"Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert and President Obama"

UPDATE (5/10/09): I heard from Kathy Miner in Wisconsin who attended the concert and she wanted me to know

Dear Howie, with all due respect, thank you for what you wrote about the Pete Seeger 90th birthday concert but please quote Bruce Springsteen
correctly. He did not say that Pete "outlived the bastards". He said,
"Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man."

"Outlived" doesn't have the rhyme, rhythm or sassiness of what the Boss actually said.

It was a wonderful show! Well worth the trip from Wisconsin!

M. J. Rosenberg (TPM):

On Sunday night Pete Seeger's 90th birthday was celebrated with a concert at Madison Square Garden.

It was great. Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Rufus Wainwright, Arlo Guthrie, and a dozen or two other headliners performed.

And Pete Seeger, of course.

But here's the amazing thing. In my life, I have never been to a concert (let alone a lefty concert) at which the name of the President of the United States was cheered. At previous concerts I've been to over the decades, the names of Kennedy, Johnson, Carter or Clinton were no more likely to be cheered than those of Reagan or Bush.

I mean, who cheers Presidents at concerts? Traditionally, names of Presidents go unmentioned. Or they are booed.

Springsteen said that he never saw Seeger more happy than at Obama's inauguration, noting that Seeger saw Obama's ascendancy as proof that he, Seeger, had "outlived the bastards."

One more thing. The 30,000 people in the audience wildly cheered a letter from Obama saluting Seeger.

Two incredible things there. One, a President salutes a life-long radical (and also has him perform at his inauguration). Two, an audience of aging hippies and 20-somethings goes nuts every time the President is mentioned.

I can't believe I've lived to see the day.

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger. The America of your music may be in the process of being born.

Howie P.S.: In a past life, I was a teenager in New York going to one of those summer camps where they sang folk songs. I was also fortunate to have family and personal ties to the Seeger family, so this convergence is especially gratifying. John Carucci also has a story about the concert at Madison Square Garden on HuffPo.

Barack Obama