Tuesday, January 28, 2014

"Where have all the flowers gone?"



I don't have a hammer
I can't find a bell
and I can't sing
for beans, heaven or hell

But I heard the message
and I've got a yen
for Pete Seeger's music
from way back when

telling us to

Hammer out justice
Ring freedom's bell
 Remember what's 'gone'
and sing, write, or tell

about love towards
our brothers and our sisters
all
all
all
over the land


R.I.P.  Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

__________________________________

Pete Seeger
In this video, "Pete Seeger performs "This Land is Your Land" with Farm Aid board artists John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young live at the Farm Aid concert in Saratoga Springs, NY on September 21, 2013. Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers."

About mid-way in the video he tells the audience he has a verse we've never heard before: 

New York is my home
New York is your home
From the upstate mountains
Down to the ocean foam. 
With all kinds of people
Yes, we're polychrome!
New York was meant to be frack-free

(On October 21, 2011, at age 92, Pete Seeger was part of a solidarity march with Occupy Wall Street to Columbus Circle in New York City.  In January last year he joined over a thousand anti-fracking protestors to plead with Governor Cuomo not to allow fracking in New York State.)

Seeger was still as active as ever, out chopping wood ten days prior to his death