I really like Pete Seeger's music but could never get into him performing them for some reason, I like a lot of folk stuff and I like a lot of covers of his songs but I just can't seem to get into his versions as much.
I get that. For me it's because he puts a very clean facade on a lot of his music. There's one lyric in a song on this album where he goes "the bread is not so well/ the meat is all burned up/ and the coffee's black as HECK/" which is kinda funny but comparing stuff like that to the grittiness of other folk singers or the workers who he would have been supporting and it does give some weird vibes. I think you can hear it in the way he plays and sings too. Like an artist who isn't skilled enough to be lazy and sound good, but can still sound good because he was formally trained.
Also idk why but I never got very revolutionary vibes from him unlike some other folk artists. He did a lot for the movements, sacrificed a lot, and was a CP member for a long time, but he just didn't give off the vibe that he wanted heads to roll. I know that isn't the important part of a revolution (ideally it isn't even necessary) but I think maybe that's where some of the edge comes for other artists like Ochs or Guthrie .
I really like Pete Seeger's music but could never get into him performing them for some reason, I like a lot of folk stuff and I like a lot of covers of his songs but I just can't seem to get into his versions as much.
I get that. For me it's because he puts a very clean facade on a lot of his music. There's one lyric in a song on this album where he goes "the bread is not so well/ the meat is all burned up/ and the coffee's black as HECK/" which is kinda funny but comparing stuff like that to the grittiness of other folk singers or the workers who he would have been supporting and it does give some weird vibes. I think you can hear it in the way he plays and sings too. Like an artist who isn't skilled enough to be lazy and sound good, but can still sound good because he was formally trained.
Also idk why but I never got very revolutionary vibes from him unlike some other folk artists. He did a lot for the movements, sacrificed a lot, and was a CP member for a long time, but he just didn't give off the vibe that he wanted heads to roll. I know that isn't the important part of a revolution (ideally it isn't even necessary) but I think maybe that's where some of the edge comes for other artists like Ochs or Guthrie .