Pete Seeger has been the subject of such controversy during his career that surely some people have wished that he would just shut up and play his banjo. If so, those people may be pleased by "Goofing-Off Suite", which is largely an album of instrumentals. Seeger, the son of a composer and a violinist, took a detour from the family business into folk music, but here he returns to Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Grieg, albeit as played on the banjo. He also turns to show music for Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and, inevitably, mixes these tunes in with various folk themes. He can't quite keep his voice silent during the "suite," however, as he whistles, yodels, hums, and even sings a line or two of German during "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Then, as of the 12th track, "Time's A-Getting Hard," it seems that Folkways Records ran out of Seeger instrumentals, and the disc starts to turn into a regular Pete Seeger folk album, complete with his tenor vocals on traditional folk songs and his own original (co-written with erstwhile Almanac Singers/Weavers partner Lee Hays), "Empty Pocket Blues" (aka "Barrel of Money Blues"). "Sally My Dear" finds Seeger playing the flute-like chalil in between a cappella verses. One more instrumental closes the album out, Woody Guthrie's "Woody's Rag," which sounds like a guitar overdubbed by a mandolin. The concept of having Seeger make an LP's worth of his banjo arrangements of the classics is a good one, and he and Folkways might as well have carried through with it all the way.
"Originally released as 10-inch albums...Corey and Goofing-Off Suite helped launch a generation of pickers and singers.... Grand testimony to the breadth and variety of American folk song and style.... Wonderful vintage examples of that curious mix of casual personability and determined virtuosity that have made Pete Seeger our most respected—and best liked—folk personality for over half a century." — New England Folk Almanac
Pete Seeger - Goofing-Off Suite (1954)
(256 kbps, cover art included)
8 Kommentare:
Thanks for making available these 50s-60s folk music albums.
If the average person today were to sing a simple song, then it would probably come out sounding somewhat similar to these technically approachable folk pieces, more or less.
The 50s-60s folk music era seems to have encouraged active amateur participation rather than just passive listening to professionals.
It is interesting to note that this urban/suburban folk music is relatively older today than the rural folk ("old-time") music of the 1920s and 1930s was in the 1950s and 1960s.
"If only the best birds sang, the forest would be silent".
- Henry Van Dyke
Thanks a lot for your feedback. Best wishes!
Thanks for those two old Pete Seeger LPs.
You are always welcome!
Thanks for all your wonderful work over the years, and particularly for these 2 by Pete Seeger. Some of my youth was spent in old pubs around Birmingham (UK) town centre that had small upstairs bars that welcomed local folk artists to drop in, make their offering and receive a pint in thanks. Some instrumental, some unaccompanied singers, many from Ireland pouring the concrete & tarmac. Wonderful times.
Dennis, thanks a lot for sharing these wonderful memories with us. Really wonderful times. Stay safe!
Link not working. Reup please?
Now there´s a fresh link.
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