According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in a 1971 interview, Pete Seeger said “My ability lies in being able to get a crowd to sing along with me. When I get upon a stage, I look on my job as trying to tell a story. I use songs to illustrate my story and dialogue between songs to carry the story forward.”
I was lucky enough as a young girl to hear Pete in person, more than once. He sang us to sleep with “Abiyoyo”, and charged our courage with “We Shall Not Be Moved.” And with the album “The Rainbow Quest” he told me the story that would shape my life.
Over the next several posts, I’ll tell that story, and I hope I can do with it what The Rainbow Quest did for me: move you, open your heart, give you the courage to look your fear of the nuclear monster in the face and sing it to sleep, so you can step up, wave your magic wand zup zup and make the paralyzing weight of that fear disappear.
Here on YouTube ~ Pete Seeger ~ Live at Wolftrap (1993) ~ Abiyoyo
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