Check your local PBS listing...

[Mary6906]

Tonight (on my local PBS network) they're showing AMERICAN MASTERS Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. I'm about ready to go give that a look see.

Check your listings for times. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html?campaign=pbshomefeatures_2_americanm astersbrpeteseeger_2008-02-27

[Bat]

Of course we here in Cinci have our choice of times....1 or 3 am on several days. Why don't they show the good stuff when people are awake? Of course, I usually am awake at 1 am, sometimes at 3, but I'm the original night owl, which most people are not. Guess I'll have to catch it tomorrow night/morning at 1am.
I had no idea of all the stuff he wrote...some, of course, but 'Good Night Irene'? 'Wimoweh'? wow...all the ones we liked in the fifties! He's been around for a loooong time!:cool:

Thanks for the link, Mary!

[ponytail]

He wrote a lot of the ones we liked in the sixties, too -- "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" (well, the tune; the words are from Ecclesiastes).

I think Leadbelly wrote "Good Night, Irene," though -- but it was Pete and the Weavers who popularized it.:)

[Bat]

Yep, written by Ledbetter and Lomax...popularized by about 45 bands, from Les Brown, Lawrence Welk, but the Weavers had the hit. I thought it was an old song, probably because my mother played it on her sax in the "Royaltones" band, which used to play at my high school for hops.
But no, written in 1950. I guess I thought my mother only knew old songs...
typical teen thinking.

[Mary6906]

Thats funny, how when we are younger our perception of time and "old" is not what it becomes once you get to be about your mother's age now!! (I can remember thinking how "OLD" 40 was when I was 12.... now that I'm that... and then some.... I sure didn't think 40 was old.

Last night when I was watching the special and Good Night Irene came on I immediately thought back to my childhood hearing my parents since that song and began singing it to myself, too!! I totally enjoyed that special on Pete. I didn't realize how many songs are credited to him.

[Amy in Vermont]

I truly grew up on Pete. Every year, there was a series of folk concerts in Boston, with appearances by people like Odetta, Josh White, Pete, and others. My father took me to all of them. I still have all my original Pete Seeger and Weaver LP's.

The special really brought to light the power of song, and the role Pete played in bringing about change in our world!

What's sad is that the songs are all relevant once again, and that there is no one filling Pete's shoes....

[Oak Kitten]

FYI,

Seeger didn't write "Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight," but he has played a role in the controversy surrounding that lullaby. It was written by African singer Solomon Linda and recorded by Linda's band, the Evening Birds, in 1939. Seeger came upon a scratchy recording of the song in 1951, transcribed the lyrics ("Wimoweh" was Seeger's misunderstanding of the Zulu word uyimbube, meaning lion), and it became one of the Weavers' popular tunes. The song has since been recorded by everyone from Jimmy Dorsey to Yma Sumac, Glen Campbell to They Might Be Giants, and it was a huge hit for The Tokens and The Kingston Trio before Disney's The Lion King made it an even bigger hit in the 1990s. The song's odyssey, however, has always nagged at Seeger.

"Wimoweh" emerged from South Africa at a time when black artists were not routinely given a fair deal. Linda, who created the song, was paid about ten shillings out of petty cash, in exchange for the studio's complete ownership of the music and lyrics. By the mid-1990s, recordings of the song were estimated to have generated about $72 million. Linda died in poverty in 1962.

Seeger thought "Wimoweh" had been an African folk song, and has always said he was oblivious to the song's hijacking. When the copyright situation came to light, Seeger wrote Linda's estate a personal check to cover royalties he felt he owed. Years later, he said, "The big mistake I made was not making sure that my publisher signed a regular songwriters' contract with Linda. My publisher simply sent Linda some money and copyrighted the Weavers' arrangement here."

The Disney Corporation's response has been somewhat different than Seeger's. A lawsuit filed by Linda's family has been winding through American courts for years, seeking royalties for Disney's use of the song in The Lion King, but Disney argues that all rights were obtained legally through a chain of purchases dating back to the original ten shillings Linda received. In a 2005 press release, Disney explained, "The estate's effort to cancel [the song's] assignment by waging a lawsuit and publicity campaign against Disney is both inappropriate and misdirected".

Beware the greedy and rapacious Mouse.
Oak