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Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
by Genius Products (Ingram)
| List Price: |
$24.95 |
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$16.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$7.96 (31%) |
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DVD
WELLSPRING/GENIUS
Publisher: Genius Products (Ingram)
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Actors: Joan Baez, Ronnie Gilbert, Tom Paxton, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Smothers
In Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, Director Jim Brown documents the life of one of the greatest American singer/songwriters of the last century. Pete Seeger was the architect of the folk revival, writing some of its best known songs including Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Turn, Turn, Turn and If I Had A Hammer. Largely misunderstood and criticized for his strong beliefs he was picketed, protested, blacklisted, and, in spite of his enormous popularity, banned from commercial television for more than 17 years. Musicians including Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Brice Springsteen, Natalie Maines, and Peter, Paul and Mary appear in this intimate portrait and discuss Seeger s lasting influence on the fabric of American music.
Pete Seeger reads The Wall Street Journal! That's perhaps the most startling revelation in Jim Brown's (The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time) wonderful documentary that etches an indelible portrait of an American icon and a global treasure. As a solo performer and as a member of the Weavers, Seeger introduced America to its musical heritage and was instrumental in ushering in the folk music revival in the 1960s. Branded as an "evil Commie" for his leftist beliefs, he is hailed here as an "absolute patriot" and "a living testament to the First Amendment." Seeger didn't call out politicians or presidents. He called out backward policies, unjust laws, and divisive attitudes. Songs that he popularized, or were covered by others, such as "We Shall Overcome," "The Hammer Song," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and "Turn, Turn, Turn," became Civil Rights and anti-war anthems. Music, he eloquently states in The Power of Song, should not be used just to forget one's troubles, but to also help to understand and to do something about your troubles. Whether singing work songs at union rallies or Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" to schoolchildren, Seeger used folk music as a uniter. The Power of Song is a profile in courage. In dramatic archival footage, he is seen defying the House Un-American Activities Committee. Seeger, never in it for the money, recalls how he quit the phenomenally popular Weavers when the other members agreed to do a cigarette commercial. Seeger was green before green was cool. At 88, he lives in the log cabin that he built and continues to work the land; chopping wood and hauling water. This film also chronicles his successful campaign to clean up the polluted Hudson River. The Power of Song" is more than a great life story. It's also a great love story. Toshi, his wife of more than 60 years, emerges as an extraordinary woman who has greatly sacrificed to allow Seeger to take his music and message around the world (at one point she jokes that she wished her husband chased women instead of causes so she could leave him). Seeger says his singing voice is gone, but his spirit is undimmed (one clip captures him standing on the roadside with a handful of war protesters). Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, Mary Travers, and family members are among those who pay tribute, but Seeger's own plain-spoken words and the concert footage and performance clips--by turns joyous and profoundly moving--take full measure of the man as a musicologist, iconoclast, and "social artist." One admirer says of Seeger that he stood for justice and had powerful enemies. That makes him sound like a superhero. In his own gentle way, perhaps he was. --Donald Liebenson
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A fabulous DVD |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is a historical biography filled wilh the folk music of the life and times of Pete Seeger, it is excellent and nostalgic.It was well done and worth the money.
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| PETE SEEGER DVD LIFE STORY--MUST VIEW!!! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I HAVE BEEN A FAN OF PETE, SINCE I WAS A KID...I AM A PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN, AND HE HAS BEEN ONE OF MY EARLY INFLUENCES IN LIFE!!....EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH, AND ENJOY THIS SWEET BIO OF OUR NATIONAL TREASURE...THERE IS SO MUCH TO SEE AND LEARN...I HAVE SINCE BOUGHT A FEW COPIES, AND HAVE GIVEN THEM AS GIFTS TO FRIENDS...
HE IS SO VERY TALENTED AND WHAT AN AMERICAN!!!..FIND OUT THE REAL TRUE STORY OF HIS LEGEND...I NEVER KNEW HE WAS IN THE ARMY AND ALSO PLAYS THE STEEL DRUM (PAN)....SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THE GRAND 'OL MASTER...BUY THE DVD AND SIT BACK WATCH A TRUE AMERICAN...I LOVED IT...YOU WILL TOO!!!...HE IS SO VERY TALENTED AND STILL GOING STRONG AT 90 YEARS YOUNG!!!
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| A cure for malaise and deprression! |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Seldom have I seen a film, or followed a life, as inspiring as Pete Seeger's. It's not that he didn't face adversity and animosity --but his hold on the joy or life and the power of song was so firm that it shone through all these decades. Even if one holds entirely different political or social viewpoints, one can't help but resonate with his joy and his love of humanity."Pete Seeger: The Power of Song"
My intention was to rate it 5 stars, and I can't seem to correct the mistaken one star rating.
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| Pete Seger - The Power of Song |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The Pete Seger - Power of Song DVD was so well done and historically significant that I ordered additional copies to give to my brother and sister. It also inspired me to compile my own CD of songs by the Weavers (from Itunes, Amazon.com mp3s, etc).
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| Pete Seeger - Singing Because Many Songs Fall Silent If You Don't Keep Singing Them |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This "biocumentary," a biography presented in a video documentary style, with apparent full cooperation of Pete Seeger and most of his immediate family, is excellent. If you don't know who Pete Seeger is, then learning his story, purposes, and methods will likely be worthwhile for you. This film presents a concise and fast-paced history of his artistry and advocacy.
Seeger used his talents and gifts to promote causes he believed in. He used songs to attempt to effect social changes. It would be easy to call much of his music didactic, but I think Seeger consciously conceded the loss of some of the beauties of indirectness and metaphor in order to speak more clearly to more people about issues he believed deserved more public attention and change.
Generations come and go quickly. Fashions and artistic trends of the world move forward quickly, leaving most things from a couple generations ago behind and mostly forgotten. Seeger sang to keep good ideas in circulation and to keep public dialogues going on less visible and often unpopular-to-view issues.
Seeger did not seek to keep others in the ideas of the past. He often used older musical styles to express newer ideas for the future. That is maybe what separated him from many folk and bluegrass musicians.
He spurred on and helped to create the 60s and 70s folk music movements, movements that were not interested in preserving the old and conservative, but rather were interested in stimulating new and critical thinking.
Most of us will not be remembered primarily for what we did to strengthen and improve ourselves. If we are remembered, it will more likely be for what we did to strengthen and improve others in our generation and future generations. If that is true, Seeger will likely be well remembered.
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