Comments on: Voices of distinction: Seeger, Lennon, Simone, Thompson

By: Rock Singing | THE place for Rock Singing

Rock Singing | THE place for Rock Singing — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:50:44 +0000

[…] here, for the link to the blog post that kicked this little article off. addthis_url = […]

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:34:06 +0000

Tyranny has lots of good artists.
I have a nephew doing PhD work in St. Petersburg in theater.
He is astounded at the amount of government resources in what he calls “high culture”, to distinguish it from pop culture and what anthropology calls culture. That hasn’t changed since the fall of the USSR, although the shape of the tyranny has.
Always been that way.
And I don’t consider an accident of sinus cavities and vocal cords excuses shilling for mass murder.

By: Whig

Whig — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:20:35 +0000

you have good taste neoneo – I like all of these musicians as well.

And so does “douglas” – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning one of the greatest:

I’ve seen you in the cafes
It seems
Red hair and black leather
My favourite colour scheme…

(may have forgotten a word or two)

By: Alex Bensky

Alex Bensky — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:15:13 +0000

Mark me as unimpressed, since Seeger’s recantation took place in 2007. It might have done some good if he’d done it…oh, I don’t know…when the Molotov-Ribentrop pact put the lie to the claim that communism was anti-fascism…or during the imposition of totalitarian regimes in eastern Europe…or after the East German riots of 1953…or the Hungarian revolution of 1956…or the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968…or the repressions in Vietnam after 1975 and the murder of a couple of million Cambodians…

So now, decades after, he says yes, he should have asked about the gulags, of whose existence he was well aware when he was in the Soviet Union. And he has a song that Woody Guthrie might have written, although he didn’t bring it to light until 2007.

It reminds me of a review I once saw of a book that the critic called “an attack of feudalism.” Bit late for attacking feudalism, and a bit late for admitting now that yes, you might have lent a bit of aid and comfort to perhaps the most murderous regime in human history.

By: douglas

douglas — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:42:58 +0000

Glad you mentioned Richard Thompson. Great voice, and I think he really knows how to relate the music to the lyrics. Particular favorite is “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” from “Rumor and Sigh”.

By: Perfected democrat

Perfected democrat — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:10:15 +0000

Thanks for the great link for Nina Simone, and related comments, she was truly incredible…

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:54:46 +0000

For a real heart-wrencher, listen to Simone’s “You can have him, I don’t want him”. That woman could sing. Her self-pity re blackness, despite her manifest acceptance as a marvel, more than bipolarity, is what brought her low.

By: huxley

huxley — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:09:33 +0000

And not just the protest songs — I get a lump in my throat remembering Seeger and Gilbert trading soloes on “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.”

By: letmespellitoutforyou

letmespellitoutforyou — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:35:22 +0000

I have some renewed respect for Seeger for denouncing Stalin. Ronald Radosh's account of the letter he received from Seeger is here. Here's subsequent follow-up from the NYT that plays a bit of gotcha with Radosh and makes it clear that people who still care about who was and was not a Stalinist are a bunch of ideologues who need to get a life.

By: Cappy

Cappy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:52:09 +0000

I keep confusing Leonard Cohen with Leonard Nimoy.