#Queer as folk soundtrack on cassette full
#Queer as folk soundtrack on cassette crack

In the late sixties, during a period when Seeger was signed to Columbia Records, he grew tired of the Vietnam War, then furious, and he responded by writing a song about a group of soldiers pushed forward to their death by an overly enthusiastic officer.

#Queer as folk soundtrack on cassette full

He thought that the world was full of terrible problems, and that songwriters had the opportunity and the responsibility to speak out against them: not just decades later but as they were happening.

His view of the folk tradition was far more active, even aggressive. The songs had a calming effect, but then they started you thinking: who was this long-gone Captain Charles Stuart? Why didnРІР‚в„ўt Young Charlotte just keep herself warm during the ride with her mother? The bleakness and antiquity were offset by several lovely instrumentals, such as РІР‚СљRoslyn Castle.РІР‚СњР”В«ut РІР‚СљChamplain Valley SongsРІР‚Сњ was a museum piece, a way of preserving a lost culture, and albums like it allowed people to see Seeger as a museum piece, too. One of my favorites was РІР‚СљChamplain Valley Songs,РІР‚Сњ a collection of folk songs from the Northeast, whose ancient mystery was both clarified and undermined by SeegerРІР‚в„ўs clear presentation.

#Queer as folk soundtrack on cassette crack

I had РІР‚СљAmerican Folk Songs for Children,РІР‚Сњ which included SeegerРІР‚в„ўs renditions of classroom sing-alongs like РІР‚СљJimmie Crack Corn,РІР‚Сњ РІР‚СљThis Old Man,РІР‚Сњ and РІР‚СљFrog Went A-CourtingРІР‚в„ўР’В РІР‚Сњ РІР‚СљAmerican Industrial Ballads,РІР‚Сњ which was both an explanation of and damning indictment of working conditions and РІР‚СљThe Bitter and the Sweet,РІР‚Сњ a live set that included the first recording of РІР‚СљTurn! Turn! Turn!,РІР‚Сњ later made famous by the Byrds. Some of the Seeger songs were on LP, because that was the only way you could get them some were part of the early-nineties Smithsonian Folkways CD rereleases and some were cassette copies I made from the LPs or CDs of other people. As I got older and bought my own records, I started to notice that some Pete Seeger was showing up alongside the Aretha Franklin and Hall & Oates, the Replacements and Prince and Guns NРІР‚в„ў Roses and Run-D.M.C. I just wasnРІР‚в„ўt that interested in what they were thinking.Р”В«ut the concert stuck, or at least a piece of it did. IРІР‚в„ўm not sure where I would rather have been: at an Elton John concert, probably, or at home, listening to РІР‚СљSongs in the Key of LifeРІР‚Сњ or watching Tony Clifton on РІР‚СљThe Midnight Special.РІР‚Сњ My parents had taken me to the show, of course, and they were big on making sure that I realized that the concert was an important event, with two important musical thinkers. In my defense, I was ten years old, but it bothered me that he insisted on having the audience sing along with him, that some of the songs felt more like agitprop than art, that the aggressive anti-Reagan jokes (mostly from Guthrie, to be fair) seemed to please the largely self-selected crowd. Arlo Guthrie was also performing-it was similar to the concerts collected on the 1981 album РІР‚СљPrecious FriendРІР‚Сњ-and I sat in the audience and felt alternately restless and resentful. Back in the late seventies, I saw Seeger in concert, in Miami.

Rather, his music carried a heavy load, and there have been times in my life (in my day, even) when this wasnРІР‚в„ўt what I wanted when I put on a song. This isnРІР‚в„ўt to say that Seeger wasnРІР‚в„ўt an entertainer, or that he didnРІР‚в„ўt care about his audienceРІР‚в„ўs experience.