feel that way when I'm with my family.

[Raven]

28. I did cry.

It was his voice that evoked much of my youth...of dreams and lost dreams. But I cried mostly, I think, because my generation produced GWB, so I guess we didn't learn alot from this old man. I can't even write about this now without the tears coming.

[Radical Activist]

13. They're around

Steve Earl did some great stuff and he's putting out another album before the election.

One difference is that the movement isn't dominated by a bunch of white people anymore, so the protest music sounds different. Check out the last Public Enemy CD or Michael Franti. It's too bad Rage Against the Machine isn't around anymore.

I am dissapointed that a few artists haven't been more outspoken or written more politically relevant songs. I haven't heard Jewel or U2 write anything related to Iraq or Bush and I would have expected them to do that.

[mdmc]

16. Dan Bern, Sara Lee Guthrie, Tao Rodregeuz Seeger

Tao (a Kucinich delegate from NYSCD19) has a show on Wed www.wamc.org . I really like www.danbern.com , especially 'talkin Al Kida blues.

:kick:

[Radical Activist]

17. Good ones

I just heard Sara Lee Guthrie this weekend at the Woody Guthrie Folk festival. It's too bad Raven didn't get to be there. Anti-war/bush songs and comments were in good supply!
Sara Lee Guthrie was wonderful. Woody has some very charming, talented and attractive grand-daughters. I don't know if any of them are single, but I'm sure they wouldn't touch me with a 10 foot pole anyway. :(

[mdmc]

18. they are all too hot for me too

but they seem like the type of chicks that might like a heavy headed guy. :)

[Radical Activist]

20. a worried woman

for a man with a worried mind, maybe? One can dream I guess.

[NMDemDist2]

29. is Sara Lee related to Arlo and Woodie? eom

[Radical Activist]

31. She's Arlo's daughter

I believe. I don't have any of her CD's, but she has a new CD coming out with her husband. She has a great voice.

[mitchum]

32. She is Woody's granddaughter...

and married to singer/songwriter Johnny Irion (who is a descendant of Steinbeck) They're Dust Bowl royalty :)

[JanMichael]

19. Pete's one of my heroes. What happened to the battle songs?

Well for one they're still some dedicated folk, or folk like, artists out there. Like Franti, DiFranco, Bragg, Earle, etecetera.

However something happened to our culture called "Marketing" or in other words "Lowest Common Denominator So The Most People Will Buy It Music".

I'll let Bill Hicks take a whack at that...

"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself. No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers, Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage...I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart." Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! "Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags!

Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!

"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that." God, I'm just caught in a fucking web! "Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..." How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don't you?"


That's what happened to much of the meaningful songs, they didn't meet the Low expectations of Low Minded Music Marketers.

There are a few exceptions like "Rage Against the Machine", they got huge airplay and still do, but the Brittanies drown most others out.

[jonnyblitz]

27. i have always loved "where have all the flowers gone"

actually bill hicks is high up on my "people I have most admired" lists. R.I.P bill.

Pete Seeger was blacklisted for being a "commie" wasn't he?

[catmandu57]

24. The silence is deafening

Pete's voice is sadly missed, I understand the age thing, but, there are other voices, established, respected artists who we should be hearing from.

Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Willie Nelson all come to mind, it's not like these guys are young starving artists who can't afford to piss people off.

I'm sure Dylan could finance a movement to raise awareness, I know Browne is pissed his site reccomends tompaine.com, I'm sure he's been here as well.

I'm afraid though, that we're have to do it ourselves, and the net is one of our best weapons to work with.

[LWolf]

25. I've loved Pete Seeger my whole life.

Born in 1960, I grew up on those battle songs. I hear them in my head when I'm unfortunate enough to encounter * on screen or on my radio.

There are some current songs. You just don't hear them on the radio. I've been thinking that we need to get them on the radio between now and November. Mainstream radio, that mainstream listeners will here. Isn't that part of the difference? When was the last time your local radio station played one of these? Here's a partial list of recent "battle songs" I like:

John Mellencamp: To Washington
Paula Cole: My Hero, Mr. President
John McCutcheon: Ashcroft's Army
The List
Hail to the Chief
Hugh Blumenfeld Shadow Government
The Night Before The Bombs Came Down
and more.
Willie Nelson What ever happened to peace on earth?

And don't forget the QuestionW Review:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=111x27113

[Radical Activist]

33. I saw Pete a few years ago

It was one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen and a lot of fun. He truly is an inspiration. I got into his music about the time I started doing union organizing. His music always brings me peace.