From an April 2001 interview with Pete Seeger conducted by David Guistina of Albany public radio station WAMC (listen here, registration required):
Q: Does the media do its job?
A: Of course not. It’s hard for me to talk about the media without getting angry. Because if the United States or the world goes down in disaster, I would blame the media first of all, because the people running it are intelligent people. They know very well how evil they are. And when they say, “Oh, I’m just giving the people what they want.” Sure–so do the drug pushers.
In the second installment of the interview, Seeger talked about an appearance on the Today show that turned out to be his last:
I haven’t been asked on TV that much in recent years. I did get on the Today show once. And I knew that they wouldn’t want me to sing a certain song. So I was prepared. I arrived at 6:00, and over the intercom, the director said, “Pete, what you got for us?” And I said: “Well, I got a little banjo tune, and I got something a little more serious. It’s a funny song but it’s got a serious point.” “Well, let’s hear ’em.” So I sang the banjo tune. “Fine.” So I sang the other, called “Garbage,” which has the whole crowd going, “Garbage, garbage, garbage.”
In Mister Thompson’s factory, they’re making plastic Christmas trees
Complete with silver tinsel and a geodesic stand
The plastic’s mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration
That’s been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land
And if you question anything, they say, “Why, don’t you see?
It’s absolutely needed for the economy”Oh, Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
Their stocks and their bonds — all garbage!
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
What will they do when their system goes to smash
There’s no value to their cash
There’s no money to be made
But there’s a world to be repaid
Their kids will read in history books
About financiers and other crooks
And feudalism, and slavery
And nukes and all their knavery
To history’s dustbin they’re consigned
Along with many other kinds of garbage
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!Well, he said: “Pete, you got something a little more cheerful? This is early in the morning.”
So I sang, “Walking down death row/ I sang for three men destined for the chair….”
“Pete, do you have something else?”
“‘If the revolution comes to my country, let me remember….'”
“Well, Pete, I guess we’ll stick with ‘Garbage.'”
Well, I got to do it on the air, but I wasn’t asked back. I haven’t been on the Today show since.
Seeger seemed to understand that the corpress wasn’t “duped” or “deluded” by those in power
But sought to do those very things to the public, in service to power.
It’s a lesson many more need to learn.
And while I can criticize him for the foolishness of performing at Dear Misleader’s inauguration
I have no hesitancy in saying that he was a good man, and a great artist.
Pete Seeger
¡Presente!
But sometimes you have to perform at the Emperors Party, so the people can see your still around.
One aspect of this great humanitarian that mainstream media is unlikely to mention is Seeger’s regret at supporting Israeli greenwashing and his support for BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) to end Israel’s occupation.
Jeff Halper explains it in Haaretz (Israeli media publishes more criticism of Israel than U.S. media):
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/.premium-1.571056
Loved his music.Loved that he walked the walk and lived simply.He once was a communist and later thought better of it.When to Harvard but like Duck Dynasty thought you could learn more sitting on a log in the forrest.He was full of interests ,passion,and was never SURE that he was right on anything.He was willing to listen.Sometimes he was right,and sometimes wrong.But he was a gentle soul.Never hurt a flea.And of course a huge talent.He would not of wanted FAIR to use him for political fodder,anymore than FOX.In the end he was outside all that.Like Tom Bambidill in the Hobbit.A man unto himself.Just watching the days get shorter till it was time to turn in and remember brighter days.Damn fine man
Way back I remember Pete Seeger was a “commie” and thought that it sure didn’t hurt his singin. I was right and he was right about many more things that he learned and was not afraid to share with a world hungering for truth. They are still there and now it is up to us to spread the truth.
Dirty Dem …you know why it did not in the end hurt is brand?Because he never attacked anyone.And remember he turned away from the communist party finally.He was a man who believed 100% in personal responsibility for ones own life.Today the Dem party is the party of personal attack and destruction.Pete said he was very disturbed by that.He had as many friends as enemies on the right.See I would say he was neither right or left.He even saw the hypocrisy in the green movement.In the end he wanted to live his live without interference.He wanted people to have equal opportunity.He realized equal out come is a fable.He believed in the constitution.Though he saw some flaws there too.But in all his opinions……he never walked away anything but a gentleman.Insult a woman??????Never.Not even that hated leader of the free world(in libs eyes) Sarah Palin.If I had to say what he was closest to…….libertarianism.Great songwriter.And that is not arguable.
Dave C
Today the Dem party is the party of personal attack and destruction.
Tell that to Valerie Plame Wison.
If anyone believes that’s not true of both parties, I have a nice bridge with a “traffic study” for them.
Dave politics is a blood sport.You need to be hard as nails.But we cant believe for a secong that the school of Saul Alynski and Chicago thug politics has not infected this white house and the liberal Dem party as never seen before.I go to tea party rallies.Total disagreement with this administrations platforms.But no marching orders to attack them and their families.I go to lib rallies to.The anger and hatred you can taste.Ask James Carvil that question.He freely admits that he formed a 24/7 attack committee against Bush.He says it continues to this day.Used against anyone who disagrees with the president.Things said about conservative woman would never fly the other way around.Remember what Pierce Morgan said about Sarah Palin?Say that about Michelle Obama.Lets say Hannity.Never happen.Crude and lude.
Bruce
A godsend RECALLED!
Dave C
“a 24/7 attack committee against Bush.”
Yeah, like FOX(R) is against Obama? Not quite. What happened after Glenn Beck called Obama a “racist with a deep seated hatred for white people”?
Nothing.
Murdoch and Ailes agreed, and continued to pay Beck millions of dollars; that’s what happened.
Please. Bush lied and thousands died. Obama lied and nobody died.
Are you referring to the GOP tea parties with the posters of Obama as a witch doctor?
The “liberal dem party” exists only in the minds of the Far Right Bubble. Both parties serve the Military Industrial Complex and Wall Street over Main Street, but your programmers forbid you to even consider the possibility. It’s very likely you’re paid to deny this fact as well as any other reality banned from the bubble.
Rightes are full of false equivalence, as you demonstrate. You don’t have the guts to say your party is full of deceit and treachery, but the facts speak loudly.
Too bad Americans are too detached from reality to remember what happened with your team in charge. Endless war and skyrocketing debt and unemployment are still haunting us. The crash of ’08 and Bush Recession are nothing compared to the debacle awaiting the next GOP theft of the White House.
Who’s Alinsky anyway? What relevance is he to anything, apart from being your “Goldstein”? Just more typical Radical Right fear-mongering with a commie sounding name…
Nobody here believes your propaganda, you know.
Now go mourn the “loss of freedom” as you cower from all those “death panels”.
Dave C
‘Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist.’ Republican State Senator Ryan Zinke now running for Congress in Montana
“I felt my freedom starting to go away in 2008 when a communist got elected.” Victoria Jackson, Huntsville Tea Party rally.
Constituent: I want to ask you about Obama, he’s not President as far as I’m concerned, he should be executed…
Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-OK): Don’t hold back now.
Constituent: The Muslims that he is shipping into our country through pilots in commercial jets. What’s this, I can’t tell you since we are in a public place, this guy is a criminal, nobody’s stopping him, the other thing is the congress is doing nothing that legally allows this moron to make decisions. He has no authority none, and he’s just we are just saying he shouldn’t do this he shouldn’t do that, but nobody’s doing anything that accomplishing anything.
Bridenstine: Look everybody knows the lawlessness of this President.
“Crude and Rude” indeed.