Wednesday, May 6, 2009

More on Seeger Tribute - Bruce Sprintsteen & Silvio Rodriguez

More on Seeger Tribute - Bruce Sprintsteen & Silvio Rodriguez

 

* Springsteen to Seeger: "You Outlasted the Bastards"

by Katrina vanden Heuvel The Nation May 4, 2009

 

* Letter from Silvio Rodriguez to Pete Seeger

 

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Springsteen to Seeger: "You Outlasted the Bastards"

 

by Katrina vanden Heuvel The Nation May 4, 2009

 

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/432714?rel=hp_picks

 

"You outlasted the bastards, man," Bruce Springsteen

told the roaring crowd.

 

I think that was my favorite line at the rollicking

birthday concert celebrating Pete Seeger's 90th!

 

There were other uplifting, astonishing moments Sunday

night at Madison Square Garden, at a five-hour concert

which Seeger only OK'd because it raised much-needed

funds for his Clearwater project--a non profit

organization which the oft-maligned bard started in

1969 to clean up his beloved, polluted Hudson River.

 

Fifteen thousand people, of all ages, (okay, median age

was probably 55) danced, clapped and sang along as

Seeger did a soaring version of "Amazing Grace" and the

saintly looking Joan Baez sang " Where Have All the

Flowers Gone."

 

Arlo Guthrie reminded us that Pete, like his father

Woody, "believed in the power of the people singing

songs to change the world." Richie Havens reminded us

why "Freedom" is a great anthem for all times. Tim

Robbins and his son, strumming the guitar, to "Michael,

Row The Boat Ashore." Ruby Dee entranced with her

enchanting reading of a poem (for peace) written by

Pete's uncle before he joined the Foreign Legion. In

between, a startlingly youthful Emmylou Harris

recounted correspondence she had with Pete as a young

folk singer; Tom Morello and Taj Mahal teamed up on

"Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"), and John Mellencamp

offered up "If I Had a Hammer." Congressman John Hall,

once the lead singer for one of my favorite groups,

"Orleans," joined in several rounds.

 

Toward the end of the five-hour Seeger-apoza,

Springsteen announced to the crowd, "Pete's gonna come

out," and "He's gonna look like your granddad--if your

granddad could kick your ass." If character and

integrity keeps you youthful, and I believe it does.

Seeger looked all of 25--of strong backbone and spirit

and moxie and with keen eyes which are the stronger for

having seen the best, and the worst, of our country's history.

 

In so many ways, Pete is a repository of American

history in himself. As Springsteen said, he has a

"stubborn, nasty, defiant optimism," and he serves as

"the stealth dagger through the heart of our country's

illusions about itself."

 

Springsteen also told the crowd about his own youth,

growing up in a town that endured race riots, and how

times have changed: "Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man."

 

He spoke about "This Land is Your Land," which he said

Seeger moved from an anthem of the labor movement to

one of the civil rights movement, and he described

preparing for their duet on the song at Obama's

inauguration, in freezing weather,( Pete had packed his

long underwear), when Seeger said: "I know I want to

sing all the verses--all the ones that Woody wrote,

even the two that usually get left out."

 

"There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;

Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the

back side it didn't say nothing; That side was made for

you and me."

 

As Springsteen and Tom Morello sang a rousing, yet

sober, version of " The Ghost of Tom Joad," it seemed

that there was enough humanity in that one concert hall

to fill all of nation with amazing grace in these hard

times. As New Jersey's and the nation's bard summed it

up: "Pete sings all the verses, all the time--

especially the ones we'd like to leave out of our

history as a people."

 

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Letter from Silvio Rodriguez to Pete Seeger

 

Sandra Levinson

[posted to the CubaNews listserve]

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/100938

 

Two nights ago I was one of 18,000 moved by the

extraordinary homage to Pete Seeger's 90 winters. Old

friends, new friends, talented musicians and actors all

came together in celebration of Pete and his Clearwater

cause. The only missing ingredient? our dear Silvio

Rodriguez, the one Cuban musician invited to

participate, who was not given a visa by our State

Department in order to be present. Unfortunately, what

kept him from the concert was not mentioned, nor was it

written about in the many articles about that beautiful experience.

 

Silvio wrote the following letter to Pete.

 

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Havana May 3, 2009

 

Admired and loved maestro Pete Seeger:

 

At this moment dozens of singers are celebrating the tribute concert you richly deserve. I am thinking of some of the occasions on which I had the privilege of enjoying your talent, capable of seducing large numbers of people. I remember you in Havana, singing in solidarity together with the Grupo de Experimentaci'n Sonora; I remember that tour in various Italian cities, dedicated to Victor Jara; and I relive that frozen February night in 1980 when, responding to your call, we traveled from New York to Poughkeepsie and heard you sing "Snow, Snow", the masterwork of a man who asked questions of a winter landscape.

 

I tried to return to be with you today, but, as you well know, it was made impossible by those who do not want the United States and Cuba to come together, sing together, talk together, understand each other. The ones who think the world is divided into the powerful and the weak; who only appreciate those who are rich and strong. The ones who will not forgive that although we are small we have decided to live standing tall. Reality cries that these brutes are becoming ever fewer in number, but somehow this minority still rules and commands. Some of them thought it dangerous that we might see each other, and that a simple act of brotherhood might symbolize two neighboring peoples coinciding in songs and affection.

 

But not only I, dear Pete: all my dignified and certainly improvable country respects you and celebrates your nine honorable decades defending social justice, peace, and culture. Here no one sees you as a threat but as an extraordinary friend whom we are prevented from embracing with the freedom that we would desire. Not only I, but all of Cuba, embargoed as we still are by the abusers, loves you, and we are at your side now singing your prophetic We Shall Overcome and our Marti's Guantanamera.

 

A kiss to Toshi and a strong embrace for you from

 

Silvio Rodriguez Dominguez

 

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