Pete Seeger.

Evans Electric · Jan 28, 2014

Pete Seeger died yesterday, you may not know of him , as a bit of an old folky I know some of his songs.

He was a left wing activist , anti-war & civil rights campaigner...... so the US government loved him a lot (not)

A great banjo player.

He was a contemporary of Woody Guthrie & his sister married the British folk singer Ewan McColl (Father of Kirsty)

He wrote the anti Vietnam " Bring 'em Home.

A haunting folk song called " For every season Turn, Turn , Turn" "If I had a Hammer"

"We shall Overcome" and "Where have all the Flowers Gone " ? (Flowers refers to soldiers in that context.)

Where have all the Soldiers gone ?

Gone to graveyards ,every one.

When will they ever learn ?

When will they ever learn. ?

kerching · Jan 28, 2014

....and Kirsty Mc Coll died in a Scuba Diving accident whilst saving her son from being hit by a motor boat, I believe

Marvo · Jan 28, 2014

She also suffered from bad stage-fright. Favorite Kirsty MacColl moment was her getting jiggy live with Shane MacGowan.

Pete Seeger was a classic protest folk singer. Sad loss.

Technician · Jan 29, 2014

He also stood up to the committee on un-American activities,

that curious and dubious event in that nation's history when

it was quite clear that a witch hunt was on. It was run by a

senator, Eugene McCarthy, who was out to prove, one way

ot the other, that all political doctrines remotely connected

with Communism should be expunged from the political scene

at the time. Quite how or why he gained such power to conduct

this business is beyond me. (J Edgar Hoover??)

Quite the most important piece of literature dating from this time

is Arthur Miller's "The Crucible."

I recently read the book on Mark Feldt, the head of the CIA at the

time of Watergate and who turned out to be "Deep Throat".

Turned out that his office was regularly swept for listening devices

without his knowledge. None were ever found but this shows how

the American administration finds it difficult to trust the men and

women who work for it.

Evans Electric · Jan 29, 2014

Thanks for that Techie , interesting . I do know that CBS banned Pete Seeger from TV until a lot of other artists stood up for him .

Reference to the "Reds under the Beds " Mcarthy witchhunt , they seemed to target popular figures, show bizzy types & writers . I learnt that the TV & Hollywood were ordered not to use certain writers , so they came to Britain , used different names & wrote for the (then) new commercial TV companies. They were the writers of the ,then ,popular Robin Hood series .

I never understood how Mcarthy carried such power either. Theres footage of people like David Niven , Hitchcock I think, Bogart , being brought before his committee. Strange.

Says he who wouldn't join the ETU until it was free of communist control .

Technician · Jan 30, 2014

There was a film produced in the 1950's called "The Angry Silence".

David Attenborough was in it and I am still working out the full plot

for the simple reason that when I saw it there was no-one around to

explain what was going on. I still sit quietly and dredge from my mind

some of the images from the film. It was profoundly disturbing.

From what I can remember the plot, in simple form, told the story

of one man (Attenborough) who would not toe the line when his

union called a strike and what then happened to him and his family.

When the brown stuff hit the fan following the 1929 Wall Street Crash

It was left wing organisations who provided the soup kitchens and

whatever meagre welfare was available.

My Dad and I discussed Watergate at length and he was driven to

hilarious convulsions when he contemplated the machinations of

the Nixon administration that was attempting to undermine, sabotage,

defame, and ultimately destroy the opposition.