Goodnight, Pete
Goodnight, Irene
-- does anybody remember the tune?
There’s a headline: Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist, dies at 94, there’s a bit of American history of our own age, what went on, what came down, where we were, what we were doing, and WTF were we thinking. It no longer surprises me that Wikipedia keeps up to the minute of death, so the article on The Weavers just now was like standing at the window and again watching the parade that went by during my own lifetime. Pete Seeger, what a live, living, scrappy character. Looking back with Pete, I can see he was right and I was wrong. Pete’s kind help deter our certainties.
Pete jarred me four years ago when the nation celebrated his birthday, and then again more recently, maybe it was when he turned 92 and was on television. And he did it again this morning when I opened the news online. It was jarring, is jarring, I didn’t like it, don’t like it, don’t like what it does to me, where it takes me, I don't like going there. Pete puts me back at sea, in WestPac, during the Vietnam War. ... the Flower Children, they were -- peaceniks. When my ship went into Hong Kong for that week or ten days in early 1970 and ship's company hit the beach, all the Flower Children returned to the ship decked out in their new liberty duds, fabricated quickly for them at local tailor shops in HK.
Sometime during that cruise I went into one of my ship spaces, a computer room -- it was the day and age of the mainframe -- to find bulkheads covered with those little flowers the Flower Children stuck everywhere. It was good statement, from them even subtle protest. I let the flowers stay up. The next time the ship’s captain went through that space on inspection he told me red-faced and in clear terms, “those flowers have to come down.”
Pete Seeger did it to me again this morning, I had hoped it was gone and wouldn’t come back, because it was very dark. Like Joan Baez and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when it dawned that regardless of the patriotic songs I had sung and loved growing up, we were no better than the rest of humanity. My Lai? Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today? The hideous war injuries on tiny little terrified children who were flown out to our ship for plastic surgery. It was a terrible time to live through on the wrong side.
But it showed that when everything is wrong, an American president can be brought down by song --
But it showed that when everything is wrong, an American president can be brought down by song --
Goodnight, Pete.
T
-- does anybody remember the tune?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weavers
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?