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May 03, 2009

Comments

Bob-B

The words of Bells of Rhymney were written by the Welsh poet Idris Davies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idris_Davies

Seeger just wrote the music. Probably the best version is by Oysterband.


Mick H

And the Turn! Turn! Turn! lyrics are from Ecclesiastes.

Sanctimonious. That's a word I should have used in there somewhere.

Gordon

In Scorcese's No Direction Home, I think Seeger himself claims that he wanted to pull the plug at Newport because he was concerned for his elderly father who was distressed at all the noise. This is a creepy form of dishonesty - the excuse of a person unable to take responsibility for his own anger & who conceals his aggression behind "concern" for others. I for one have always found Seeger's voice as sinister as his niceness.

dearieme

The Lomax recordings of Jelly Roll Morton are interesting stuff, though. Morton, of course, was an actual musician - God alone knows what category Seeger should be assigned to. Jackanapes Pursuivant? Primary School Teacher in Waiting?
I can remember seeing a few bits of Folk Music shows on the telly when I was young. They were remarkable mainly for assembling audiences who couldn't clap in time.

Froward

In fairness, I seem to recall Seeger repudiated Stalin a few years ago.

I mean, OK. Lots of people got around to it earlier. Sure, you could say a more farsighted and perceptive thinker might've started having some doubts about Stalin -- some questions in his mind, if you will -- as early as the mid-90s. But the fact remains, and you have to give him credit for this, he ultimately did take a not altogether ambiguous stand against Josef Stalin.

Has Chomsky?

Gordon

er... most self respecting Marxist/Leninists had more than questions in their mind about Stalin (& the Soviet Union for that matter) as far back as 1939 when Uncle Joe signed a pact with Hitler. There were doubts about him before that but there was never a valid reason for being a Stalinist after he cuddled up with the Nazis never mind the subsequent revelations of his penchant for mass murder - which were a surprise to nobody surely?
It does seem unfair to pick on dimwits like Seeger who was, after all, only a naff folky with no political power. Yes very Primary School Teacher but not the kind I would feel comfortable leaving my kids with - far too nice/passive-aggressive.
This aside there does seem to be an anti-liberal revisionism abroad in blogdom that appears intent on demolishing American post-war left-wing idealism. Seeger is a very very soft target and condemning him as a Stalinist seems a bit hysterical. Gives me a queasy McCarthy kind of feeling.

Sheddie

And Little Boxes. I was allways troubled by this song, what did it mean? Was it a cheap snear at the Hyacinth Buckles of this world or Stalinist approval of social engineering and the nova hutas.

Gordon

Re politics in the Blogdom.
http://gordon-hon.tumblr.com/

North Northwester

I always disliked Little Boxes as a child - it was, I think, played of Children's Choice (Children's Favourites?) on the BBC on weekend mornings alongside Tubby the Tuba and The Ugly Duckling and all that stuff.
Now I think of it and look at the lyrics as an adult, I'm inclined to think it's a Left-wing satire of the conformity of the American middle class: law abiding, productive, and optimistic. You know - civilized. Unlike Seeger's Stalinist friends who of course were all rugged individualists and a bit untidy in the countries they ruled - at least until the trenches were filled in and grassed over, or snowed over.

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