max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

#909: mississippi john hurt - spike driver blues (1966, pete seeger’s rainbow quest)

if someone really, truly wanted my strong feelings on the subject, and put a gun against my head, i would say that one of the best music videos of all time is this angelically restored footage of mississippi john hurt playing like the messiah on the 36th of the 39 pete seeger rainbow quest shows on wnju-tv, now the flagship telemundo. episode 39 of 39 was johnny and june carter cash, and no. 23 was the rev. gary davis and donovan.

#812: bob dylan - mr. tambourine man (newport folk festival, 1964)

when my way curly hair grows way too long, like it has now, some people say i look exactly like dylan between another side of and bringing it all back home.

no, no one says that. no one at all—except for this one note my former observer editor, tom acitelli, left me once on a yellow post it that i still have. actually he didn’t really put it that way, but still i’ll say he looks exactly like pete seeger, perfect pete seeger, in his corduroy cords seated stage left at newport.

#594: sister rosetta tharpe - down by the riverside (c. 1965, tv gospel time)

soldiers sang it during the civil war, pete seeger sang it on a banjo, elvis presley sang it in a costume, leadbelly sang it with wobble, louis armstrong sang it with louisiana clarinets, mahahlia jackson sang it beautifully in the 1950s, and then she sang it beautifully in the 1970s. but when the blind boys of alabama back up rosetta tharpe with her white electric guitar and floor-length flower print dress, and you’re listening to down by the riverside on memorial day with the sound turned up and the morning’s newspapers open, the claps sound like taps.

#459: june carter with pete seeger and johnny cash - i’m thinking tonight of my blue eyes (1965)

pete seeger’s rainbow quest, basically the best tv show of the century, not only had the rev. gary davis blowing donovan’s mind at a kitchen table, but featured lovestruck johnny cash and june carter before they were married, or had even ended their first marriages.

in an early clip, she talks about losing her teeth in korea and he sings a version i am a pilgrim that makes sweetheart of the rodeo sound pale and pagan. here, even better, june carter takes a special request while pete seeger says: “might say, this song doesn’t have but two or three versus, but it’s a lot of fun to sing, a lot of fun to harmonize on, too. any of you out there, you know, it’s the main reason for this rainbow quest show, not just to show what we can do, but show how you can have a lot of fun yourself making music. and i mean it! i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead, don’t let the microphones and loudspeakers faze you. make some yourself.”

“and take your shoes off,” johnny cash says, in his socks.

“that’s right!” pete seeger says. what a guy. “and this would be a good song to try, if you want to.”

#72: rev. gary davis (with pete seeger) - oh glory, how happy i am (1965)

besides the bizarre awkwardness of the introduction—donovan doesn’t seem too interested in blind blues legend reverend gary davis, and the reverend doesn’t seem too pleased that pete seeger got his carolina roots wrong—this is the kind of thing that makes me wish i was religious.

if there really is a god, god likes pete seeger—who discovered the reverend 15 years earlier, when “hardly anybody knew him outside of just the people in his neighborhood”—and god likes this song too. oh glory! it makes him happy.

god may or may not like the observer’s will heinrich, our newspaper’s resident novelist, who introduced me to this.

#71: donovan (with pete seeger) - colours (1965)

“some may find them merely diverting melodies,” the 90-year-old folk god pete seeger once said about his songs. “others may find them incitements to red revolution. and who will say if either or both is wrong? not i.” and when he says red, he means communism: “i want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.”

but when donovan sings about yellow, he’s talking about his blond girlfriend’s hair in the post-coital morning, and when he sings about blue he’s talking about the clear skies that day. but does it matter that the polka dotted-shirted singer’s song is about lovey dovey mellow morning yellow pillow hair instead of cold hard politics? it’s still a beautiful tune, especially with pete seeger singing along in that fatherly harmony. it makes me wish it were morning. and 1965.

#21: neil young - don’t let it bring you down (1971)

it’s primary day, so i’ve been trying to find a super appropriate get-out-the-vote, times-they-are-a-changin’ song. radiohead’s electioneering has the right idea, but it isn’t exactly the best track on “ok computer.” besides, it’s tuesday, which means i need something from the 70s—too early for public enemy, too late for pete seeger.

but high-voiced, long-haired neil young makes good songs for election day. and even though he has more activist-y songs then don’t let it bring you down, somehow this tune’s picture of burning castles, dead men, sinking moons, red sirens, scraped skies, cold winds and morning papers feels more political than whining about impeachment.

his after the goldrush-era performance here on the bbc is enough to make you want to change the world. and another thing! he likes obama.