"When some of the greatest musicians in the world gathered five years ago to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of the musician who inspired them all, Bruce Springsteen told Pete Seeger: “You outlasted the bastards, man.”
And so he did."
'So it went. Decade after decade. Singing and
agitating and inspiring the children and the
grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of those
who had heard him singing the songs of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade in 1938, or serenading
Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944, or accompanying Henry
Wallace’s presidential campaign in 1948. The
hundreds of Occupy Wall Street activists who joined
Seeger on a thirty five-block march through
Manhattan in October 2011 knew that he was
seventy years older than they were, but he was one
of them; indeed, said his friend Gary Davis, Pete
was "seeing his life come to fruition." It was that
understanding of music as art and mission that
drew Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and Ani
DiFranco and Tom Morello and Billy Bragg to the
man whose energy and warmth, intellect and
integrity they aspired to emulate. Seeger
believed—still believes—that songs can lift people
up and inspire them to take the actions necessary to
change the world," Bragg wrote when Pete turned 91,
delighting in the fact that Woody Guthrie's comrade
"continues to urge us all to overcome".'
agitating and inspiring the children and the
grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of those
who had heard him singing the songs of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade in 1938, or serenading
Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944, or accompanying Henry
Wallace’s presidential campaign in 1948. The
hundreds of Occupy Wall Street activists who joined
Seeger on a thirty five-block march through
Manhattan in October 2011 knew that he was
seventy years older than they were, but he was one
of them; indeed, said his friend Gary Davis, Pete
was "seeing his life come to fruition." It was that
understanding of music as art and mission that
drew Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and Ani
DiFranco and Tom Morello and Billy Bragg to the
man whose energy and warmth, intellect and
integrity they aspired to emulate. Seeger
believed—still believes—that songs can lift people
up and inspire them to take the actions necessary to
change the world," Bragg wrote when Pete turned 91,
delighting in the fact that Woody Guthrie's comrade
"continues to urge us all to overcome".'
...ero.
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