Posted on 08/31/2007 6:13:00 AM PDT by syriacus
Pete Seeger, America's best-known and most influential folksinger, wrote me a letter a few days ago. I did not expect to hear from him. Last June, I wrote in these pages about the new documentary on his life. The article ran under the headline "Time for Pete Seeger To Repent."
My complaint was that the film, good as it is, did not give a completely honest account of Mr. Seeger's politics. The filmmaker, Jim Brown, interviewed me on camera, but he did not include any of my critical remarks in the final version.
In my interview, I pointed out that Mr. Seeger had been a lifelong follower of the Communist Party, changing his songs and his positions to be in accord with the ever-changing party line. He attacked the blacklist of the 1950s, which kept him off the air, but never seems to have said anything about Stalin's death list.
As Martin Edlund has written in The New York Sun, Mr. Seeger has always been inseparable from his social mission. Much of it deserves praise -- he was at the forefront of the struggle for civil rights -- but much of it must be condemned and not hidden from sight.
In particular, I said that Mr. Seeger had supported Stalin's tyranny for so many years yet had never written a song about the Gulag. Yet some acknowledgment of his former support would have been appropriate, especially considering the songs he has sung about the Nazi death camps, which he often introduces by saying, "We must never forget."
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
According to Radosh, Seeger's new song "makes the point that Joe Stalin was far more dangerous and a threat than Joe McCarthy ... [and] ... emphasizes the horrors that Stalin brought."
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead" "I never died" said he, "I never died" said he. "The Copper Bosses killed you Joe, they shot you Joe" says I. "Takes more than guns to kill a man" Says Joe "I didn't die" Says Joe "I didn't die" And standing there as big as life and smiling with his eyes. Says Joe "What they can never kill went on to organize, went on to organize" From San Diego up to Maine, in every mine and mill, where working-men defend there rights, it's there you find Joe Hill, it's there you find Joe Hill! I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead" "I never died" said he, "I never died" said he.
Wow. Quite a story.
Wow. Quite a story.
ML/NJ
Peetey’s just ticked that Joe offed Trotsky.
Where have all the flowers gone, Mr. Seeger? Well, as you are just beginning to realize, over 100 million bunches of them should be placed over the nameless graves of men, women and children slaughtered in the name of marxism/communism during the 20th century.
BINGO!
Did he ever get his banjo back?
It's about time that Seeger denounced Joe Stalin. But that's relatively easy. The real step is to see that Stalin was part of a philosophy that was equally evil.
But I applaud Pete for getting at least this far.
I dreamed I saw Roy Cohn* last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I “But Roy, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he,
“I never died” said he.
—Noel E. Parmentel, 1963
*Roy Cohn—Chief counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.)
Peety still drinks the Kool-Ade though lamenting, "If only the right people had been in charge."
I heard the same thing; if someone other than Old Joe had been in charge...
Even a sinner like me knows that the "brand new start for the human race" was offered some 2000 years ago.
Seeger hasn't changed IMO, he's just trying to apologize for the failure of evil.
THE BALLAD OF OCTOBER 16
(Millard Lampell)
It was on a Saturday night and the moon was shining bright
They passed the conscription bill
And the people they did say for many miles away
‘Twas the President and his boys on Capitol Hill.
CHORUS:
Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damn near believed what he said
He said, “I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won’t be safe ‘till everybody’s dead.”
When my poor old mother died I was sitting by her side
A-promising to war I’d never go.
But now I’m wearing khaki jeans and eating army beans
And I’m told that J. P. Morgan loves me so.
I have wandered over this land, a roaming working man
No clothes to wear and not much food to eat.
But now the government foots the bill
Gives me clothes and feeds me swill
Gets me shot and puts me underground six feet.
CHORUS
Why nothing can be wrong if it makes our country strong
We got to get tough to save democracy.
And though it may mean war
We must defend Singapore
This don’t hurt you half as much as it hurts me.
CHORUS
—The Almanac Singers.
From “Songs for John Doe” (Almanac Records, Album #103, 1941).
Pete Seeger sang lead.
That's the line every one of my leftist Soviet Studies professors used. Communist would have worked if a couple of bad people hadn't gotten control. What rubbish!
“Joe Hill.” My dad used to sing that. He loved ballads.
By its mere existence, it tarnishes all the shirts which revere Guevera.
More than a little overdue, but we’ll take it.
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