Precious Friend

At this writing, Pete Seeger is 81, and while he's still performing in spurts, my understanding is that he's sounding every day his age, and he knows it. Back when this album was recorded in the early 80s, though, he was in fine form and when playing with Arlo, he was always at his best.

I had the opportunity to see these two together in 1983 and it's the only time I saw an act get a two-minute standing ovation -- BEFORE they had even played a note. This album includes a lot of the songs that Pete and Arlo did at the concert I saw.

Arlo's band, Shenandoah, comes along for the ride but they're screamingly unnecessary. The highlights are many: "I'm changing my name to Chrysler," "The Garden Song," and "In Dead Earnest," Pete's little tribute to the late former Weaver Lee Hays, to name a few.

I wish Warners or somebody would have the presence of mind to re-release the live set from Boston that Pete and Arlo put out around 1974. As good as this CD is, the first live album leaves this one in the dust.

So while Seeger may never again have the vocal chops that he once had, it's nice to have albums like this around to remind us of the old days. Oh, and I don't mean to slight Arlo; he's especially good here, too, and still in peak form here in the new century!

Just when I thought all was lost

You changed my mind

You gave me hope not just the

old soft soap

You showed that we could learn to

share in time

You and me and Rockefeller

I'll keep plugging on

Your face will shine

Through all our tears

And when we sing another little

victory song

Precious friend you will be there

Singing in harmony

Precious friend you will be there

(Copyright 1974, Stormking Music BMI)

Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger teamed up in the summer of 1981 to give a blessed crowd an incredible opportunity to enjoy a SUPERB outdoor concert performance. The songs on the two CD set are mostly folk music about the working class and the everyday common man. We hear songs about the "raggedy raggedy" workers who need empowerment in the form of a union to stay alive; and there's a great song entitled "I'm changing my name to Chrysler" sung by Arlo to demonstrate how fat corporate America gets much more social welfare in the form of government bail-outs than the poor ever will. Arlo's sarcasm of the necessity for money for impoverished people to merely exist is evident in his social commentary song "Do Re Mi." (Arlo uses the word "Do" as a synonym for money.) Arlo also dreams of a world where guns disintegrate and flowers grow; the crowd becomes ecstatic. However, there's more than just social commentary and opinions here. There's also the beautiful love song sung by Pete, "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine;" and the song "Circles" about the twists and turns of life. We are treated to the bittersweet yet somewhat amusingly performed classic "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" sung by Arlo with the musicians accompanying him. The electricity throughout the concert is amazing but this last song is especially powerful because of the way it is so beautifully performed with just the right amount of improvisation. Yet the most powerful moments are at the very end of the concert when Arlo sings the infamous "Amazing Grace." Arlo explains that the song was written by the captain of a slave ship who realized the error of his ways and turns his boat around to return the would-be slaves back to Africa.

All throughout, both Arlo and Pete enjoy a masterful ability to lead their audience exactly where they want to take them while keeping them entertained all the way!!! Pete often helps the audience participate by singing along with his songs; Pete has often called himself a "sing-along leader" on many occasions during his career. Even at the end of a fairly long concert; the electric atmosphere is so powerful that the audience is truly screaming for still more. A tour de force for Arlo and Pete!

The CD set is well produced and of course being a professional recording it is recorded from the soundboard on stage and certainly not from the audience. Arlo and Pete have ample musicians to help them along, introduced by Arlo by their first names only during the song "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone." The musicians make this classic into a great jam session with a lot of fun for the audience and any CD listener.

In addition, the two CD set comes with a booklet giving you all the words and credits for each song. In addition, most of Arlo's spoken words to the audience are carefully written out for you here.

If you are a folk music fan but you don't have this two CD set in your collection, get it now and set aside a LOT of time because you will not be able to listen to this set only once before putting it away. I have listened to it countless times over the years and it has never lost a shred of freshness nor power. If you want a primer on folk music laced with some spiritual accents and social commentary, then this is also a great CD set for you. We are truly lucky to have these two ingenious men amongst us all these years. Their compassion, intelligence and wit abound in every song so carefully performed for their audience. If you can, I would also recommend any other CD set that showcases the talents of Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger performing together live. This would include the two CD set of their 1975 live concert entitled Together in Concert, and possibly also More Together Again IN Concert which was recorded in the early 1990s.

A BUY! SMILE

I must admit to not knowing too much about either Pete Seeger or Arlo. I bought this album on a whim one day and have not regretted it one bit.

The album is a live show that Pete and Arlo did in the eighties, complete with light hearted folk music and the occasional story thrown in for good measure. You can tell Arlo and Pete are having a blast and that being at that show would have been one heck of a good time. Very few live albums make you wish you really had been there; this one does.

Songs like "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" and "Old Time Religion" are silly and great to sing along to, but the show takes serious tones as well with Arlo performing some of his father's songs, and Pete doing stuff such as "If I Had a Hammer."

The album concludes with Arlo's rendition of "Amazing Grace" which truly gives me goose bumps everytime I hear it.