I’ve put Pete up before, but how can you ignore a legend’s 90th birthday. Here’s Bruce Springsteen (this is all talking, so skip it if you just want music) talking about Pete at the recent birthday bash.
As Springsteen says, Pete did outlast the bastards, or at least generations of them, including the crop that came to harvest in 2001. Unfortunately, there are always new generations of bastards, and you can’t outlast them all. Pete does have the satisfaction of having lived long enough to see the bastards that he battled recognized for what they were, while he became an American Institution. That’s a form of revenge that must taste awful sweet.
Here’s a gem from the 50s, or thereabouts, Little Boxes. It looks like it was made by someone filming a television set.
But of course, it wouldn’t be Seeger without This Land is Your Land. Here’s a spirited rendition with Arlo Guthrie (I’ve posted the Inaugural version already). As you will see, Bruce is wrong, he doesn’t always sing all the verses.
Speaking of the bastards, they win elections occasionally, but they’ll never have better music than us.
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