While thinking about the great singer who passed away in January of this year, I have been listening to Seeger’s last major recording. Seeger recorded “Forever Young” for the 4-CD set Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years Of Amnesty International (2012). When the recording was made near the end of Seeger’s life, he no longer had his singing voice. So, the song was arranged around his speaking voice, aided by local children. Especially in light of Seeger’s passing, the video of Seeger giving his joy to a new generation is quite moving.
In this short video documentary about the making of “Forever Young,” the album’s contributing producer Martin Lewis and othes explain how they brought together everyone for the recording of the song. The scene near the end of the kids looking at pocket-sized booklets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as Pete Seeger sings is pretty cool.
One of the musicians who helped out on the song and who appears in the video is Mark Hudson. If you watched television in the mid-1970s, you might recall him from his variety show with The Hudson Brothers.
As for Seeger, he was surrounded by song up until he passed away. And even with his singing voice weakened for this last major recording, he made “Forever Young” a powerful performance the way he always made his songs powerful — by getting others to join in his song.
John Steinbeck‘s novel The Grapes of Wrath was published on April 14, 1939. The book, which recounts the struggles of the tenant farmers Joad family moving from Oklahoma to California, went on to win the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. It also helped Steinbeck win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. Steinbeck’s book seeped into popular culture, aided by a great John Ford movie as well as songs.
Less than a year after the novel’s publication, 20th Century Fox released John Ford’s vision of The Grapes of Wrath in January 1940. The film starred Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and John Carradine, and it contained some differences from the book, and in particular the ending.
While the book was written as an indictment of the greed that led to the Great Depression, the conservative Ford maintained some elements of that vision while also giving the story a somewhat more optimistic ending. The Grapes of Wrath thus became one of those instances where a novel and its movie version both attained greatness even with some significant differences.
The film would go on to inspire others. In particular, the speech by Tom Joad (Fonda) would inspire both Woody Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen to write songs. Check out our post about the story behind Guthrie’s “Tom Joad,” a song written at the request of a record company during an all-night session after Pete Seeger helped Guthrie find a typewriter.
Bruce Springsteen used his stark “The Ghost of Tom Joad” as the title track of his somber 1995 album. In 2014, though, he released a new version of the song on High Hopes that features the raging angry guitar of Tom Morello, highlighting the defiance in Tom Joad’s speech. While Springsteen’s original acoustic version captures the sadness of the novel, his rock version of the song might be more comparable to John Ford’s vision. Check out this performance featuring Springsteen, Morello, and the E Street Band from Allphones Area in Sydney, Australia from March 2013.
What is your favorite version of “The Grapes of Wrath”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In light of Pete Seeger’s passing, PBS will be airing it’s American Masters documentary on the folksinger,Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, on Friday, January 31 at 10:30 p.m. (and other times). Check your local listings and set your DVRs. Below is a short excerpt from that documentary with Seeger singing “To My Old Brown Earth.”
To my old brown earth, And to my old blue sky, I’ll now give these last few molecules of “I.”
And you who sing, And you who stand nearby, I do charge you not to cry.
Seeger wrote “To My Old Brown Earth” after attending the funeral of John T. McManus, co-founder of the radical newspaper, The National Guardian. Seeger later explained that when he sang at the funeral he regretted that he did not have an appropriate song. So he went home and wrote “To My Old Brown Earth,” a song about death but also a song about hope: “Guard well our human chain,/ Watch well you keep it strong.”
Update: For a limited time the documentary is streaming on the PBS website.
In September 1967, CBS found Pete Seeger’s performance of his song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” too controversial for TV.
The great folksinger Pete Seegerpassed away in January 2014 at the age of 94. He was born on May 3, 1919 in Manhattan, and he went on to become an important activist on a number of issues throughout his life. And he taught us how important folk music can be. It is impossible to sum up his impact on music and on the world, but one story about a TV show appearance tells us a lot.
The Smothers Brothers
The Smothers Brothers became famous for their battles with censors during the run of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS from 1967 to 1969. I have been reading the interesting book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” by David Bianculli, which documents the career of the two brothers along with some of the ups and downs of their TV work. One of the instances of censorship recounted in the book is the way that Pete Seeger’s performance of “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” was cut from the show.
In Dangerously Funny, Bianculli explains how the brothers worked to get Pete Seeger on their show. Television networks had effectively blacklisted Seeger from most TV shows because of the singer’s political views. The brothers convinced CBS to allow Seeger to appear on their show, and Seeger appeared on the premiere episode of the second season of the show on September 10, 1967.
But CBS would cut out one of Seeger’s songs, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” CBS censors had asked Seeger to omit the last verse of the song, but after he refused to do so and sang the entire song, CBS edited out the song from the show.
“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”
“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” recounts a story about World War II captain (“back in 1942”) leading his men. He takes his men deeper and deeper into the “big muddy” as the “big fool” tells them to push on until the captain gets sucked into the mud.
CBS censors had asked Seeger to omit the last verse of the song, which connected the story to the Vietnam War. Seeger, noting that the last verse was the whole point of the song, refused to do so and sang the entire song during taping. So CBS cut the song from the broadcast.
CBS had a reason for being cautious. The network previously received complaints from President Lyndon Johnson about another episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. So the network did not want Seeger to use the verse referring to Pres. Johnson as a “big fool.” Well, I’m not going to point any moral; I’ll leave that for yourself; Maybe you’re still walking, you’re still talking, You’d like to keep your health. But every time I read the papers, That old feeling comes on; We’re — waist deep in the Big Muddy, And the big fool says to push on.
The September 10, 1967 Broadcast
Although some sources state the show broadcast on September 19, most sources put the show on September 10, which is consistent with the show’s Sunday broadcasts. During this episode, Bobbie Gentry and Pete Seeger performed but Seeger’s performance of “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” was cut.
A video shows the Pete Seeger segment as it was broadcast, with “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” cut out. At 1:12, after the Seeger segment opened with Seeger already singing “Wimoweh” with the audience, Seeger has a banjo. Then a few seconds later after a cut, he is holding a guitar.
After “Wimoweh,” Seeger originally sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” during the taping. But since CBS cut out the song, we see Seeger next singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” with a different instrument.
Seeger’s Return to The Smothers Brothers
The following post on YouTube claims that this clip below of Seeger singing “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” is the performance that was cut from the season 2 premiere. But, as you can see, Seeger is wearing different clothes than he had for the Season 2 premiere, so this video is from a later performance on the show that actually aired.
After CBS cut out the song from the September broadcast, Tom Smothers made sure that the story of the censorship appeared in the media. Because of the bad press, and probably because the Vietnam War had become even more unpopular in recent months, the Smothers Brothers were allowed to invite Seeger back later in the season, when he again sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.”
Seeger was a class act who agreed to return after being cut in the previous appearance. CBS this time aired the song.
The Legacy of the Battle with Censors
Only three days after CBS finally showed Pete Seeger singing “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite made his own controversial appearance. He closed his February 27, 1968 broadcast with what would become his famous commentary about the Vietnam War. Cronkite, though, did not have to hide his sentiment in a tale about World War II.
Maybe because Pete Seeger, Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers, and others had not been afraid to speak out against the war, Cronkite, who was then one of the most respected people in America, could make his famous editorial about his views on the Vietnam War. Check it out.
On his website, Seeger recounted his experience with “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: “Of course, a song is not a speech, you know. It reflects new meanings as one’s life’s experiences shine new light upon it. . . . Often a song will reappear several different times in history or in one’s life as there seems to be an appropriate time for it. Who knows?”
Who knows? Amen. Rest in peace.
What is your favorite censored song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On New Year’s Eve in 1862, people held in slavery in the American South waited to see if President Lincoln would fulfill a promise to issue an order of emancipation the next day.
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln
On December 31, 1862, people held in slavery in the American South and black churches around the country awaited news whether President Abraham Lincoln would issue the final Emancipation Proclamation. He had issued a “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation” on September 22 warning of the coming emancipation to the states in rebellion.
Thus, on December 31 as a nation waited for Lincoln to fulfill his promise, was born Watch Night.
The Emancipation Proclamation
The next day, on January 1, 1863, despite speculation to the contrary, Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation. The document technically only freed the slaves in the Confederate states fighting against the Union. But it sent a symbolic message to all of the nearly four million slaves. The message was that the war that began out of a battle to preserve the country would eventually bring an end to slavery.
The proclamation also told the public that the Union military could enlist blacks into the Union’s armed forces. In reality, many already had been serving in some capacities. (James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 563.)
The language of the proclamation is less poetic than many of our nation’s great documents like the Declaration of Independence, probably because the lawyer president knew it was a legal document written to have legal effect. Nevertheless, the meaning of words such as “forever free” in the following opening paragraph are beautiful:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
In the tradition of Watch Night, often there are scheduled events in the nation’s capital and around the country. The National Archives in Washington, D.C. has hosted a midnight display of the Emancipation Proclamation along with other national documents and readings, songs and bell ringing. President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, where Lincoln started writing the proclamation, also has held special midnight events. The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in D.C. holds midnight services. In 2013, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled an Emancipation Proclamation stamp.
“Mary Don’t You Weep”
I have been reading John W. Blassingame’s excellent book about American slavery, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1972). In the book, Blassingame tells how slaves created songs with coded messages. Several of their songs were about Egypt because the American slaves could sing about slavery from another time under the noses of the slaveholders.
The passage made me think of one of my favorite songs on Bruce Springsteen’s CD tribute to Pete Seeger, “Mary Don’t You Weep.” Hearing the reference to Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea — “Pharaoh’s army got drown-ded!” — has a different meaning when you think of slaves in the fields of the South singing the song. It is a song of uprising, hope, and freedom. And they got away with singing it.
The song is not about Jesus’ mother, but about Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. “Mary Don’t You Weep” can be joyful, defiant, spiritual, comforting or all of those things combined. One of the most popular versions of the song was the version recorded by the Caravans in 1958.
Other Versions of “Mary Don’t You Weep”
The following version features Georgia field workers singing “Mary Don’t You Weep.” It was recorded around the late 1920s or early 1930s.
Thus, this version by the field workers is separated by decades from slavery. But you can still hear the connection of an earlier time. It’s beautiful.
In the video below, a young Aretha Franklin performs a short version of the song on Soul Train. In her more sorrowful version of “Mary Don’t You Weep,” which she had recorded on her 1972 live gospel album Amazing Grace, she plays down the defiance of the song and focuses on the comforting aspect.
“Mary Don’t You Weep” has been recorded through the years. It was popular during the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights movement, when it also provided the music for another Civil Rights anthem, “If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus.”
One of the most popular versions was by the Swan Silvertones. Lead singer Claude Jeter’s additional line in the song, “I’ll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name” inspired Paul Simon in writing his classic “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
So every New Year’s Eve, as you celebrate the incoming year and say goodbye to the last, take a moment to remember Watch Night and a time in midst of misery and war, when a nation found a great reason to celebrate a president’s promise fulfilled. And have a safe and happy new year.
Well, one of these nights around twelve o’clock, This old town’s gonna really rock. Didn’t Pharaoh’s army get drowned? Oh, Mary, don’t you weep.
What’s your favorite version of “Mary Don’t You Weep”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Heading Photo via: First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell Carpenter (public domain).
by 
, p. 563.)
(1972). In the book, Blassingame tells how slaves created songs with coded messages. Several of their songs were about Egypt because the American slaves could sing about slavery from another time under the noses of the slaveholders.
, she plays down the defiance of the song and focuses on the comforting aspect.
