Pete Seeger Reconsidered
With The Byrds, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Trini Lopez and more. Plus: tributes by fellow cartoonists to Ann Telnaes, who just quit the Washington Post after her latest was killed.
Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” “Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady” and “The Campaign of the Century” and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free. Watch the trailer for his new film “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero & The Forgotten Bomb.”
The hit Dylan bio-pic (which I watched for the second time today), “A Complete Unknown,” captures the humanity and political courage of Pete Seeger (and a great performance by Edward Norton) but slights his songwriting. He was modest about that himself. But he wrote—or more often adapted—many classic songs you probably know but do not know he was a key crerator. So below a few of them, performed in popular 1960s cover versions.
But first, a couple of days back I covered early on the great Ann Telnaes abruptly quitting her longtime home after the Washington Post, for the first time, killed one of her cartoons. It showed her boss, Jeff Bezos, as among those kissing Trump’s ass in the run up to the inauguration. If you missed, here is my post, which includes the cartoon and her statement. In an update, it turns out the editor who killed the cartoon (and her Post career) was David Shipley, who happened to be the New York Times op-ed editor who edited my first opinion piece for them—over 30 years ago. He explains that he spiked the Telnaes cartoon because it was covering ground already trod by a recent, and an upcoming, column. As if opinion repetition is not common at his paper. What a tool.
Anyway, her peers in the dwindling political cartoon racket are among the many who have weighed in on her behalf and on journalistic/human principles. Here are a few:
Barry Blitt:
Steve Brodner:
For Pete’s Sake
Again, these are all songs he either penned himself or adapted with new lyrics or new melodies.
“If I Had a Hammer,” big hit for Trini Lopez
The Byrds, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” hit top of charts
and Pete with Judy Collins, 1965, same song, on his TV show referenced in the new Dylan film
”Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” Peter, Paul and Mary
Jimmie “Honeycomb” Rodgers’ smash “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine”
#1 hit for the Tokens “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” derived from Pete’s “Wimoweh” (brief scene with Ed Norton singing in the film) which he had adapted
The Byrds, “Bells of Rhymney,” B-side of “Mr. Tambourine Man”
and, of course, new lyrics for “We Shall Overcome,” here by Pete in 1967
and Joan Baez (in 1965, the same year Dylan went electric at Newport)
no one said Seeger wrote the "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" just that it was adapted off his adaptation.
Although Pete did some adaptation, Wimoweh was based on a song called Mbube by a South African singer named Solomon Linda which Pete discovered on an African 78 which was given to him. Although the song was extremely successful through Pete's version and subsequent covers like The Tokens (and Brian Eno) eventually ending up in The Lion King, Linda died in poverty in South Africa. The story of getting credit and compensation for Linda's family is a fascinating one with Pete playing a major role. Well worth tracking down if you don't know it!