Track Listing

1. Power and the Glory
2. Pretty Saro
3. 70 Miles
4. Faucets Are Dripping
5. Cement Octopus
6. God Bless the Grass
7. Quiet Joys of Brotherhood
8. Coal Creek March
9. Girl I Left Behind
10. I Have a Rabbit
11. People Are Scratching
12. Coyote, My Little Brother
13. Preserven el Parque Elysian
14. My Dirty Stream (The Hudson River Song)
15. Johnny Riley
16. Barbara Allen
17. From Way up Here
18. My Land Is a Good Land
19. America the Beautiful [#]
20. Business [#]
21. There'll Come a Time [#]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129837 in Music
• Released on: 1998-05-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

Early musical rally for Ecology...
From the New York Island to the California Coastline, Pete sings in 1965 of various problems with growth, pollution, endangered species, and other issues important to the Earth Day crowd. (Of which I was one, of course.) Hearing these songs today, one is struck by the sad fact that they are still needed and still relevant, despite a lot of progress. Back then, builders didn't have to fill out "Environmental Impact Statements" and hold public hearings on projects which would take away wetlands, or forests, or which would sacrifice rare but "unimportant" fish or birds or insects. When Pete sails today, nearly 40 years later, on the Hudson River, it isn't nearly as much of a "Dirty Stream" as the song on this album described...but it isn't totally saved, either. If you like Seeger, and care about preserving open spaces, buy this CD re-release of one his most important albums. There is a lot on here that still provides inspiration for environmental activism. (And the performances are good, above and beyond the poltical content.} In many ways, Pete Seeger was at his absolute best from 1960 to '70. He began making records in 1940, and continued up until at least 1996, but "The Sixties" was HIS time, and this release caught him right in the middle of it, as the social and cultural battleground changed from the Civil Rights Movement (largely victorious) to quality of life issues, right before the anti-Vietnam movement became the next big musical thing. Pete did his share with that cause, as well (See "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and other songs on later albums.)

So did you think eco-awareness was something new?
Finally this album is available as a CD! As with the "Dangerous Songs" of Pete Seeger, this album is not only excellent music ( I hesitate to say folk-music, since only some of the music is truly folk-music). But at a time when the book 'Silent Spring" made us aware of the devastating effects of DDT and other pesticides on the environment, Pete Seeger was already making the public aware IN SONG of what might befall us if we as a society continued to do battle with nature. This album is as timely today as it was in the sixties, and what better way of passing the message on, of creating a movement through the community of ideas and hearts than by these marvelously presented songs whose apparent simplicity belie the sophistication and complexity of thought and creativity that produced them. Irresistible!

Like a 35-year old nugget of gold.
I didn't grow up with this album, though I knew a lot of its songs. When I reheard it last week, I was blown away. What inspiration. What energy. It is prophetic and provocative, though seeded throughout with humor and love. The music alone would be worth buying and listening to, but the notes on the CD re-release are also gems. Most amazing: the album was recorded over 2 days -- the first two days of summer, 1965. And William O. Douglas' essay on the importance of the wilderness (reprinted as a facsimilie of the original album cover back) is as fresh and urgent today as it was in 1965.