Pete Seeger - Birds Beasts Bugs and Fishes (@256)

I'm really happy that I'm posting something about the 90th birthday (on May, 3) of Pete Seeger. His birthday was celebrated last Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and musicians such as Springsteen, Tom Morello, John Mellencamp, Ani DiFranco, Arlo Guthrie, Ben Harper, Billy Bragg, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton, Richie Havens, Roger McGuinn, Steve Earle and Taj Mahal (among many others) paid tribute to a musician whose contribution in the US culture is enormous. Quoting Tom Morello: "Pete Seeger is a tremendous inspiration, not just for activist musicians, but I believe for all Americans, and a shining example of someone who combines uncompromising activism with heart and soul and a generous spirit. And his enormous catalog of fantastic songs, mixed with his bravery throughout his ninety years of life in standing up for social justice, is unparalleled in American history. (...) I think that Pete is one of the first links in a chain of musicians—before him, maybe Joe Hill, and after him, not just folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, you know, Bruce Springsteen and, you know, those of us who—many on the bill today, including my own Nightwatchman, who try to follow—put our small feet in his big footsteps, but I also think he’s a link in the chain of groups like Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down and the Clash and Public Enemy, music that serves the purpose of social justice, but also music the stands on its own. (...) His antiwar stance, I think—you know, if one four-minute performance of a song could be credited with ending the Vietnam War, it was Pete Seeger on The Smothers Brothers Show, when he sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” in defiance of the censors and in defiance of the blacklist. And I think that was a really heroic moment in the antiwar crusade."

Now, about this upload, since the last post was again overtly political, I chose not to post a protest album of Pete Seeger, but to urge you to discover a not well-known part of his discography. In his long career he has recorded some children's albums; this upload is a compilation from two of those ("Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Little Fishes" and "Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Bigger Fishes") recorded in 1955. I hope your children will enjoy this.

album review link: here

download link: here