A Pete Seeger Moment with Tracy Chapman

As widely reported, well-known musician and activist Pete Seeger died earlier this week at age 94.  I have read several articles about him in the New York Times, and relived in my mind the experience of seeing Seeger perform with Arlo Guthrie at Blossom Music Center sometime in the mid-1970's.  Last night, Palladium channel ran a two-hour program about him, that taught me even more about the man and his music. 

The thing with Seeger was that he never wanted to sing alone.  He always engaged the audience.  The unifying power of music motivated him to write such powerful songs as "We Shall Overcome" (an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement) and "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" (an anti-Vietnam-war song.) And of course, songs of hope and action like "If I Had a Hammer."  He suffered the slings and arrows of a somewhat narrow-minded society, yet continued with fortitude and fearlessness.

What I remember most about the concert at Blossom Music Center was that it was a night of singing along -- not knowing the words was never a problem because Pete taught us along the way.  I don't remember anything about one singular song -- what I remember is the feeling he gave us.  And isn't that something Maya Angelou is known for saying?  People don't remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel.

Pete made me feel great. Refreshed. Like I belonged.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

The unifying power of song.

I wrote about it here -- a memory of a party that ended with everyone singing along to the Eagles greatest hits.  The Palladium program reminded me that I learned many of these folk songs while taking the bus to CYO Day Camp.  Folk music and its spawn are the songs we can all enter into easily and communally. 

Which brings me to Tracy Chapman.

These past couple of weeks I have been doing an exploration with my students into the poem "Fifteen" by William Stafford and the song "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman.  Both songs use a vehicle as a way to dream of escape to a better life.  (See this blog post for explanation of the exploratory concept.)

As usual, my students went crazy when they heard Tracy's voice, thinking she was a man, and totally bewildered to find out she is indeed a woman.  Being 8th graders, this was fodder for plenty of jokes, not the least that she is some kind of transvestite.  The first day I introduced it we read through the lyrics and just listened, then discussed who the speaker was and did a breakdown on the time shifts in the song. A few students told me on the sly that they really, really liked the song and begged me to play it again.  I knew I wouldn't win everyone over, but it never stops me from putting new poems and songs in front of my students -- how else are they ever going to find out about all the great stuff out there?  Certainly won't see it on the Grammy Awards!

But I digress.  I've had to deal with the ugliness of students' judgments before, and by the last day, right before I played the Tracy's live performance of it for my first period class, I asked them to stop with the comments until they do something as well and as powerful as she has done with this song.  That actually shut them up, to my surprise.

But what was even more surprising was that a number of the students started singing along.  And not just the chorus:

So remember when we were driving driving in your car
Speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

They quietly sang the entire song and even applauded at the end.  It wasn't all the students, but it was enough for me to feel the power of song right there in my classroom.  And the biggest part of this?  They sang even though many of their fellow classmates -- some who have been very good at shutting down creative expression in the past against my best efforts -- would not approve or think it was cool.  They were singing along to an "ugly" woman whose gender was suspect to them.  They were singing because the song moved them and they could not longer pretend it didn't.

Seeger said something to Judy Collins that I read about in the NYT.  She had asked Pete just recently how he felt about the state of the world?  He replied, "Optimistic."  When she expressed her surprise he said, "Don't think about the big leaders -- look at all the small leaders around the world, and the people doing good things." I had to immediately write that down.  Focus on the small leaders.  Many people are doing good things. 

Small leaders emerged in my classroom that day, as the kids sang along with Tracy and goosebumps rose up on my arms. 

Seeger's banjo had a saying on it: "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."  I am writing this down so that I will always remember the day that hate surrendered to the power of song in my classroom.

Tracy sings "Fast Car" live.