Sony
2005
The Essential Pete Seeger
About This Album
Pete Seeger is the sort of person who has become the stuff of legend for all the best reasons. As a musicologist, he's been a passionate archivist of folk songs of all sorts from around the world for most of his life, and thousands of people (perhaps millions) would not have heard songs such as "Goodnight Irene," "This Land Is Your Land" and "Wimoweh" (aka "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") had he not championed them. As a songwriter, any man with "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "I Come and Stand at Every Door" and "Turn, Turn Turn" in his catalog (among many, many others) has created a truly impressive repertoire. As a musician, it's hard to count how many people picked up the guitar or banjo from his example, and he's always been a pithy and compelling player. And as an activist, Seeger has bravely put his ideals of peace, justice and equality ahead of his career in a manner few musicians of any stature have ever dared or even imagined. However, since Seeger is as influential as any figure in the history of American folk music, and has been recording since the 1940s, the question is -- can this man's life in music be accurately summed up on a single CD? That more than anything is the rub with The Essential Pete Seeger, a compilation which focuses primarily on Seeger's recordings for Columbia from the 1950s and '60s.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5,6,8,11,13 and 14)

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