Pete Seeger & ‘Turn Turn Turn’

Posted on | April 30, 2009 | 6 Comments

The Open Culture blog has been mining a rich seam of late. Dan Colman has posted a link to a video conversation between legendary folkie, Pete Seeger, and his biographer, Alec Wilkinson, about Seeger’s song, ‘Turn Turn Turn’, based, of course, on Ecclesiastes 3:1. To my shame, as someone who thinks he knows a bit about music and musicians, I had assumed that Seeger was dead. He is most certainly very much alive, approaching 90, and, from the evidence of the video, a lot sharper than me with almost 40 fewer years under my belt.

I was interested to hear him praise the Byrds’ version of the song while noting that Roger McGuinn actually changed his original melody slightly. Now, because this is the best known version of the song, and one that everyone likes to join in with, Seeger usually has to sing the Byrds’ version rather than his own. YouTube has a clip of Seeger leading a Toronto audience in a rendition of the song just last year, in 2008.

Technorati Tags: pete seeger, alec wilkinson, turn turn turn, byrds, roger mcguinn, ecclesiastes, open culture blog, dan colman

Category: literature, music

Comments

6 Responses to “Pete Seeger & ‘Turn Turn Turn’”

Gordon Brown
April 30th, 2009 @ 8:35 pm

John,

I always enjoy reading your blog.

It may interest you to know that Pete Seeger performed at Barack Obama’s inauguration concert on The Mall in Washington with Bruce Springsteen in January. The clip of them doing ‘This Land…’ is electrifying. Unfortunately the US network that filmed kept blocking it from YouTube, so I can’t find it. However, it is around – well worth searching for.

Regards, Gordon
John Connell
May 1st, 2009 @ 7:35 am

Thanks, Gordon – I will be looking for that too, then.

I’ll let you know if I find it.

John
John Connell
May 1st, 2009 @ 8:13 am

Gordon,

try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KnYADCSms

John
Gordon Brown
May 1st, 2009 @ 10:26 pm

Thanks John! Wonderful, isn’t it? All those smiling faces…the ‘banned’verses sung again.
The guy to Pete’s right is his son-in-law, does most of the actual singing. The white guy with a beard in the crowd about halfway through is George Lucas (Star Wars director).

Thanks again, off to bed happy!
Gordon
John Pearce
May 5th, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

Hi John,

And so it was that a celebration has been held to mark said Seeger’s 90 anniversay as per http://seeger90.com/ and reported on Entertainment Weekly. Hopefully a fully recorded version of the concert will be made available before too long as the line-up looked something else.

BTW I see that little barrel chested Aussie Scott has been at it again, banging in the big ones
John Connell
May 5th, 2009 @ 1:09 pm

He certainly has been, John – the big one is next week, of course, when we need to score a goal or three against Glasgow Rangers!