Surrounding Hate and Forcing It To Surrender

"This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender." - inscription on Pete Seeger's banjo.

We learned, with sadness, of the passing of legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger on Monday evening. He was 94. Wikipedia sums things up by calling Seeger "a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, and environmental causes."

Seeger was famous for the songs he wrote, for the songs he performed (and invited everyone to sing along!), and for the other performers he inspired with his life example and his music. He sang This Land Is Your Land with Woody Guthrie, who wrote it. And also famously, with Bruce Springsteen, at President Obama's inauguration in 2009. Seeger inspired Bob Dylan. And Emmylou Harris. And many, many more.

Who knows, though. Things might have worked out differently for Pete. Life turns on a dime, as they say. An NPR piece on Seeger included this interesting tidbit, in which Seeger mentions jumping trains, breaking a banjo, and hocking his camera to get a guitar:

"Woody [Guthrie] said, 'Wait on the outskirts of town and when the train is picking up speed, it's still not going too fast, you can grab a hold of it and swing on.' Getting off the first time I didn't know how to do it and I fell down and skinned my knees and elbow and broke my banjo. Fortunately, I had a camera with me and I hocked it in a local pawn shop and bought a very cheap guitar, didn't have a banjo then. I knew a few chords and I got through the rest of the summer playing the guitar."

Perhaps Pete Seeger's contributions to American culture may have been very different if he'd kept the camera instead of the banjo. Who knows. Had things turned out differently, we might have seen the fellow here on Blip . . .

And so, thinking about the man and his contributions, I got out my old Celebrity Ovation guitar (a relic of a failed early to mid-80s love affair with a young man/musician who didn't love me, in spite of how much I wanted him to; and it turns out that even buying for myself the guitar he coveted in a local music shop didn't make a difference in any of the heartache that followed).

And Dexter and I played a tune or two in remembrance of Pete Seeger. In his honor, we decided to surround hate and force it to surrender. Well, sort of. Dexter helped out by plucking at the strings. It may not have been an overly musical effort, but it was done with a gusto guaranteed to send hate whimpering into a corner. And possibly anybody else who listened, to be honest. But hey, we had fun.

I suspect Dexter's efforts were directed less at musicality and remembrance than at trying to discover, by sticking one shiningly clean white paw down that curious circle in the middle of the instrument, whether anything interesting was lurking inside.

And so, in any case, this is our Blip to honor Pete Seeger. And we conclude with a few song links, which you are welcome to check out as you wish. (Or you could simply go to YouTube and type in Pete Seeger to obtain a wealth of performances on your own.)

Songs of Peace and Protest, from Time Entertainment. (Includes links to Seeger performing Where Have All the Flowers Gone, If I Had a Hammer, Turn! Turn! Turn!, and more.)
Bruce Springsteen, This Land Is Your Land.
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, If I Had a Hammer.
The Byrds, Turn! Turn! Turn!

Let's end it like this . . .

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time of war, a time of peace
A time of love, a time of hate
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

- lyrics from Turn! Turn! Turn! written by Pete Seeger.

Let there be peace . . .
And music.
Amen.