NOTE: This blog entry originally appeared in February 2008.
I’ve never been much of a folk music fan, so when I volunteered to produce an hour-long conversation between Bob and Pete Seeger, I was practically starting from scratch. Sure I recognized the name, but I didn’t fully appreciate the man or his music. Well I do now. That’s one of the best things about being a producer on this show – the chance to learn new things about new people – or people you should have known about all along. One of my favorite parts of the production comes at the end of the first segment, when Seeger talks about entertaining a tough crowd of kids by singing She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, then we hear him performing it, complete with all of the silly sounds to delight the children. “You can’t get mad at some stupid grown-up who’s gonna sing a song like that.” I hope you learn a few things as you listen to the piece – whether you’re Pete Seeger’s biggest fan or just coming to appreciate him yourself.
-Chad
Dear Bob,
I discovered, in February, the availability of Bob Edwards Weekend podcasts. I downloaded all of them and have been storming through them ever since.
All I can say is, thank you. Thank you very much.
I’m late to the party as usual, but "I’m so blogging this." One of the priests at my small Episcopal parish is a huge Pete Seeger fan; this morning when he preached, he hauled out a beautiful old Pete Seeger custom edition banjo and sang "Plastic Jesus." So I took a photo of it and stuck it on my personal blog. He wanted me to track down the link to the interview, so this is the starting point. Thanks!
My husband and I heard this when it was originally broadast – we were on our way somewhere, which is the only time we’re both sitting still and listening together. He and I were very moved by Mr. Seeger’s amazing life and witness (I don’t think that’s too strong a word). What he went through and the attitudes he battled resonated strongly for me, as it seems echoes of those old attitudes are still with us. Pete Seeger has many musical and philosophical children, and I was so glad Bob had a chance to sit down with him and do this amazing interview.
In 1955, I was a student at one of the colleges that Pete speaks of having visited–a small, liberal arts school in Ohio. His concert was the same evening as a formal dance I was attending (yes, we had formal dances in those days). A group of us went to the Seeger concert first, then on to the dance. What a sight we must have been, all decked out in our frilly dresses, belting out the songs along with Pete.
Thanks for a wonderful show. At the age of 70, I sung along with the radio today, just as I had sung along at Oberlin College all those years ago.
Ruth
Whenever I hear Pete Seeger in an interview, it brings me to tears. Listening to his challenges, and the creative way in which he met them, always propels me beyond the sticky mess of today to appreciate what people working together can do. THANK YOU!
@Meg: You can wake up to Bob’s voice every morning, like millions of us. All it takes is a subscription to XM Satellite Radio – tune the sat radio to XM Channel 133 every weekday morning, and there he is for less than the price of a cup of coffee a day. See XM’s website for the sales pitch, and some of us can point you to dynamite deals on entry-level XM radios.
Thank you Bob Edwards for an inspiring interview with the great Pete Seeger. May he live long and see the Peace revolution. I know his songs will live forever.
Great show – I agreed with the guy who says he is one of Seeger’s bigest fans – familiar with most material but so different to hear it first hand and in the present tense. I have learned to play the Seeger banjo style (not like Pete plays) and listened to so much of his music on the Anthology of American Folk Music series, from the Smithsonian Folkways collections. Great collection of American folk songs, and played & sung by Pete. Must be about seven or eight volumes of them. Thanks for a memorable interview with an American folk hero.
Thank goodness Bob is back on WNYC-it wasn’t the same without you. Thanks for coming back. Pete Seeger show was AWESOME. Still mad I don’t wake up with you each morning-Meg
Chad–
Well, I probably AM Pete Seeger’s biggest fan (dating from the early 50s, anyway), and I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know on today’s broadcast–but I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Pete talk about his background and career in the first person and from a current perspective….
I agree with Chris Hammett. Most especially though, I’d like to know the source of the phenomenal piece that was played at the closing of the show. Please!
What a terrific show. It would be great if you could post some information about recordings used throughout the interview – whether & where they can be found.
Thanks,
Chris.
Fantastic show – I especially really enjoyed the sound engineering that was used where you integrated singing into it, esp. given Seeger’s own admission (in recent interviews that I heard) that his voice is gone.When you had him singing or talking about a song.,… I love that Pete Seeger starts out singing the first couple of notes/words, and then the sound engineer fades out to someone else (including a younger Pete Seeger) singing it.Very beautifully done. And of course the usual exclamations from Bob’s guests "you know about that?" Which we love to hear… that could be the name of a biography of Bob as a radio interviewer: "You Know About That?" Great great interview. Thanks so much.