Gerry Wolff – Porträt in Noten (Amiga, 1969)

Gerry Wolff was born on June 23, 1920 in Bremen, Germany. He was an actor, known for “Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam” (1990), “For Eyes only (Streng geheim)” (1963), “Nackt unter Wölfen” (1963) and “Die Jagd nach dem Stiefel” (1962). He was married to Mirjam Asriel. He died on February 16, 2005 in Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany.

Gerry Wolff was born as a son of the actor Martin Wolff and the soubrette Grete Lilien. At the age of eleven years he became an orphan and grew up by his grandmother. They emigrated in 1935 to England because of their Jewish origin and survived thereby the Holocaust.
Gerry Wolff returned to Germany in 1947 and became an ensemble member at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and later at the Volksbühen in East Berlin. He also started working as an film and tv actor in the DEFA ensemble.

He was also a well-known chanson interpreter in the GDR (“Die Rose war rot”) and a TV moderator.
The Dietz publishing house released a wonderful book about the life of Gerry Wolff, edited by Wolfgang Herzberg, named “Gerry Wolff: Die Rose war rot”.

The album “Porträt in Noten” was released in 1969 on the Amiga label in the German Democratic Republic. The album features tracks like the forementioned “Die Rose war rot” and interpretations of songs/lyrics by Georg Herwegh, Mikis Theodorakis, C. M. Bellmann, Francois Villon, Carlos Puebla and Ewan McColl.

Gerry Wolff – Porträt in Noten (Amiga, 1969)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Gerry Wolff – Porträt in Noten (Amiga, 1969)

Gerry Wolff was born on June 23, 1920 in Bremen, Germany. He was an actor, known for “Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam” (1990), “For Eyes only (Streng geheim)” (1963), “Nackt unter Wölfen” (1963) and “Die Jagd nach dem Stiefel” (1962). He was married to Mirjam Asriel. He died on February 16, 2005 in Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany.

Gerry Wolff was born as a son of the actor Martin Wolff and the soubrette Grete Lilien. At the age of eleven years he became an orphan and grew up by his grandmother. They emigrated in 1935 to England because of their Jewish origin and survived thereby the Holocaust.
Gerry Wolff returned to Germany in 1947 and became an ensemble member at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and later at the Volksbühen in East Berlin. He also started working as an film and tv actor in the DEFA ensemble.

He was also a well-known chanson interpreter in the GDR (“Die Rose war rot”) and a TV moderator.
The Dietz publishing house released a wonderful book about the life of Gerry Wolff, edited by Wolfgang Herzberg, named “Gerry Wolff: Die Rose war rot”.

The album “Porträt in Noten” was released in 1969 on the Amiga label in the German Democratic Republic. The album features tracks like the forementioned “Die Rose war rot” and interpretations of songs/lyrics by Georg Herwegh, Mikis Theodorakis, C. M. Bellmann, Francois Villon, Carlos Puebla and Ewan McColl.

Gerry Wolff – Porträt in Noten (Amiga, 1969)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA – KZ Musik – Encyclopedia Of Music Composed In Concentration Camps (1933 – 1945) – CD 2

Francesco Lotoro feels music from Shoah is part of ‘cultural heritage of humanity’.

 
For more than a decade, Italian pianist Francesco Lotoro has been on a unique and important quest, uncovering, and bringing to the masses, music of all varieties, that was composed and even performed in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

“This music is part of the cultural heritage of humanity,” explains Lotoro. “When I started seeking out this music, my interest was based on curiosity, on passion. I felt that someone had to do it – and that someone was myself. Today it has become a mission.”
So far, Lotoro has collected more than 4,000 pieces of what he calls “concentrationary music”.

And, to ensure that the music was heard by as many people as possible, Lotoro put together an orchestra which played the various works before he began recording it.

Earlier this year, he released a 24-CD set called “KZ Musik”, also known as “The Encyclopedia of Concentrationary Music.”

“People continued to create despite being in those places,” marveled Lotoro. “These composers felt that the camp was probably the last place they would be alive, and so they made a will, a testament. They had nothing material to leave, only their heart, only their mind, only the music. And so they left the music to future generations. It is a great testament of the heart.”

Lotoro, who felt a kinship with Judaism since his teens and converted to Judaism in 2004, believes that his work is far from over.

“How many works are still out there that I haven’t found?” he asks. “How many works am I missing? How many will I be able to save?”

From: http://us.shalomlife.com/

Tracklist:

 Die Weise von Liebe und Tod der Cornets Christoph Rilke (für Sprecher und Klavier)01. 1. Den 24. November 1663 (0:47)
02. 2. Reiten, reiten, reiten (2:33)
03. 3. Jemand erzählt von seiner Mutter (2:57)
04. 4. Ein Tag durch den Troß (1:31)
05. 5. Der von Langenau schreibt einen Brief (3:59)
06. 6. Rast! Gast sein einmal (2:14)
07. 7. Als Mahl beganns (1:24)
08. 8. Einer, der weiße Seide trägst (2:58)
09. 9. Die Turmstube ist dunkel (2:58)
10. 10. Ist das der Morgen? (1:41)
11. 11. Aber die Fahne ist nicht dabei (1:16)
12. 12. Er läuft um die Wette mit brennenden Gängen (1:25)
13. 13. Im nächsten Frühjahr (2:07)

3 Lieder nach Hölderlin (für Bariton und Klavier)
14. Nr. 1: Sonnenuntergang (1:38)
15. Nr. 2: Der Frühling (1:52)
16. Nr. 3: Abendphantasie (6:19)

Immer inmitten (für Mezzosopran und Klavier)
17. Nr. 1: Immer inmitten (2:41)
18. Nr. 2: Vor der Ewigkeit (3:50)

Brezulinka op. 53 (für Mezzosopran und Klavier)
19. Nr. 1: Beryozkele (3:57)
20. Nr. 2: Margaritkelech (2:05)
21. Nr. 3: A meydl in di worn (2:07)
22. Ein jüdisches Kind (für Sopran und Klavier) (1:53)
23. Ukolébavka (für Sopran und Klavier) (2:49)
24. Ade, Kamerad! (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:38)
25. Ukolébavka (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:15)
26. Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:14)
27. Emigrantenlied (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:48)
28. Dobr# den (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (0:37)
29. Kleines Wiegenlied (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:28)
30. Und der Regen rinnt (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:40)
31. Wiegala (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:49)

VA – KZ Musik – CD 2
(256 kbps, front cover included)

VA – KZ Musik – Encyclopedia Of Music Composed In Concentration Camps (1933 – 1945) – CD 2

Francesco Lotoro feels music from Shoah is part of ‘cultural heritage of humanity’.

 
For more than a decade, Italian pianist Francesco Lotoro has been on a unique and important quest, uncovering, and bringing to the masses, music of all varieties, that was composed and even performed in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

“This music is part of the cultural heritage of humanity,” explains Lotoro. “When I started seeking out this music, my interest was based on curiosity, on passion. I felt that someone had to do it – and that someone was myself. Today it has become a mission.”
So far, Lotoro has collected more than 4,000 pieces of what he calls “concentrationary music”.

And, to ensure that the music was heard by as many people as possible, Lotoro put together an orchestra which played the various works before he began recording it.

Earlier this year, he released a 24-CD set called “KZ Musik”, also known as “The Encyclopedia of Concentrationary Music.”

“People continued to create despite being in those places,” marveled Lotoro. “These composers felt that the camp was probably the last place they would be alive, and so they made a will, a testament. They had nothing material to leave, only their heart, only their mind, only the music. And so they left the music to future generations. It is a great testament of the heart.”

Lotoro, who felt a kinship with Judaism since his teens and converted to Judaism in 2004, believes that his work is far from over.

“How many works are still out there that I haven’t found?” he asks. “How many works am I missing? How many will I be able to save?”

From: http://us.shalomlife.com/

Tracklist:

 Die Weise von Liebe und Tod der Cornets Christoph Rilke (für Sprecher und Klavier)01. 1. Den 24. November 1663 (0:47)
02. 2. Reiten, reiten, reiten (2:33)
03. 3. Jemand erzählt von seiner Mutter (2:57)
04. 4. Ein Tag durch den Troß (1:31)
05. 5. Der von Langenau schreibt einen Brief (3:59)
06. 6. Rast! Gast sein einmal (2:14)
07. 7. Als Mahl beganns (1:24)
08. 8. Einer, der weiße Seide trägst (2:58)
09. 9. Die Turmstube ist dunkel (2:58)
10. 10. Ist das der Morgen? (1:41)
11. 11. Aber die Fahne ist nicht dabei (1:16)
12. 12. Er läuft um die Wette mit brennenden Gängen (1:25)
13. 13. Im nächsten Frühjahr (2:07)

3 Lieder nach Hölderlin (für Bariton und Klavier)
14. Nr. 1: Sonnenuntergang (1:38)
15. Nr. 2: Der Frühling (1:52)
16. Nr. 3: Abendphantasie (6:19)

Immer inmitten (für Mezzosopran und Klavier)
17. Nr. 1: Immer inmitten (2:41)
18. Nr. 2: Vor der Ewigkeit (3:50)

Brezulinka op. 53 (für Mezzosopran und Klavier)
19. Nr. 1: Beryozkele (3:57)
20. Nr. 2: Margaritkelech (2:05)
21. Nr. 3: A meydl in di worn (2:07)
22. Ein jüdisches Kind (für Sopran und Klavier) (1:53)
23. Ukolébavka (für Sopran und Klavier) (2:49)
24. Ade, Kamerad! (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:38)
25. Ukolébavka (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:15)
26. Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:14)
27. Emigrantenlied (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:48)
28. Dobr# den (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (0:37)
29. Kleines Wiegenlied (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:28)
30. Und der Regen rinnt (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (1:40)
31. Wiegala (für Frauenstimme und Klavier) (2:49)

VA – KZ Musik – CD 2
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Pete Seeger – American Industrial Ballads (1957)

Songs of struggle which emerged from the coal mines, textile mills and acres of farmland, and spoke of issues important to the American laborer. Twenty-four songs written about the unprecedented industrialization of the 19th century, including Peg and Awl, The Farmer is the Man, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Irwin Silber’s notes provide a history of labor folk song and its role in American popular music. “Seeger’s straightforward, sincere singing is accompanied by sparse, effective banjo and guitar…an important reissue.” — Sing Out

Pete Seeger presents a history of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on working people on “American Industrial Ballads”, a collection of 24 songs (over half of them shorter than two minutes each) sequenced in chronological order by date of composition, to the extent that this can be determined, from the early-1800s appearance of “Peg and Awl,” in which a worker struggles to keep up with a machine, to songs written by Woody Guthrie and Les Rice in the 1940s.

Only a couple of songs are well known, and those don’t fit the concept perfectly. “The Buffalo Skinners,” an account of cowboys who kill their overseer after he refuses to pay them, and “Casey Jones,” the famous tale of a train wreck, are both somewhat tangential to industrial concerns, though they do fit themes heard throughout the album: first, employers’ abuse of workers, who then must fight back (although usually by starting unions and going out on strike); and second, the relationship between an individual worker and the system of machinery he encounters.

As the album goes on, the workers’ complaints about ill treatment and low pay become more extreme, and eventually the need for unions to represent them seems overwhelming. Even then, the bosses respond with violence, as Seeger documents in such songs as Jim Garland’s “The Death of Harry Simms” and Della Mae Graham’s “Ballad of Barney Graham,” both true stories of murdered union men. Accompanying himself mostly on banjo and sometimes guitar, Seeger presents the songs straightforwardly with only occasional flourishes, intent on getting the meanings across, although occasionally his desire to lead singalongs comes out, such as in “Raggedy,” when he provides cues to sing each verse, even though he’s performing alone in a recording studio. Many of these songs are too harrowing to sing along to, though. Taken together, they chronicle a century and a half of the efforts of farmers, textile workers, and miners, primarily, to get what they deserve from increasingly rich and powerful captains of industry.      

Tracklist:

A1		Peg And Awl
A2		The Blind Fiddler
A3		Buffalo Skinners
A4		Eight Hour Day
A5		Hard Times In The Mill
A6		Roll Down The Line
A7		Hayseed Like Me
A8		The Farmer Is The Man
A9		Come All You Hardy Miners
A10		He Lies In The American Land
A11		Casey Jones
A12		Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine
A13		Weave Room Blues
B1		Cotton Mill Colic
B2		7c. Cotton And 40c. Meat
B3		Mill Mother’s Lament
B4		Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch
B5		Beans, Bacon And Gravy
B6		The Death Of Harry Simms
B7		Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues
B8		Ballad Of Barney Graham
B9		My Children Are Seven In Number
B10		Raggedy, Raggedy Are We
B11		Pittsburgh Town
B12		60% Parity

Pete Seeger – American Industrial Ballads (1957)
(256 kbps, cover art and booklet included)         

Pete Seeger – American Industrial Ballads (1957)

Songs of struggle which emerged from the coal mines, textile mills and acres of farmland, and spoke of issues important to the American laborer. Twenty-four songs written about the unprecedented industrialization of the 19th century, including Peg and Awl, The Farmer is the Man, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Irwin Silber’s notes provide a history of labor folk song and its role in American popular music. “Seeger’s straightforward, sincere singing is accompanied by sparse, effective banjo and guitar…an important reissue.” — Sing Out

Pete Seeger presents a history of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on working people on “American Industrial Ballads”, a collection of 24 songs (over half of them shorter than two minutes each) sequenced in chronological order by date of composition, to the extent that this can be determined, from the early-1800s appearance of “Peg and Awl,” in which a worker struggles to keep up with a machine, to songs written by Woody Guthrie and Les Rice in the 1940s.

Only a couple of songs are well known, and those don’t fit the concept perfectly. “The Buffalo Skinners,” an account of cowboys who kill their overseer after he refuses to pay them, and “Casey Jones,” the famous tale of a train wreck, are both somewhat tangential to industrial concerns, though they do fit themes heard throughout the album: first, employers’ abuse of workers, who then must fight back (although usually by starting unions and going out on strike); and second, the relationship between an individual worker and the system of machinery he encounters.

As the album goes on, the workers’ complaints about ill treatment and low pay become more extreme, and eventually the need for unions to represent them seems overwhelming. Even then, the bosses respond with violence, as Seeger documents in such songs as Jim Garland’s “The Death of Harry Simms” and Della Mae Graham’s “Ballad of Barney Graham,” both true stories of murdered union men. Accompanying himself mostly on banjo and sometimes guitar, Seeger presents the songs straightforwardly with only occasional flourishes, intent on getting the meanings across, although occasionally his desire to lead singalongs comes out, such as in “Raggedy,” when he provides cues to sing each verse, even though he’s performing alone in a recording studio. Many of these songs are too harrowing to sing along to, though. Taken together, they chronicle a century and a half of the efforts of farmers, textile workers, and miners, primarily, to get what they deserve from increasingly rich and powerful captains of industry.      

Tracklist:

A1		Peg And Awl
A2		The Blind Fiddler
A3		Buffalo Skinners
A4		Eight Hour Day
A5		Hard Times In The Mill
A6		Roll Down The Line
A7		Hayseed Like Me
A8		The Farmer Is The Man
A9		Come All You Hardy Miners
A10		He Lies In The American Land
A11		Casey Jones
A12		Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine
A13		Weave Room Blues
B1		Cotton Mill Colic
B2		7c. Cotton And 40c. Meat
B3		Mill Mother’s Lament
B4		Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch
B5		Beans, Bacon And Gravy
B6		The Death Of Harry Simms
B7		Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues
B8		Ballad Of Barney Graham
B9		My Children Are Seven In Number
B10		Raggedy, Raggedy Are We
B11		Pittsburgh Town
B12		60% Parity

Pete Seeger – American Industrial Ballads (1957)
(256 kbps, cover art and booklet included)         

Pete Seeger – American Ballads (1957)

RIP – and many thanks for all the great music!

 

This collection reminds us that the ballad’s purpose, first and foremost, is to tell a story. These songs narrate tales of ordinary people—hoboes and lovers and sailors—and their extraordinary deeds. From “John Henry” to “Lady Margaret,” Pete Seeger’s expressive style is ideally communicative.

The 14 “American ballads” Pete Seeger chose to sing on this album while accompanying himself on the banjo are songs sung in the U.S., but often not originating there. Annotator Norman Studer notes that “some of the ballads in this album have been enjoyed for hundreds of years,” and the introduction to “Down in Carlisle (In Castyle There Lived a Lady)” acknowledges that “This story goes back to Roman days, if not earlier.” Still, they have been collected from rural American singers whose ancestors brought them across the Atlantic, Seeger noting, for example, that he learned “The Golden Vanity” from a Carter Family recording.

And there are songs that clearly did originate, at least in terms of lyrical content, in the U.S. in the 19th century or even the 20th, albeit in what the notes describe as “horse and buggy days.” “Jay Gould’s Daughter” references the famous American robber baron (1836-1892); “Jesse James” recounts the murder of the famous American outlaw (1847-1882); and “The Titanic Disaster” looks back only to 1912. Whether or not there is a traceable historical person or event, however, the songs tell stories of love, adventure, and criminality, siding with the poor and disadvantaged over the rich and privileged.

Exemplary among them are John Henry, the steel driver who defeats the automated steel drill, but in so doing breaks his heart and dies, and the cabin boy in “The Golden Vanity” who sinks the rival Turkish Revelee by boring a hole in the ship’s hull, but then is betrayed by his own captain and drowns. The main characters of the songs often come to bad ends, but they remain folk heroes, and Seeger sings their stories straightforwardly, preserving their memories long after their deaths. 

 Tracklist:

A1		Pretty Polly
A2		The Three Butchers
A3		John Henry
A4		Jay Gould’s Daughter
A5		The Titanic Disaster
A6		Fair Margaret & Sweet William
A7		John Hardy
B1		The Golden Vanity
B2		Gypsy Davy
B3		Farmer’s Curst Wife
B4		In Castyle There Lived A Lady
B5		St. James Hospital
B6		Jesse James
B7		Barbara Allen

   

Pete Seeger – American Ballads (1957)
(256 kbps, front cover and booklet included)

Pete Seeger – American Ballads (1957)

RIP – and many thanks for all the great music!

 

This collection reminds us that the ballad’s purpose, first and foremost, is to tell a story. These songs narrate tales of ordinary people—hoboes and lovers and sailors—and their extraordinary deeds. From “John Henry” to “Lady Margaret,” Pete Seeger’s expressive style is ideally communicative.

The 14 “American ballads” Pete Seeger chose to sing on this album while accompanying himself on the banjo are songs sung in the U.S., but often not originating there. Annotator Norman Studer notes that “some of the ballads in this album have been enjoyed for hundreds of years,” and the introduction to “Down in Carlisle (In Castyle There Lived a Lady)” acknowledges that “This story goes back to Roman days, if not earlier.” Still, they have been collected from rural American singers whose ancestors brought them across the Atlantic, Seeger noting, for example, that he learned “The Golden Vanity” from a Carter Family recording.

And there are songs that clearly did originate, at least in terms of lyrical content, in the U.S. in the 19th century or even the 20th, albeit in what the notes describe as “horse and buggy days.” “Jay Gould’s Daughter” references the famous American robber baron (1836-1892); “Jesse James” recounts the murder of the famous American outlaw (1847-1882); and “The Titanic Disaster” looks back only to 1912. Whether or not there is a traceable historical person or event, however, the songs tell stories of love, adventure, and criminality, siding with the poor and disadvantaged over the rich and privileged.

Exemplary among them are John Henry, the steel driver who defeats the automated steel drill, but in so doing breaks his heart and dies, and the cabin boy in “The Golden Vanity” who sinks the rival Turkish Revelee by boring a hole in the ship’s hull, but then is betrayed by his own captain and drowns. The main characters of the songs often come to bad ends, but they remain folk heroes, and Seeger sings their stories straightforwardly, preserving their memories long after their deaths. 

 Tracklist:

A1		Pretty Polly
A2		The Three Butchers
A3		John Henry
A4		Jay Gould’s Daughter
A5		The Titanic Disaster
A6		Fair Margaret & Sweet William
A7		John Hardy
B1		The Golden Vanity
B2		Gypsy Davy
B3		Farmer’s Curst Wife
B4		In Castyle There Lived A Lady
B5		St. James Hospital
B6		Jesse James
B7		Barbara Allen

   

Pete Seeger – American Ballads (1957)
(256 kbps, front cover and booklet included)

RIP Pete Seeger

Legendary folk singer, activist and icon to those that believe and fight for peace, justice, and good music, Pete Seeger passed away today at the age of 94. It’s difficult to sum up a career that encompassed the better part of a century, guided some of the greatest songwriters of the 60s and 70s, and, until his death, continued to join in marches and other non-violent resistance working toward the utopian world that he dreamed of. Seeger’s contributions to folk music include the seminal “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” But beyond on that, it was through Seeger’s voice and banjo that he kept alive centuries of folk. Seeger’s father was an ethnomusicologist and Seeger was a living embodiment of the commitment to the music and the people of the United States. Because, it’s through music that our despair, heartbreak, joy, resistance, languished cries, and cries of freedom are given voice and heard.

 

Seeger’s path wasn’t easy, though. In the 1960s, he was being persecuted by the House Un-American Activities for his politics. But, Seeger carried on, performing for communities and at schools.

 

The world just got one step further away from utopia today. Rest in peace, Pete.

 

(Thanks to http://welistenforyou.blogspot.de/ for these wonderful words.)

LaserGuidedWhiteHouse wrote in the comment section:

“Off topic, bit it’s already later than yesterday (it always is)….I wanted to say here some kind of thank you to Peter Seeger, who passed away yesterday in New York. He was a great man, and I’ll remember him always as a most uncommon sort of person, a person who believed in the power of every single person to change the world, to make it a better place, a more humane place where every man, woman, and child would have enough. A single voice singing some meaningful and passionate words can become 20 voices, a thousand voices, 100 million voices, and he was one of the very first people to show that to everybody in this age of mass-communication. Sometimes just knowing that a person will bravely stand up to speak for you, when you don’t think you have a voice, can really change your mind. You know you’re not alone, that there are others; and you realize as your voices are borne aloft that no matter how much someone may be trying to squash you from above, you have the power to fight back, and win. It’s just as much your world as theirs, and kindness and caring and the union of humanity are what it’s all about in the end, as long as everyone speaks up, as long as everyone sings out. So let us always remember his message, especially in this new age of what appears to be some sort of quietly creeping global crypto-fascism. Lift your voices. Rest in Peace Pete.”

RIP Pete Seeger

Legendary folk singer, activist and icon to those that believe and fight for peace, justice, and good music, Pete Seeger passed away today at the age of 94. It’s difficult to sum up a career that encompassed the better part of a century, guided some of the greatest songwriters of the 60s and 70s, and, until his death, continued to join in marches and other non-violent resistance working toward the utopian world that he dreamed of. Seeger’s contributions to folk music include the seminal “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” But beyond on that, it was through Seeger’s voice and banjo that he kept alive centuries of folk. Seeger’s father was an ethnomusicologist and Seeger was a living embodiment of the commitment to the music and the people of the United States. Because, it’s through music that our despair, heartbreak, joy, resistance, languished cries, and cries of freedom are given voice and heard.

 

Seeger’s path wasn’t easy, though. In the 1960s, he was being persecuted by the House Un-American Activities for his politics. But, Seeger carried on, performing for communities and at schools.

 

The world just got one step further away from utopia today. Rest in peace, Pete.

 

(Thanks to http://welistenforyou.blogspot.de/ for these wonderful words.)

LaserGuidedWhiteHouse wrote in the comment section:

“Off topic, bit it’s already later than yesterday (it always is)….I wanted to say here some kind of thank you to Peter Seeger, who passed away yesterday in New York. He was a great man, and I’ll remember him always as a most uncommon sort of person, a person who believed in the power of every single person to change the world, to make it a better place, a more humane place where every man, woman, and child would have enough. A single voice singing some meaningful and passionate words can become 20 voices, a thousand voices, 100 million voices, and he was one of the very first people to show that to everybody in this age of mass-communication. Sometimes just knowing that a person will bravely stand up to speak for you, when you don’t think you have a voice, can really change your mind. You know you’re not alone, that there are others; and you realize as your voices are borne aloft that no matter how much someone may be trying to squash you from above, you have the power to fight back, and win. It’s just as much your world as theirs, and kindness and caring and the union of humanity are what it’s all about in the end, as long as everyone speaks up, as long as everyone sings out. So let us always remember his message, especially in this new age of what appears to be some sort of quietly creeping global crypto-fascism. Lift your voices. Rest in Peace Pete.”