Customer Reviews

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

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This is an incredible, must-see movie that rekindled my love for the music of pete seeger and painted a beautiful portrait of his amazing life and legacy. This movie is about an individual artist, but even more a living example of the power of music generally to evoke change. We need people like Pete Seeger more than ever.

The life of Pete Seeger, as folk musician, McCarthy-era blacklisted performer, Clearwater initiatiator (cleaning up the Hudson River "when they said it couldn't be done"), and patriot ... Left me feeling inspired and joyful, and thinking that all the world needs is a little citizenship, focus, and a passion for fun. Whether you agree with his opinions or not, his integrity shines brightly.

If you ask anyone to make a list of five American Ideals, most likely Freedom, Justice, and Independence will be there.
It seems the fight to preserve those Ideals and make sure American Ideals can apply to all Americans has always been a struggle.
Watching Pete Seeger/The Power of Song, I learned what a difference we can make when we band together, walk together, and sing together.
We all want our freedom, we all want our independence, and we desire justice.
The ironic thing is, sometimes we have to band together with our neighbors (whom we may not even know) to collectively voice our concerns and causes to preserve our liberties, freedoms, and independence.
Pete Seeger has helped people sing together all of his life. When he helped people sing for Unions, he helped the struggle for personal economic independence through better wages and benefits for workers.
When Pete Seeger helped people sing together during the Civil Rights Movement, he helped in the struggle against racial discrimination, and the struggle to gain personal freedom, justice, and independence for all Americans.
When Pete Seeger helped people sing together and band together for the common good, the Hudson River was made clean again.
Pete Seeger was blacklisted from commercial television for 17 years. In those 17 years, our own freedoms and justice were comprimised. Thank you, Tom and Dick Smothers, for helping to set things right.
There are some great clips of Seeger being honored at the Kennedy Center for his Lifetime Achiement Award, in 1994.

This is an excellent program. We may appreciate, not underestimate, the power of song.

Ever since watching this wonderfully produced and powerful program about Pete Seeger, I have been reflecting on the many ways he gently enriched my appreciation for the world, for our environment and, perhaps most important, our neighbors. I remembered the time in the early 80s when I gave him a ride to a concert and found him to be the most real person I had ever met. His humbleness and consideration for others has helped to make him a legend. I highly recommend this program to everyone who desires to become reconnected as an authentic American.

I saw this film in a theatre with my sixteen year old daughter, who wrote her high school thesis on the role of folk music in the Civil Rights struggle. I knew she would get a lot out of it, but I was also pleasantly surprised how much the film tied together various strands of history and music of which I was aware previously. It definitely deepened my understanding of that important era of American history, which happened to be when I was growing up.

The music is mostly great stuff. The film is quite moving and inspiring. As usual with leftists, the film's relatively obvious drawback is the degree to which some of the principals are overly earnest and serious - a little more humor would help. (A small complaint in light of the very strong contribution made by Pete Seeger and his friends and family toward social justice and a more fair and inclusive American culture.)

Marvelous documentary about Pete that aired on PBS not so long ago and now is available on DVD for anyone who didn't obtain a copy as a Public Television "donation premium." One part I liked best is when Pete says what he didn't like much about the film is that it didn't show "all the stupid things I've done," or words to that effect. Pete Seeger is an American treasure, one everybody (on the left and even over on the right) can rightly cherish. May he be with us forever.

I "grew up" with Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, and others. "Blowin' in the Wind" is one of my all-time favorite songs. I loved the film and thought it did Pete justice, showing his humanity and grace. I just wish his music would take fire again, as it did 40+ years ago. There still is inequality among the races - and among the classes; labor unions seem to have less power to create a more level "playing field" for workers. And we are once again trapped in a war we had no business starting in the first place. If nothing else, we need Pete's optimisim.

I started listening to the Weavers and Almanac Singers about 50 years ago when I was a young teen. Pete Seeger has always been one of my musical and political heroes.
I attended a showing of The Power of Song last night at the Green Mountain Film Festival. Even after all these years, I learned more about just how great and important a figure Pete is. If I had any respect for organized religion, I'd be fighting to make the man a saint.
I had never heard exactly what his response to HUAC was until last night. That alone was worth the price of admission. I want to buy a copy of this video for those (all too frequent) times when my faith in humanity is lagging.

The glorious documentary "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" provides us with a beautiful and inspiring portrait of a man whose life and music helped to define an era. Seeger has always been an artist who viewed music not merely as a form of entertainment but as a vehicle for social change and as a means of bringing people together. And it is this legacy that is captured so movingly in "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song."

The movie chronicles Seeger's beginnings as the son of musicians who would travel around the countryside bringing classical music to the rural masses. The movie then goes on to depict Seeger's introduction to folk music by the very people his parents would play for; his becoming an activist for worker and civil rights during the Great Depression; his riding the rails with Woody Guthrie, inspiring people with pro-labor ballads. It then moves on to his time as a soldier during World War II (no reflexive anti-military guy he); his marriage in 1943 to Toshi, a fellow folk singer and the true love of his life; his building his own house in the woods for him and his family to live in; his acceptance, then eventual rejection of Communism as a workable ideology (ironic, considering what was to happen to him soon afterwards). Then we move onto the late 1940s when Seeger hit it big as a member of The Weavers, the first group to truly bring folk music to a mass audience. And we get to see just how quickly one can tumble from the pinnacle of fame, for the band soon fell victim to McCarthy Era hysteria, being suddenly blacklisted - its concerts cancelled and its records destroyed - for what were perceived to be its communist leanings. Seeger himself appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the mid-1950s, where he refused to sign a loyalty oath, resulting in his being blacklisted from TV for the next 17 years (it was the Smothers Brothers who eventually had the courage to buck the establishment and bring him back on).

Yet, all during this time, through his programs for kids, he remained instrumental in creating a folk-music revival that swept the nation and that would provide the soundtrack for much of the social activism that was to flower in the 1960s - activism that came in the form of minority rights, antiwar protests and increased environmental awareness (Seeger spearheaded the drive to clean up the Hudson River). The ultimate irony - and the ultimate tribute to the effectiveness of Seeger's position - comes near the end of the movie, as we see him receiving the coveted Kennedy Center Honor before an audience of tear-stained fans and fellow musicians. Not bad for a man who, just a few decades earlier, had been accused by the American government of being everything from a Commie to a subversive to a traitor, merely for staying true to his conviction that all men and women should be treated with dignity and respect and that they should strive to live in harmony together - and for expressing that sentiment in his music. As Seeger's son says, it only goes to show just how right the man and his causes were all along - and how persistence in the cause of Good, no matter how long the struggle, will always pay off in the end.

In addition to priceless archival footage of Seeger performing at various stages in his career, director Jim Brown provides a generous helping of interviews to help round out Seeger's story. The interviewees run the gamut from friends and family members to recognizable artists such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Maines, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers and Bonnie Raitt - musicians and songwriters who owe so much to Seeger for their own artistry and success. And, best of all, Seeger himself, now a frail man in his 80s but still endowed with a tremendous passion and hope for the world, is given the chance to relate the story of his life in his own words.

And, of course, always there is the music, providing a stirring backdrop to the man's life - songs he either wrote or sang (or both) like "If I Had a Hammer," "Goodnight Irene," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Guantanamera," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "We Shall Overcome," each and every one of them a classic and a standard.

While watching this film, I couldn't help but be struck by the eerie parallels between that earlier period and our own. In an era in which people are once again being demonized as "Marxists," "Socialists," and "Communists" by loudmouthed, know-nothing demagogues, Seeger's story and the stances he took couldn't be more timely or relevant. It's more than a bit depressing to realize that issues and struggles that many of us believed to have been long resolved and long settled have once again reared their ugly heads. It's a reminder, sorely needed apparently, that the fight for social justice never truly ends, and that it takes all of us working together to bring about that world of equality and human advancement that we should all be striving towards every single day of our lives. And, more than anything, that's been the message of Seeger's life and music for nigh unto three-quarters of a century now.

I honestly cannot imagine a more uplifting and inspiring movie than "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song."

Marvelous documentary about a remarkable person.Pete has lived his life in accordance with his principles.This is beautifully and forcefully presented with comments from family and musical admirers.It is a very moving and compelling DVD