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1st Edition
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- Artists
- *Unknown
 - Bands
- Seeger, Pete
- Edition Details
| Year: | 2009 | | Class: | Poster | | Status: | Official | | Released: | 05/03/09 | | Technique: | Offset Lithograph |
- EB Awards
- Nominate Now
- Venues
- Madison Square Garden - New York City, NY
- Comments
- Add Comment
One of the most overused words today is "legend". Not that there aren't people deserving of the title, but it seems to get thrown around a little to easy nowadays.Not to sound too much like my father, but it used to be that in order to be considered a legend, you needed to have been around for quite some time, you needed to have created an important body of work and also continue to be relevant in some fashion as time went on. Jimmy Stewart, Laurence Olivier, Bob Dylan, Barbara Streisand, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Poitier, Tony Bennett, Katherine Hephburn. These people are unquestionably legends. Keanu Reeves, Celine Dion, P Diddy(Puff Daddy) are not legends. Simply being a great business person or successful does not make you a legend.
On Sunday May 3, 2009, a benefit concert was given at Madison Square Garden to pay tribute to a legitimate legend. Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger is considered the father of American folk music. He made folk music popular when no one cared, and fought tirelessly for human rights and also environmental issues when it was not fashionable.
He is an artist who has to be considered a legend regardless of his political views, some of which may have been misguided or naive, and which made him disliked by many for many years. He has always stood up for what he believed was right, and did it peacefully. The fact is, his views were pretty spot on in most cases.
The concert at Madison Square Garden was a virtual who's who of folk and rock. Pete himself opened and closed the festivities.The majority of the artists performed ensemble versions of Pete's music and music he inspired. A few of the performers did not perform in an ensemble setting, probably due to the fact that they are currently touring and may not have been able to rehearse with the others.
The concert was billed as a benefit for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a charity that helps to clean up the Hudson River and maintain the sloop that Mr. Seeger helped get built. One of their main goals is to educate young people about the environment.
There were many musical highlights throughout the evening. For me, the best songs were The Water is Wide, Bring Em' Home, Oh Mary Don't You Weep, Where Have All the Flowers Gone and Ghost of Tom Joad. I will provide details of the performers of all the songs below. I also loved seeing all the artists onstage for the finale.
Tim Robbins and Norman Lear gave short tributes to Mr. Seeger also, and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street had the funniest line of the night. Tom Chapin told him we were gathered together to celebrate Pete's 90th birthday. Oscar replied by saying "90, I thought he was like 100".Members of Pete's family were also on hand, including his older brother(95 years old).
Bruce Springsteen's speech before Ghost of Tom Joad was also very moving. He credited Pete with being a virtual living history lesson and "a stealth dagger through the heart of the country's illusions of itself".
And you cannot look at Pete Seeger's life without giving much deserved credit to his wife of 66 years, Toshi Seeger. She has stood by him when most people probably wouldn't have.
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