Last year at this time we were discussing Alex Wilkinson's book about Pete Seeger, The Protest Singer and wondering where our generation's protest singers and songs were. Then a couple months later, some good folks in Wisconsin got a little upset when some of their rights got taken away and they started to sing. Here they are jamming with Arlo Guthrie. Did you know the Solidarity Sing Along is still going strong every weekday at the capitol? They've even created a special holiday songbook to bring some seasonal cheer to the 'people's house.'
If they need still more new material, there's a new album, Note of Hope, of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics freshly set to music by artists like Lou Reed, Ani Difranco, Jackson Browne, Tom Morello and Pete Seeger. This is all a warm-up for next year's Woody Guthrie Centennial. For more on the album, see Guthrie's daughter and album co-producer Nora Guthrie's interviews with WNYC and American Songwriter,
There are some real activist artists on the records like Ani DiFranco, Tom Morello, Pete Seeger; was that a conscious decision?
One of the things I found are so many people are activists in their own ways. We just don’t hear about it. They each have a cause or a picket line that they’re involved with. Woody’s kind of activism is a 360 degree kind of activism — he’s not just focused on unions. But when you listen to Jackson Browne’s love song, when they’re sitting on the bench at night and the stars are shining and what is this young couple talking about and whispering into each other’s ears? Some of the lines are “and we talked about this and we talked about that, and we talked about the union. I was like “wow, Woody wrote the union into this romantic song.”
So you don’t have to be a political activist, you can be a lover and find ways to bring all these ideas and stuff into your conversation into your home and into your town. I kind of found out that all these people are activists in a way, and to me, the thing is to find words or a lyric that match up with that.
Here's that Jackson Browne track for union romantics and sample the others below that. You might also want to see the Tom Morello track put to use in a video supporting the Occupy movement. Sing out!
Back last December when we were discussing Pete Seeger, I mentioned that I'd be looking for opportunities to share more of his songs. You may remember that I am now in Wisconsin, and you may have heard about our little polite disagreement with our Governor over the matter of collective bargaining rights (which, let me just remind you are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Now the rallies and marches I've attended so far haven't featured any singing, possibly influenced somewhat by frigid temps and whipping winds, but I have noted reports of Solidarity Forever, breaking out under the Capitol dome. Surely Pete would have something to say about this? You bet!
"Maybe the Republican governor, he's done us a favor by bringing the problem to national attention," the 91-year-old Seeger said in a telephone interview from his New York home. "It shows the whole country how much we need unions. We may end up thanking him."
It seems he sang a few songs on behalf of the Wisconsin unions, though its not clear which ones, but I've chosen, "We've Got Our Eyes on You" which is less familiar than some of his other union songs, but the lyrics of this song addressed to lawmakers seemed the most appropriate for our situation today. Sing it!
Last year at this time we were discussing Alex Wilkinson's book about Pete Seeger, The Protest Singer and wondering where our generation's protest singers and songs were. Then a couple months later, some good folks in Wisconsin got a little upset when some of their rights got taken away and they started to sing. Here they are jamming with Arlo Guthrie. Did you know the Solidarity Sing Along is still going strong every weekday at the capitol? They've even created a special holiday songbook to bring some seasonal cheer to the 'people's house.'One of the things I found are so many people are activists in their own ways. We just don’t hear about it. They each have a cause or a picket line that they’re involved with. Woody’s kind of activism is a 360 degree kind of activism — he’s not just focused on unions. But when you listen to Jackson Browne’s love song, when they’re sitting on the bench at night and the stars are shining and what is this young couple talking about and whispering into each other’s ears? Some of the lines are “and we talked about this and we talked about that, and we talked about the union. I was like “wow, Woody wrote the union into this romantic song.”
Back last December when we were discussing Pete Seeger, I 