Pete Seeger and the Unironic world

[jbsegal]

(Is there a way to get DW to link to LJ users instead of changing <lj user=...> tags in to (effectively) dw user=?)

I have a pile of partial thoughts here that I've been trying to put together since Saturday.
Failing to have had them coalesce, I'll just try to get some of them down here now, and let you - my far more coherent readers - figure out what I'm trying to say. :)

So, Mom and I went to see Arlo Guthrie's annual thanksgiving concert at Carnegie Hall, this year featuring Pete Seeger - currently 93 and in somewhat better voice than he's been the last couple of times I've heard him.

The thing that struck me, sitting in a _full_ Carnegie Hall, where we're all singing, having been told by Pete to sing - and as we all know, when Pete says sing, you sing - is that there wasn't a lick of irony in the singing of Good Night Irene, Walk That Lonesome Valley, Turn Turn Turn (with verses for kids that Pete wrote ~50 years ago and only recently rediscovered), This Land Is My Land, and so on. That as much as a huge current in the current culture says that you can't enjoy that sort of song genuinely any more, that's just not true in a room with Pete Seeger ...And I'm tearing up writing about Pete as I can't help but think of how much poorer the world will be when he passes. He seemed certain he wasn't going to make his centenary when it was joked about on stage (as much of what Arlo was performing was Woodie's songs as part of HIS centenary) but the world is SO MUCH a better place for his being in it, and I can only hope that we can maintain what he's done after he's gone.

And for me, a huge part of that is the ability to sing songs like that, genuinely and with feeling...

(And Arlo and Family are /consummate/ professionals, as Jackie (Arlo's wife, half the band's mom, the 4 featured singers' grandma) died of (Fuck...) cancer in mid-October...)

Comments

Parenthetically

[eftychia]

<lj user="dglenn"> ==> eftychia
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[elusiveat]

Sounds like a powerful experience.

You make me wonder, though. What is it about having him there that drains away the irony? Is it magic that he does, or does it come from everybody else in the room?

Personally I feel a bit uncomfortable with claims along the lines of "a modern audience is incapable of X" or "we just can't do Y anymore." It seems to be a limited view of human beings, and also presumes that there's only one modern audience.

[emp42ress.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw him live once, several years ago. It was in a huge auditorium, basically part of a stadium and it was remarkable. As you say, when Pete Seeger says sing, you sing. It was a labor celebration, and he had thousands, maybe 10s of thousands of people singing If I Had a Hammer. It will be a great loss when he goes.

[kelkyag]

See the faq: <user name=kelkyag site=livejournal.com> gets you me here, whereas leaving off the "site" section gets you me on dreamwidth.

I'm glad you had the chance to go to the concert.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

WIsh I could'a gone, but you know, Darkover and all that.

not ironic

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Years ago, whenever he was hottest on rock radio, George Thorogood was interviewed on WBCN. It was mostly an interview, but at the end, they asked him to sing. He sang "Good Night Irene." One sensed some annoyance on the part of the DJ, but GT seemed sincere.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I adore Pete, too. Grew up on his songs, esp. Abiyoyo.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Awwww. I like you all the better, knowing you feel this way.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a powerful experience.

You make me wonder, though. What is it about having him there that drains away the irony? Is it magic that he does, or does it come from everybody else in the room?

Personally I feel a bit uncomfortable with claims along the lines of "a modern audience is incapable of X" or "we just can't do Y anymore." It seems to be a limited view of human beings, and also presumes that there's only one modern audience.

[foms.livejournal.com]

I fear that we are losing the ability to applaud while sitting.