Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 140

When the Beatles Arrived

For some context:  a month before The Beatles landed on our shores, Dylan released his 3rd album, The Times They Are A-Changin', which included "Hattie Carroll."  Here's a bit of it from the following year.  --G.M.

Pete's Final Night

As recounted by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, who had just flown in from Ramallah.  Posted on Facebook.  Photo left by Robert Corwin.
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I had the privilege and honor to be with Pete this past Monday, not long before he finally passed. I came directly to his hospital room from the airport where I’d arrived from Tel Aviv, having just sung a couple of Pete’s songs the night before (“If I Had a Hammer” and “We Shall Overcome”) in a meeting with folks involved in efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East. The magic of Pete’s songs, as frequently occurs, had a remarkable effect. When the discussion stopped and the music began that night in Ramallah, the spirit in the room changed; “positive” and “enthusiastic” replaced “not so sure” as we created a concrete plan that - who knows? one can always hope - might play a small part in, at last, bringing about a successful peace process.

I was not sure how much Pete understood my words but, nevertheless, by his bedside I told him about the previous night’s events before singing “We Shall Overcome” with his family and friends assembled. This song was shared close to the end of what was almost an hour and a half of remarkable singing at Pete’s bedside. Pete’s daughter Tinya, Pete’s grandson Kitama, other relatives, as well as beloved allies and friends - many who worked with Pete for years on the amazing Clearwater Sloop effort - sang together.

When I had first entered Pete’s room, I had quickly unpacked my guitar and then waited for the loveliest of songs to be finished by one of Pete’s extended family. Then I started to sing a subdued but still gently defiant (if that be possible) version of “We Shall Not Be Moved”. We all crowded around Pete, singing this old Union Song together, with friends on each side of the bed holding his hands. We sang that song for perhaps 7 or 8 minutes, with many verses about “young and old together”, “black and white together”, “gay and straight together”, “the union is behind us”, “no more poison fracking”, on and on.

Slowly the strength and beauty of the singing began to carry us all with it as we felt each other’s hearts unite, all of us singing directly to Pete, and beginning to ride on the sweetness of the sound we were making together. Everyone there was a really good singer and picker and everyone was wordlessly agreeing which song would come next, who would take a verse and how to sing a bit more passionately for a moment and then bring down the energy the next.

For me, it was precisely like some of the most wonderful moments I'd had with Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers when we felt so close and so intuitive that we fairly sailed together, enveloped in a beautiful gliding spirit that was no one’s and everyone’s doing. Honestly, it was more beautiful and peaceful, loving and joyous, (yes and tearful and, yes, reverent) than I can adequately describe.

A number of Pete’s Sloop songs were led by others, and I included “Oh. Freedom”, “Down By the Riverside”, “Talking Union” and “Union Maid” (we got most of the lyrics thanks to others’ memories filling in), a memorable version of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, and even a passionate yet gentle version of “If I Had a Hammer”.

I wanted to tell Pete about singing “No Easy Walk to Freedom” with Noel Paul and Bethany & Rufus at the memorial for Nelson Mandela at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC a few weeks before.  Lots of history, I know, but when we sang the song for Pete, having shared the above, I felt I was telling Pete, “See? We are all carrying it on in your footsteps, dear and beloved Pete, our mentor, our father (figure) to some like me (though he didn’t know it), our path blazer and brave leader.” “No Easy Walk”, as we sang it, was joyous, still subdued as was appropriate, but passionate. It was a great moment for me.

Some of us shared brief anecdotes with Pete prior to singing the songs. Also, it seemed that Pete was trying to sing along on some tunes, particularly on Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land”, despite the oxygen plastic cup covering his mouth and resting on his neck. When he raised his head and stretched his neck, it looked that way, though he might have been just reaching for more oxygen. I really don’t know, but there was no doubt, and it seemed clear, that Pete was really listening and enjoying the music lots and lots. Kitama later emailed me, “I am confident he knew who you were and recognized the songs.”

Pete’s wish, as Kitama had told me when he texted me “bring your guitar” to the hospital, was that he be surrounded by music in such a circumstance if it were to occur, and for about an hour and a half of true joy and some tears (of course), a great spiritual force filled the room and all our hearts.

Some of us said, “I love you” to Pete, as did I when I kissed his forehead before I left. “You’ve been my inspiration my whole life”, I said, and then remembering that at some point I was only 6 months old, I added “at least, most of my life”. I packed my guitar and left, noting that I’d be back the next day to sing once more, which did not, of course, come to pass.

I left feeling really peaceful and complete, with a feeling that Pete was, as he has always been, deep inside me. I also knew, though Pete would have been shy to acknowledge it, that there are thousands of (as Mary called our trio) “Seeger’s Raiders” who will carry on with Pete in their hearts, sharing the great gift of his music and his truly giving, uncompromising, pure spirit still resonating within us all.

As Arlo has so aptly said to Pete, in his imagined conversation, “See you soon” - and indeed I do, and shall, for the rest of my life.

A 'Winterreise' Kind of Night

And Schubert's birthday tomorrow.

And Then He Had a Cigarette

Very funny Rolling Stone report on Miley Cyrus's MTV Unplugged last night--sure ain't Nirvana's.  My favorite graf, a '60s flashback, but then I'm a geezer:  "During the show-opening version of "4X4," Cyrus feels herself up, rubs her crotch with her cowboy hat and, most significantly, twerks with the horse. Nature of the twerking: pro forma, lowkey, sidelong and perhaps a little too self-aware, not quite perfunctory but missing the utopian promise of her best early twerking. If May 2013 inaugurated the Summer of Love of twerk, this twerking had a somewhat more downcast, John Wesley Harding-ish tone. What a long strange twerk it's been."

Franklin Minted

Happy Birthday to FDR, born on this day in 1882.  Here's Bob Dylan and The Band doing Woody Guthrie's "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt" at the Woody memorial concert in 1968.  

It Was 45 Years Ago Today..

If you've never seen the complete final Beatles performance, on that Apple rooftop.

The Years of Paying Dangerously

Two reality-based doctors in The Journal of Oncology Practice are urging their fellow oncologists to advocate for a single-payer universal health insurance system, calling it a "moral and ethical obligation" to their patients.  "Life is short, especially for some patients with cancer; they need help now."

The docs cite appalling stats: a study showing that pharmaceutical companies charge 50 percent more in the U.S. than in Europe for the same drugs, with much of the difference coming from marketing outlays and a 20 percent profit margin. Oncology drugs are often the most ruinously expensive: the median cost of a new drug has risen to $10,000 a month since 2010. Unlike the Department of Veterans Affairs, which gets a 40 percent discount on medication by buying in bulk, Medicare is legally forbidden to negotiate drug prices.

Docs and researchers involved in cancer treatment have begun speaking out,  pointing out "that charging high prices for a medicine needed to keep someone alive is profiteering, akin to jacking up the prices of essential goods after a natural disaster."      

The market-driven approach to cancer care and medicine in general is an epic fail, according to the authors of the Journal of Oncology Practice editorial, Ray Derasga and Lawrence Einhorn: "Years of private-sector solutions have failed. There needs to be a major paradigm shift in our approach to funding healthcare in the U.S."   (h/t MedPage Today) --  B.B.

Scarlett Turns Face: Goes for the Dough

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scarlett Johansson is ending her relationship with a humanitarian group after being criticized over her support for an Israeli company that operates in the West Bank.

A statement released by Johansson's spokesman Wednesday said the 29-year-old actress has "a fundamental difference of opinion" with Oxfam International because the humanitarian group opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights.

"Scarlett Johansson has respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years," the statement said. "She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She is very proud of her accomplishments and fundraising efforts during her tenure with Oxfam."

Earlier this month, "The Avengers" and "Her" actress signed on as the first global brand ambassador of SodaStream International Ltd., and she's set to appear in an ad for the at-home soda maker during the Super Bowl on Feb. 2.

SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists for maintaining a large factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians.

In response to the criticism, Johansson said last week she was a "supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine."

Oxfam took issue with Johansson, noting it was "considering the implications of her new statement and what it means for Ms. Johansson's role as an Oxfam global ambassador."

Catch It While You Can

Not sure what this has to do with the brew, but Guinness has a really cool commercial out on the Barnes twins--bi-athletes with a remarkable Olympics story.  Problem is:  Guinness is not an official Olympics sponsor so they have to pull any ad featuring athletes by midnight tonight.  So watch it now:

Pete and Neil and Phil

Great little piece at NYT on something I'd heard long ago but forgotten.  On the night before my old friend Phil Ochs decided to hang himself, he had been drinking and chatting morosely in New York with Pete Seeger, who had to leave to catch the last train for his home far up the Hudson.  For decades Pete carried that with him, feeling he maybe should have stayed in NY for the night.  Apparently Neil Young had a somewhat similar experience with Kurt Cobain and advised Pete to let it go, but Pete could not. Another measure of the man.  Here's Neil at Farm Aid, where his encounter with Pete took place, paying tribute to Phil after recounting what he'd just said to Pete and reference to Cobain.