Pete Seeger: The Power of Song | DVD Review

Who is Pete Seeger, you ask? You know that Byrds song you love so much, Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)? Well, he wrote that bad boy. He also wrote Peter, Paul and Mary’s “If I Had A Hammer”. Oh, and he’s also a dirty rotten commie which made him a victim of the infamous Hollywood Blacklist thus derailing his commercial success greatly. Silly Seeger, politics are for people with an abuse of power and ridiculous amounts of money.

This documentary on the life of legendary folk artist Pete Seeger could not be more straight-forward, and that is absolutely a good thing. From his humble beginnings coming from a musical family to bringing folk music into popular culture, it seems Pete Seeger has seen and done it all. After being blacklisted Seeger was on some serious hard times, but he stuck to his guns by refusing to do a cigarette ad with his then-band The Weavers, quitting the band to instead pass on his banjo-playing prowess to kids as a teacher. After finally being acquitted of whatever it is a suspected communist does, Pete Seeger took his family on a world tour joy ride, spreading his music all over, all the while re-introducing America to its musical heritage by presenting it to a new young audience. Folk revival and popular culture come together as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan find their voices, Although according to his son, Seeger never meant to promote folk music commercially, he instead wanted to use it as a tool to bring people together, in spite of himself his commercialization came from being promoted by others, not himself. After being absent from TV broadcast for 17 years, The Smothers Bros. invited Seeger over to their show but his war-protest song was censored out of the program. In the end, The Smothers Bros. confronted the studio big wigs and prevailed in getting the song its due air time.

All of this and more as we get testimonials from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, Bonnie Raitt and Arlo Guthrie while Seeger cleans up New York’s Hudson River!

Additional Scenes
The “Additional” Scenes could have been very well placed in the documentary, but if not for these there would be no Special Features. What caught my attention more than anything is the fact that the Deleted Scenes are called “Additional” Scenes, which to me seems reminiscent of Mother Teresa saying she would never attend an anti-war protest, but she would a attend a Peace Protest because an anti-war protest still brings attention to the negativity of it by including that nasty word. Was that a consciously done here? I wonder. All I know now is that I want some buttery biscuits.

Seeger Family Short Films
Great little collection of Seeger’s home movies on teaching kids how to play the banjo and also his world tour of different cultures.
Seeger teaches kids how to play the banjo with the use of a “phonograph record” (silly old-timers). First tune the banjo, place the fingers firmly so, then whip that banjo out the window you talentless hack. Next week: how to pick up chicks by faking talent! The highlight is the “Many Colored Paper” video. If you’re nostalgic for pretty much anything, I dare you to watch this with a pair of dry eyes. Seeger’s granddaughter’s narration is enough to make a burly man sob like a little girl.

You have to admire a man who not only revolutionized folk music but built his house from the ground up with his own blood, sweat and tears. After having been rejected by his own government for so long it’s somewhat comforting to know that Seeger was finally recognized for everything he stood for by said government when they finally awarded him the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor, presented by none other than Bill Clinton himself when he was in office. Solid documentary that takes you from point A to point B and seems to leave no stone unturned.

Movie rating – 4

Disc Rating – 2.5