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Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. I was quite moved by this book. It took me ages to read for some reason. I was busy in general at the same time, and I think autobiographies often make me stop to look up certain things or to reflect on something if there were episodes in my lifetime.
I am very glad I read it, and I did enjoy reading it when I grabbed the time. What I found as a bonus in this book was a history that I didn't really know. For example, I knew about McCarthyism, but it isn't something that I really studied. The sec I was quite moved by this book.
The section covering the accusations against Pete Seeger as being un-American showed me that some things never change.
There were many, many parallels to American and world politics today. That was both sad and frightening. There were many episodes from his early adult life that revealed an ugly, hateful side of the U. However, when the book was drawing to a close, I felt hope. I cannot define how or why. I think it was simply Pete Seeger's eternal optimism that was catching. Pete Seeger was an idealist. At times, he seemed even naive such at the time when he went to the South and felt out of his depth.
A lot of his career wouldn't have been possible without his wife, Toshi, basically sacrificing all of her ambitions to be his all-round manager. Would that happen today? He took a very long time to acknowledge that things weren't quite right under Stalin.
But hey! How consistent are we in our behavior and our beliefs? He was far more consistent than I think many of us could ever be. Reading how a person stayed on the path for justice for decades is rather awe-inspiring. Many times, he paid a very high price for that. Now when you read praise about him, especially from when he died which was after this book was published , you can see the hypocrisy peeking out from between the lines when people and institutions who wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, now stood in line to sing his praises.
Pete Seeger didn't want to be idolised. That made him very uncomfortable. Any praise directed at him was passed along to everyone around him or reflected back on the giver. It wasn't that he had a hard time accepting thank yous.
He simply felt it was wrong. He wanted the community as a whole to receive the praise - that it wasn't an individual effort, but a community effort when something was achieved.
All in all, this was a fascinating glimpse into the life of one person and the life of the time he lived in. There is an updated and revised edition to this only biography of the legendary Pete Seeger whose undeniable ability to galvanise audiences everywhere to not only sing together but promote social changes will forever earn him a significant place in American history. This is a very good read for those who are interested in American folk music scene of the 20th century.
May 12, Maryellen rated it really liked it. Great read. As a child of the 60's, Pete Seeger was one of my favorite folk singers. So interesting to learn about Peter, the man, not just the singer and composer of great songs. Jul 12, Karen rated it liked it. I need to confess, I didn't finish this book. I got some interesting facts about Pete Seeger's past but found the writing to be so cumbersome as to totally preclude any further reading.
I looked at all the photos and learned quite a bit about his wife who was the wind beneath his wings in so many ways. So, I just stopped and returned it to the library for some guilty pleasure in the form of the latest Michael Connelly book - The Black Box. Dec 31, Jim rated it really liked it. The writing is pretty lousy, really, but the story of this American legend is SO powerful and compelling that the book is still a great read. Dunaway seems to have had full access to Seeger's correspondence and files, and I wonder why he makes so little use of it.
Seeger is a liberal in the s moldcommunist really, ultra pro-union, socialized medicine, big government. I'm all for it. And the music! View 2 comments. May 27, Linda rated it really liked it.
Pete Seeger is an amazing guy, living his life completely according to his principles. Made more meaningful because of our encounters with him at Jazz Fest. Dec 17, kay rated it really liked it. Tells the Story of Pete Seeger. This man made a difference. Feb 01, Ledell Mulvaney rated it really liked it. As a lifelong fan of Pete, this book helped me to get inside the man and understand his passions.
What a great American! Took me months to get through this one. Dense and not great story-telling. Loaded with information, but it was hard to follow the attributions notes were in the back. I always have a hard time reviewing biographies. Its hard for me to separate my feelings for the subject matter from the actual skill in the writing, etc.
I did not love this book. It was, well, mostly boring. This is a fairly rambling review, but Pete Seeger, and music in general are pretty interwoven in my life. My father born in had eclectic musical tastes. He loved Chopin. He loved a few country ballads, and he loved a fair amount of folk music - mostly Peter Paul and Mary.
Also comed I always have a hard time reviewing biographies. Also comedy like Tom Lehrer. So I grew up humming along with a fair amount of folk music, though I certainly was never what I'd consider a 'fan' - I was definitely a child of the 70's, disco directly into punk and new wave. But then, around the time I left home I found a wonderful "folk" music program on my local public radio station broadcasts from the Ark in Ann Arbor mostly , and all of a sudden, folk music was back in the mix.
My musical tastes, if anything, are even more eclectic than my dads. When my first kid was small, I bought a collection of Pete Seeger's kid songs - we learned them all by heart in the car, and still make reference to them today, almost 30 years later. So recently after a phone conversation in which my son and I jokingly referred to a song from that old CD Goodbye Ol'Paint, I'm leaving Cheyenne , I realized I knew nothing about Pete Seeger, though I listened to a fair amount of his music.
In an effort to learn more, I acquired this book. I certainly do now know more. I like Pete the person less though. He really struck me as someone who never grew up. As a teenager, he seemed pretty self-centered and stuborn, and short sighted.
Pretty typical for a teenager. When rarely, but, truly pushed to full anger, he flies into physical violence. Only Pete didn't seem to me to outgrow those traits.
I did like learning the history of folk music in North America. A Route 66 Companion. Even before there was a road, there was a route. Buffalo trails, Indian paths, the old Santa Fe trace—all led across the Great Plains and the western mountains to the golden oasis of California. America's insatiable westering urge culminated in Route 66, the highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Opened in , Route 66 became the quintessential American road. A Route 66 Companion gathers fiction, poetry, memoir, and oral history. From accounts of pioneering trips across the western plains to a sci-fi fantasy of traveling Route 66 in a rocket, here are stories told by master storytellers Raymond Chandler, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Leslie Marmon Silko, and John Steinbeck. Interspersed are reminiscences that, for the first time, honor 66's varied cultures—Native American, Mexican American, and African American, as well as Anglo.
So put the top down, set the cruise control, and "make that California trip" with A Route 66 Companion. For those interested in music biographies and folk music revivals--or anyone looking for a truly American story, Seeger's biography reveals how the son of a respectable Puritan family became a consummate performer and American rebel.
Writing the Southwest Plume, University of New Mexico Press, Book plus CD combination This assemblage of interviews, bibliographies, excerpts, and criticism on fourteen of the Southwest's most important authors has been updated and expanded. The exclusive minute compact disc accompanying the book's second edition provides excerpts from the authors discussing and reading from their work.
Huxley in Hollywood Harper Collins, Sensational and startling, this is the unforgettable story of the brilliant English novelist's life in Hollywood, where he worked as a screenwriter during its Golden Age and his experiments with alternate health and psychedelics.
Huxley's American biographer reveals the story behind the origin of Citizen Kane and other terrific Hollywood tales from an expatriate film community that included Thomas Mann, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, and Christopher Isherwood. Drawn from hundreds of original interviews and written over five years of research, Dunaway's award-winning biography was also presented via radio see below.
Dunaway brings a well-crafted account of the prolific Huxley's American years using oral histories with Huxley's family and friends, his FBI files, and little-known scripts of "Jane Eyre" and "Pride and Prejudice". Learn how the first novelist of human cloning had a second act in America.
Intimate, anecdotal, and spellbinding, Singing Out offers a fascinating oral history of North American folk music. Culled from more than interviews recorded from to , this captivating story cuts across a wide swath of generations and perspectives, shedding light on the musical, political, and social aspects of folk revival movements.
For everyone who ever picked up a guitar, fiddle, or banjo, this will be a book to give and to cherish, with extensive notes, bibliography, and discography, plus an attractive photo section. Pete Seeger is one of the most recorded artists in American history, and his catalog tells us not just the story of his career but the story of our culture and its political and social history.
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