Pete Seeger, Rest In Peace
Posted: January 28th, 2014 | Filed under: Music, Personalities | 1 Comment »
He would have sung through the night, I swear it to be true.
And, we, his adoring followers, bathing in his goodness that reigned over us, would have stayed and sung until we were voiceless.
Sometime in the mid to late 60s, Pete Seeger played Memorial Auditorium. (He may have played here at other times and other places back then, but this is the concert I’m talking about.)
It was patently apparent that Seeger was the epitome of goodness in every cell of his being. But, you know, we knew that beforehand.
He was a sun.
He played happy tunes. And political ones. And kids’ songs. And cajoled even the tone deaf among us to sing along.
He believed that a joyous, motley chorus could sing the world to serenity. As best I can tell he never varied in that quest to the end.
So Pete sang. And sang. And sang some more.
The MC came out, whispered in his ear.
“We’re supposed to wind this thing up, they say. But I think we can get in a few more songs.”
Finally, reluctantly, he said farewell. After — irony of ironies — the union guys in the back threatened to turn off the mic.
If only they knew. Knew that they were going to try to silence the voice of one of their great champions. Pete Seeger would have played without a mic, until they shut the lights too.
So I know, that while I wish it for him, Pete Seeger is not now resting in peace. He’s already found Woody and they’re off somewhere, serenading several downtrodden souls in the Great Beyond.
In the summer of 1969 my wife and I were on Marblehead Point in a park in Marblehead, Mass. By pure serendipity, the sloop Clearwater docked at the point for a while and Pete and his crew sang songs and kept singing like C.D. says. It was a day neither of us will ever forget.