Quote of the day: "There are thousands [of songs with a message]. You don't have to reinvent them. Just sing them the best you can" (Pete Seeger)

With the release of Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, drawing on the vast repertory the great folksinger performed and recorded over his long career, Billboard sent Leo Sacks to interview Seeger.

At 87, he served up quotes enough for a bunch of days. If we have to pick one, though, we'll go with:

"Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live."



Here are some highlights of the Billboard "Q&A":

BILLBOARD: Do popular performers, through their enormous influence, have a social responsibility to speak out?

PETE SEEGER: Does Billboard cover the coffeehouse circuit? Thousands of people are making up songs about war and peace. We just don't hear them on the radio.

BILLBOARD: What would Woody Guthrie sing about today?

PETE SEEGER: He'd say, "Reach the kids!" You never heard "This Land Is Your Land" on radio or television, so how come everyone knew it? It got into the schools!



BILLBOARD: Where is the first place to work for change?

PETE SEEGER: Right where you are.

BILLBOARD: Think globally, act locally.

PETE SEEGER: Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live. Maybe you can bring cheer to a hospice or build a colorful playground for toddlers. The last thing to change will be the corporations. But what can they do about little projects everywhere, like the 800 community gardens in New York City? Developers can't bulldoze them away!



BILLBOARD: Would you share a fond memory?

PETE SEEGER: When a half million people sang, "All we are saying/Is give peace a chance," at the Washington Monument in November 1969. Parents swayed with children on their shoulders. Everyone moved like a gigantic ballet.

BILLBOARD: What inspires you?

PETE SEEGER: Singing for children. Seeing their smiling faces. It reminds me that millions of children, tens of millions of children, can save our world.

BILLBOARD: A benediction, please.

PETE SEEGER: If there's something wrong, speak up!


UPDATE: ABOUT THE PHOTO

I added a picture of Pete with Henry Wallace. Who's Wallace, you ask? It's worth looking into. I can't talk for all the vice-presidents before him, but there were none who could hold a candle to him since. And if you don't feel like reading the short bio from the link, go listen to this great song about him by The Hangdogs (4th song down, on the player: Wallace '48). I think Pete would like the song a lot and I hope you will too.