We Shall Overcome: Complete Carnegie Hall Concert [LIVE]

Pete Seeger

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 1989)
• Original Release Date: 1989
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000026V0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,404 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #1 in	Music > Folk > Live Albums > Traditional Folk
  #20 in	Music > Folk > Revival
  #34 in	Music > Children's Music > Folk Music

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Pete Seeger, who began recording in the early 1940s, is perhaps the most influential figure in the American folk revival, a walking repository of song who's had an immense influence in popularizing folk music with mainstream audiences. The 2 CD We Shall Overcome is an expanded version of a classic 1963 live album that offers an excellent example of Seeger's activist passion and good-humored humanity. This expanded edition contains the entire 40-song concert, making it almost three times longer than the original vinyl incarnation. The typically eclectic and heartfelt program, encompassing civil-rights anthems and anti-war pleas, along with tunes from England, Russia, Brazil, and the Caribbean, provides an excellent introduction to the artist. --Scott Schinder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There's room for this in everyone's CD case, March 2, 2002

By	Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Pete Seeger is a mirror: you see yourself in him. If you're a child, you latch onto his easygoing voice and the humor evident in tunes like "A Little Brand New Baby" and "Little Boxes." If you're a teenager, you cling to the drama in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Who Killed Norma Jean?" If you're an adult--younger or elderly--you can appreciate the joy in life evinced by Seeger on every song on the album. It brings tears to my eyes nearly every time I listen to "Tshotsholosa," a Rhodesian road worker's song. Seeger's gift is to make every song a proclamation of the beauty of life and the wonder of other people. He is endlessly curious and polymathic--songs on this album include the traditional and the new, the English and the Portuguese, the German and the Spanish, the despairing and the overjoyed. Think of this album as a wistfully lovely time capsule in the few months before the 1960s finally exploded. It was recorded just five months before the assassination of JFK (one of Seeger's Harvard classmates) and just five years before the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. It simultaneously bears the innocent stamp of the 1950s without that decade's plastic falsity--and the righteous indignation of the 1960s without the tang of defeat that accompanied so many other things from that era.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time Capsual, December 27, 2000

By	Ben Fitzgerald (Bloomfield, CT United States) - See all my reviews

Wow. 1963. Pete Seeger. According to "Music Hound's Guide to Folk", Seeger was in his prime when he performed this concert at Carnegie Hall. I'll say he was. He finds the emotion and fun in every song he sings and lets his voice soar. If he hasn't completely blown you away before, this recording will. This is the entire un-cut concert with audience applause, Pete's introductions (and mistakes), and it runs for over 2 hours. It's not the same as being there but it's pretty darn close. Listen to it on the best system you can find, make your self comfortable and transport back in time to 1963. This is why Pete Seeger is the Father of modern Folk.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Folk Singer Ever!, April 8, 2000

By	"oldtimerocker" (Huntington, WV USA) - See all my reviews

Pete Seeger is the most essential folk artist ever. This album proves that. It starts off with Seeger and his banjo, but moves quickly to the songs that made him popular. He also does a few Bob Dylan tunes, including a wonderful version of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall." The second disc includes many familiar songs, including "This Land Is Your Land," "We Shall Overcome," and his signature song "Guantanamera." It also includes a number of introductions and conversation with the audience. The original album only had a small portion of this concert. Having the whole show enables a person to hear the magic. Simply one of the best folk albums ever released.