I was as surprised as those black kids when, while watching a television program featuring Pete Seeger this song came up. Apparently, he is very proud of this particular song. I think he said something like within a matter of weeks after singing it for the first time in public (I think MLK was there), it took off and was in the "front lines" all ver the country. I imagine what it must have felt like for him to hear a million poeople singling it in Washington during The March.

I saw Pete Seeger for the first time in 1959 in Western Massachusetts in concert. One thing I remember was that he talked a lot about a friend of his, Woody Guthrie, who was very sick. He encouraged us to write to him. I never did but years later I did a feature story on his widow and about her work on Huntington's Disease. For millions of people, it was the first time they'd ever heard of the disease even if they knew Woody's songs. It helped hundreds of people find each other, find help and information. In some lives, it made a difference. I think I may have decided to do the story because of Pete Seeger's eloquent (and ignored by me) plea from years before. He wouldn't have been surprised. He believes that you put good things out into the world and when it is their time, they bear their fruit.

Later I worked briefly with him a couple of times. Once he did an entire television program based on the idea that we are links in a chain through time, carrying the songs with their messages onward. It's a simple thought but like so many simple thoughts, it can be accepted profoundly.

On a different (if you'll pardon the expression) note, I liked listening to him warm up playing Bach. I guess a lot of people do it now but I have only heard Seeger and a guy who's name I haven't heard in decades, Sandy Bull, play Bach on banjo. I think Bach would have like it.

Sourdough