Long live teachers of children, because they can show children how they can save the world.
Pete SeegerRead
I keep reminding people that an editorial in rhyme is not a song. A good song makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think.
Interpretation
A good song goes beyond mere words, evoking a range of emotions and thoughts.
In this quote, Pete Seeger emphasizes the transformative power of music, suggesting that while an editorial may articulate ideas, it lacks the emotional depth and resonance that a true song possesses. A good song is multifaceted; it not only entertains but also provokes laughter, sorrow, and reflection, thereby enriching the listener's experience and connection to the message.
In practice
During a music workshop, I shared Seeger's quote to inspire participants about the emotional power of songwriting.
Long live teachers of children, because they can show children how they can save the world.
According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something, I'm listening to God.
Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.
Well, normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.” — Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year)
I’ve never sung anywhere without giving the people listening to me a chance to join in - as a kid, as a lefty, as a man touring the U.S.A. and the world, as an oldster. I guess it’s kind of a religion with me. Participation. That’s what’s going to save the human race.
I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.
To win applause one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it.
As nearly as possible in the spirit of Matthew Salinger, age one, urging a luncheon companion to accept a cool lima bean, I urge my editor, mentor and (heaven help him) closest friend, William Shawn, genius domus of The New Yorker, lover of the long shot, protector of the unprolific, defender of the hopelessly flamboyant, most unreasonably modest of born great artist-editors to accept this pretty skimpy-looking book.
The first among mankind will always be those who make something imperishable out of a sheet of paper, a canvas, a piece of marble, or a few sounds
Imagine that we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant the room we are sitting in is completely altered; everything in it has taken on another look; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed and the objects are as we conceive them. That is the effect I want to get in my film.
The pointes for girls, I always say, have to be like an elephant's trunk; strong and yet flexible and soft.
There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.
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