Pete Seeger - Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection Of Topical Songs

For nearly 60 years Pete Seeger, with his banjo and 12-string guitar, has made music which inspires people to improve their lives and world. Selections on this anthology, culled from the hundreds Seeger recorded for Folkways Records between 1955 and 1999, include concert and studio recordings about prominent events and themes of the twentieth century: the Spanish Civil War, union organizing, and the civil rights and antiwar movements.

Like the prior compilation "If I Had a Hammer", this focuses a little loosely on topical songs, concentrating on (but not limited to) ones that deal with specific events. At a glance this might seem like a less essential anthology, since If I Had a Hammer contained major songs identified with Seeger like "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "We Shall Overcome," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." It's actually on the same musical and lyrical level, however, and again has versions of some of the most famous tunes written or popularized by Seeger: "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," "Wimoweh," "Guantanamera," "Wasn't that a Time," Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes," "I Come and Stand at Every Door," and "The Bells of Rhymney" (the last two of which were covered by the Byrds in the mid-'60s). About half of these are taken from Folkways Recordings, but about half are previously unreleased live versions or studio outtakes, so from a collector's point of view this disc is pretty interesting as well. Of course with a Seeger recording, the educational and inspirational values are about as important as the musical ones, and the lesser-known songs usually also have something to make one think, whether it's a narrative of the Titanic disaster or the anti-racist "Listen Mr. Bilbo." Almost all performances were recorded in the '50s and '60s; three songs recorded between 1994 and 1999 find Seeger's voice fading and shaky, though his heart's intact.

Tracklist:

1 Peg and Awl
2 The Titanic
3 Sinking of the Reuben James
4 Listen Mr. Bilbo
5 Hold the Line
6 Passing Through
7 Coal Creek March/Payday at Coal Creek/Roll Down the Line
8 I Come and Stand at Every Door
9 Times A-Getting Hard
10 Little Boxes
11 From Way Up Here
12 The Battle of Maxton Field
13 My Get Up and Go
14 The Bells of Rhymney
15 Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
16 Guantanamera
17 There Once Was a Woman Who Swallowed a Lie
18 Wasn't That a Time
19 Viva la Quince Brigada
20 Wimoweh
21 English Is Cuh-Ray-Zee
22 Odds on Favorite
23 A Little of This and That

Pete Seeger - Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection Of Topical Songs
(320 kbps, cover art included)