In a mixture of “bittersweet and light,” controversial folksinger Pete Seeger came to Ann Arbor last night.
Free on bail after a trial convicting him of contempt of Congress for his refusal to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Seeger included in his program a song that the judge refused to let him sing in court, “Wasn’t That a Time.”
“Everything I believe is expressed in my songs,” he later commented. “There has always been a running battle between politicians and artists. Shakespeare recognized this in his sonnet. ‘Art Circumscribed by Politics.’”
Noting that he will appeal his conviction in October, he said, “Politics and art are not related in the customary sense. But in the broadest sense, art, including folk music, reflects the culture and attitudes of the society.”
To illustrate his point, Seeger quoted a song:
Ba ba black sheep
Where’d you leave your lamb?
Way down yonder in the cornfield
The buzzards and the butterfly pecking on its eyes.
And the poor little thing cried mama.
SOURCE Michigan Daily, April 15, 1961, 1–2.
“Now this song has nothing to do with politics.” Seeger said. “Yet it reflects the frustration of Negro slavery in the south.”
Mixing the old and new in his program, Seeger created a range of songs from the traditional “John Henry” to the southern Sit- in theme “We Shall Overcome.”
But perhaps he struck the deepest note with the audience when he said, “I’ll let you take this any way you want to take it,” and proceeded to sing “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”