A LETTER from PETE SEEGER: Pop, Rock, & Coca-Colonization
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4... BlJUEl1N de mll.tique plklolique canadienne ---=--- --==~= A LETTER FROM PETE SEEGER: Pop, Rock, & Coca-Colonization Pete Seeger needs no introduction, and we are not going to offer one. temporarily apolitical. Seeger's essay was not the only experience that Rather, I'd like to discuss why we are presenting this essay now. As we helped to reshape my esthetics and politics, but it was perhaps the most noted in our News column in the last issue, the sloop Qearwater celebrated conscious and articulate discussion of the political ramifications of culture its 30th anniversary this year; as I read the announcement, I thought I encountered at that time, and I have oftcn found mysclf thinking of it immediately about Seeger, a major force behind the creation of the sloop, during the two decades that have passed. as well as a necessary ingredient in the North American folk music revivals Some of the ideas Seeger expresses here are treated as passe in some that have occurred in the 2nd half of the century. In many ways, our Society self-styled "progressive" quarters. There is, indeed, reason to claim that is a function of those revivals, and virtually all of our members enjoy music bhangra, reggae, oy,juju, and so on, not to mention country music, heavy that bears traces of Seeger's presence. Obviously, Seeger introduced metal, punk rock, perhaps even disco, are not part of a cultural homog- suburban North America to ballads, to old time banjo music, to calypso, to enization-in some respects, they do speak to (and for, and sometimesfrom) the blues, to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, as well as to the idea that you different constituencies, though I still wonder whether or not the similarities and I could write our own songs: without "The Hammer Song" and "Where don't outweigh the differences. Some theorists suggest that though Michael Have All The Flowers Gone," there'd be no "Blowin' in the Wind," Jackson records sell across the world, the music and the discs themselves "Imagine," "Early Morning Rain," "Barrett's Privateers," or "Sulphur have different meanings in the slums of Bombay and in the suburbs of Passage." Finally, no one has done more than Pete Seeger to remind us of Chicago. Perhaps, but, as Seeger points out, thc meaning for the the political significance of music; his role in the development and multinational corporations who sell them remains the same-more money transmission of "We Shall Overcome" would alone ensure him a place in going into their pockets means more power for them. It's relevant here to our musical history. note that the paper in which I first read this essay included as an illustration We must not overlook Seeger's role in the introduction of non- a rather well done cartoon in which a hippie with a dope pipe and a fatcat European musics into the Anglo-African American musical mixture. He businessman with an expensive cigar in his mouth (he was actually a pig, would certainly be among the first to note that in this case, as in all of the as I recall) were shown to be siamese twins. trends I've cited, he was not alone: there were other reasons and forces, We might add that the purchase of records from whatcver centre other tastes and trendsetters that have drawn us to modal improvisation and frequently inhibits the production of music by individuals. Though audio- complex rhythms of Latin American, Mrica, and Asia. Nevertheless, the philes and technology enthusiasts continually promise that more followers of raga-rock, world beat, jazz/salsa and other hybrids have often sophisticated technology will put control over the means of communication followed trails Seeger explored during the '50s and '60s. While he has been into the hands of individuals and small groups, one could argue just as occasionally criticised as a dilettante (ever hear Dylan's "Talkin' Hava effectively that each of the "advances" in audio quality merely withdraw the Nagila "1), his delight in experimentation is infectious and entirely consistent capacity for this control from the neighborhoods. Who wants to listen to 45s with his political goal of human interactivity. One wonders how many later when LPs "sound so much better"? Who wants to listen to cassettes when fusionists were able to acknowledge, as Seeger did in the programme to a digital CDs are available? Who wants to listen to locals when technology historic 1963 Carnegie Hall concert, that one cannot expect to comprehend brings Sinatra and the Beatles into our living rooms, anyway? or reproduce all the nuances of a 2nd or 3rd musical language. My point is that this argument has not ended. Seeger's plea is still The essay which follows is consistent with this sense of cultural fresh, two decades later. particularity, as he reminds non-Americans of the value of what they alone When we wrote to ask permission to use it, Pete asked us to note that possess. As the title indicates, it was sent as an open letter to students hc "... re-read this 1972 essay of his and tried updating it a little bit. But around the world. That's how I first encountered it, in the University of 99.99% is as he wrote it then." Calgary student paper in 1975. I was at the time coming out of my own -GWL rock and roll era, not yet a Canadian, stilI rather Yankocentric and I am writing this letter for young peopleoutside the USA, is sucha subtlecombination of the abovetwo elementsthat it young peoplewho love music and are strongly attractedby the is almost impossibleto untanglethem. folk and popular music of the USA. I have met you in 34 Second,in your eagernessto learn the new stylesof music countriesof Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. I have from outside your own country, there is real dangerthat you met you in sophisticatedbig city universities and in small will forget the music within your own country, old as well as towns and small countries. I have seen your eyes light up new. It is true that as our lives change, our tastesin music when you hear my guitar or banjo or hear translationsof the will changesomewhat. But it shouldbe possibleto learn new intriguing words of my songs. I have also seenyou tapping things without completelyforgetting old things. your foot in pleasureto the latest popular recordingsof jazz Third, I'd like to try and persuadeyou that if you really and rock-and-roll. want to be modernyoung people, listen to the musicof all the I am writing for three reasons.First, I hope you don't world, not just the USA. Scientistskeep track of developments like all of our music. Someof it representsthe lives of black allover the world, alert to pick up a good new idea. Food and white working people striving and struggling to survive. expertslook through the whole world for varietiesof plants to But someof it representsthe US "establishment"trying to dis- develop. Likewise, in somelittle known corner of the world tract peopleand make them forget their problems. Someof it right now there may exist some beautiful and inexpensive CanadianFolk Music BULlEllN...5 - - musical instrument or style which might prove to be exactly Becausethe main measureof successwas the numberof coins to your taste. Why not help look for it? collected, pop music has tended to changemore rapidly, as Let me go into the abovethree points in more detail. Stick city fashionsdo. It hasalways borrowed cheerfully from folk with me. This is a matter of culturallife-or-death. music and from fine arts music, anywhere and everywhere. The successfulstyles are imitated and spreadfrom city to city. First, what is US pop? In the 19thCentury, US pop music only madea small dent The music of North America is more hybrid than most. in the lives of working people. Only ten percent of America Of course, practically all music shows evidence of ancient lived in cities. Westerncowboys, Irish-American lumberjacks, mixing. Indonesian-type xylophones have been found in Welsh-Americanminers, African-Americanslaves, and many Africa. Chinese instruments made their way to Japan a other working peopleall had different song and dancestyles. thousand years ago. Oriental music influences came to "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear," wrote Walt Spain-the guitar was originally an oriental instrument. Whitman in 1850. However, the mixing in the USA has beenextreme. By mid-2()1hCentury, the carols are not so varied. By this West African rhythms and Irish melodiesare two obvious time 90 percent of the USA lived in cities. 95 percent have elements.But we got a lot more than rhythm from Africa. The television in ~heir homes. The great grandchildren of the custom of one voice answering another ("antiphony") is aforementionedcowboys, lumberjacks, slaves, are listening to typically African. We hear it in the blues, when a guitar much the samemusic on TV networks,all controlled carefully "answers" a singer's cry. We hear it in the responseof the so as not to pennit songswhich might upset the statusquo. bass singers in popular gospel hymns and played by jazz How are they controlled?There is no TV official known as a bands. In addition, basic US attitudes towards music, songs, censor, but every TV producer knows that a "controversial" and dancing are now much more African than most white song can lead to trouble with advertising sponsorsor others. residentsof the USA realize. This is one reasonthat I and others have had trouble getting Of course, our music also contains Europeanmelodies, on TV for the past twenty-five years. Europeanharmonic traditions, and other Europeanelements.