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About the Author

Jean R. Freedman earned a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. She is the author of Whistling in the Dark; Memory and Culture in Wartime London.

Obras de Jean R. Freedman

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This is a book that really needs its other half.

The other half is Peggy Seeger's autobiography, First Time Ever. Both were published at about the same time, and the autobiography goes so far as to suggest that its readers also read this book. This is an affectionate, detailed biography, written with a lot of help from Peggy, that puts Seeger's life in better order than the autobiography. But you really need both.

I'll give an example. Peggy once had a back alley abortion. First Time Ever admits to that fact; Freedman does not. (An interesting omission.) Why the abortion? Because, at that time, she and her husband Ewan MacColl couldn't afford any more children. They just weren't making enough money. (This was before the popular recording of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" made them economically secure.) But this raises the question, Why not just use birth control?

Freedman's book explains that: The pill caused Peggy to develop such debilitating side effects (headaches, etc.) that she simply could not use it. That fact was not mentioned in First Time Ever.

That's an extreme case, but there are many more. Despite the intimacy of Freedman's book, it often fails to explain things which Peggy's biography explains. And yet, because it has more structure than First Time Ever, it is very helpful in understanding the latter. When someone decides to write the definitive Peggy Seeger biography, it will probably use each book about equally.

To that I would add that the book is generally quite clear and readable. And, since Peggy is the last Seeger of her generation, it is a good overview of a great musical family (Charles and Ruth, the parents of Peggy and Mike, the theorists; and Peggy and Mike and their older half-brother Pete, the performers) as well as of Peggy herself. This is a very important book for students of the twentieth century folk revival.

All that said, I have to give a bit of warning: I really don't think this book handles Peggy's music very well. Peggy is many things -- a brilliant instrumentalist, a good performer in her own right, a fine accompanist (especially of Ewan MacColl, but also of others), a well-known songwriter, a capable transcriber and arranger. In other words, she has performance skills and she also has the sorts of technical skills one would expect of the daughter of Charles and Ruth Seeger (this by contrast to brother Mike, who never learned to read music). To explain how rare this is, think of stage musicals: Often there is one person, or a team, who writes the big songs, and some other musician who writes the "incidental music." These are very different abilities; some of the greatest show-stopping musical numbers have been by people who are only semi-literate musically (Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser, for instance), but somebody has to keep the musical pace going. Peggy has both those skills, and she also performs. From a technical musical standpoint, she is the most skilled of all the Seegers. And she is also a bridge -- unlike Pete, who was mostly a performer of American music with political overtones, or Mike, who was mostly a preserver of traditional American music, Peggy is adept in both the Anglo- and the -American parts of Anglo-American folk music, and she moves between traditional and revival and even post-revival music far more easily than her siblings. Freedman admits this well-roundedness, but she doesn't bring it home very well. Instead, she spends a lot of time, in effect, offering capsule reviews of Peggy's many recordings.

And this is what bothers me. Freedman is clearly a fan of Peggy Seeger's music. I don't think she is really a fan of folk music. Of course, there are many definitions of folk music, and some of what Peggy does isn't folk even by the most stretched of definitions. But I don't think, despite her extended discussion at the end of the book, that Freedman has a very good consciousness of the deep question of "authentic" versus "revival" music. It seems clear that she doesn't really care. Believe me, there are many who do! There are at least four levels of folk music; call them (1) Fully authentic, or perhaps Double-traditional (traditional songs performed by traditional musicians); (2) Semi-authentic (traditional songs done by revival performers); (3) Modern material in the proper style of traditional folk songs, intended to enhance the tradition; and (4) Navel-gazing (sometimes with traditional instrumentation, sometimes not). All have different audiences. Mike did only (2); Peggy does (2), (3), and (4). That's a credit to Peggy's versatility, but navel-gazing songs very rarely last (off the top of my head, I can't think of a single pure navel-gazer that went into tradition). Peggy's songs are political, topical, occasionally extremely clever -- but, unlike Freedman, I don't think they will wear very well.

A defect in the biography? It depends on what you like. As a fan of types (1) and (2), and obviously no fan at all of (4), I found the sections that told me about all those likely-to-be-forgotten songs quite dull. You may disagree. But I would really have liked more Peggy and less advertising. Peggy is a genuinely fascinating person -- brilliant, unconventional, with some real blind spots balanced by clear vision in areas where most others are blind. The person I want to hear about isn't the person cranking out all the short-shelf-life albums; it's the unconventional genius.

And, of course, the book is not closed. As of this writing (March 2019), Peggy Seeger is still very much alive, still adding to her legacy. This means that the last chapter of her biography cannot be written. But Freedman's book, I think, peters out too soon, with discussions of recordings and her view of the folk revival (which, of course, differs from mine) dominating the last chapter. Peggy isn't dead, but she is in her eighties. It's time for an overview, even if it won't be the last word. But this book doesn't give that overview; it looks ahead to that next album, that next concert, that next triumph.

A triumph that, to be sure, is almost certain to happen.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
waltzmn | outras 2 resenhas | Mar 9, 2019 |
Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics by Jean R. Freedman is the first biography of folk musician Peggy Seeger.

The Seegers are famous as musicians and musicologists. Peggy was half sister to Pete Seeger the famous banjo-strumming political troubadour, and sister of Mike Seeger who specialized in 'old time ' country music of the rural South.

Their father Charles was a folk music scholar and collector, taught at University of Berkeley, and was responsible for creating the first musicology course in the United States. Charles' first wife Constance was a concert violinist and taught at the Institute of Musical Art, which became Julliard. Their children included Pete Seeger.

After their marriage failed Charles met Ruth Crawford, a musician, composer and folk music anthologist. They married and their children included Peggy and Mike. The children grew up surrounded by folk music, pacifism, and a political bent supportive of the working class.
Peggy and Mike learned banjo from their half-brother Pete's book How To Play the 5-String Banjo.

Alan Lomax invited twenty-year-old Peggy to London for a job singing and playing the banjo. She had a sweet, clear voice. An older, established British folk singer, Ewan McColl, saw Peggy perform and their lives were changed unalterably.

Ewan McColl was "equal parts poetry and politics, artistry and activism," a collector and singer of Scottish folk songs with a remarkable baritone voice. The forty-one-year-old Ewan said his senses were "utterly ravished' when he heard Peggy play. McColl came from the poor, working class. His plays, songs, and radio theater addressed political issues of his day-- workers rights, human rights, fascism, and apartheid.

Ewan and Peggy fell in love, but it was years before Ewan was divorced. Peggy became a British citizen by marrying another singer so she could remain in England. They created the Radio Ballads documentaries, Festival of Fools, The Critics Group, and founded Blackthorne Records.

Ewan wrote Peggy a love song to use in concert, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, in 1957. When Roberta Flack covered the song in 1969 it became a hit. Suddenly McColl and Seeger were financially secure. You can hear Peggy sing the song at: https://secondhandsongs.com/work/31003

As the times changed so did Peggy's music. She reflected the Women's movement with her most famous song, Gonna Be An Engineer. The song from 1979 begins with traditional social expectations for a girl:

Momma told me, Can't you be a lady
Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until you're older, dear, and maybe
You'll be glad that you're a girl

The girl does as she is told until she finally gets the job as an engineer. But she faces stereotypes at work:

You've got one fault, you're a woman
You're not worth the equal pay

To sum up, she sings,

I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool
I listened to my lover and I put him through his school
But if I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool
And an underpaid engineer
I've been a suck ever since I was a baby
As a daughter, as a wife, as a mother and a dear
But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady

I'll fight the as an engineer

Ewan's later years were plagued by illness. Shortly before his death in 1989 Peggy and fellow singer Irene fell in love. In 2006 they had a civil marriage.

I was glad to learn more about Peggy, who I knew through the radio and recordings. She was an amazing woman, pioneering feminist, and accomplished artist.

I have long enjoyed Ewan McColl, especially his Broadside Ballads on which he sings King Lear and His Three Daughters (which you can hear at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vF7n-f72Ig). You can hear Peggy on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/PeggySeeger.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
nancyadair | outras 2 resenhas | Apr 19, 2017 |
Book received from NetGalley.

I have to admit while I know a few of Peggy Seeger's songs, prior to reading this book I knew more about her husband Ewan MacColl and her brother Pete Seeger, and I felt a bit bad about it. I'm a huge fan of folk music and Peggy as a person wasn't someone I really tried to find more information about. So I was thrilled to be given a chance to read her biography through Goodreads. It gives you information on her parents first, so you understand where she got her love of music and her talent as a musician. It also lets you know just what kind of strong willed woman Peggy was and still is. Peggy Seeger accomplished quite a bit for the era she was born and raised in, including attending college and traveling to Europe to study. She is definitely one of those strong-minded women role models needed in the 60's though to today. Even without being a folk music fan the story of how she grew up and her adventures in her young adult years would be an interesting read for many who enjoy books about life from the late depression though the 60's. This is one book I'm getting a copy of for my shelves.… (mais)
 
Marcado
Diana_Long_Thomas | outras 2 resenhas | Feb 25, 2017 |

Estatísticas

Obras
2
Membros
24
Popularidade
#522,742
Avaliação
4.1
Resenhas
3
ISBNs
5