How Can I Keep from Singing?: The Ballad of Pete Seeger
by David King Dunaway
List Price:
Our Price: $8.98
You Save: $9.02 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.75 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David King DunawayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-18
ISBN: 0345506081
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Villard
Book Reviews of How Can I Keep from Singing?: The Ballad of Pete Seeger
Book Review: Be Advised -- with a biographer like this, who needs enemies?
Summary: 2 Stars
David King Dunaway's biography is valuable, but be advised, the author is no friend of folk music and is patronizing to Pete Seeger. In this he echoes the attitude of 1950s U.S. Cold War academic political science departments to folk music and folk musicians. Dunaway writes: "In the twenty-first century, the appeal of Pete Seeger is akin to that of a nineteenth-century Romantic figure, the rustic innocent with the magic flute, who appeals to those unable to live fully for the frantic quality of their lives," p. 421.
The book falls short as an explanation of Seeger's politics and does little to enlighten readers about the appeal of his music, since the author has no curiosity about the former and is lacking in knowledge about the latter.
There are also many very nasty comments in this book about other figures in the folk singing world, effectively unattributed, since the notes at the end are merely general attributions for each chapter without specifically stating who said what. Nor is there any attempt to interpret or give a context for these inflamatory remarks.
Dunaway is also inaccurate. He gets wrong the name of Seeger's nemesis Karl Joachim Friedrich (the teacher of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski). The German-born Friedrich, a political scientist who was an adviser to the US military on propaganda during World War 2, was violently opposed to populist movements and wrote an article about Seeger and the Almanac Singers in the Atlantic Monthly in 1941, calling them "the Poison in Our System." Dunaway misspells the name of this writer as Carl Frederick, as though he were just a random writer and not a highly influential Cold War figure.
Dunaway also mis-attributes the authorship of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" to George Gershwin and claims (implausibly) that Seeger had to conceal his liking for this song from his classical music-loving parents.
Finally, Dunaway spends much too much time on what neo-conservatives like David Hadju, David Horowitz, and David Boas (of the Cato Institute) had to say about Pete Seeger in the 1990s, giving these writers, who have little to do with music or folk music, way too much weight and respect.
In other words, with a friendly biographer like Dunaway, Pete Seeger doesn't need any enemies.
Music Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Music Books
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brainby Oliver Sacks
Knopf Publishing Group; Published: 2008; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.17
Listenby Joseph Kerman, Gary Tomlinson
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2007-02-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.00
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Centuryby Alex Ross
Picador; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylanby Douglas R. Gilbert, Dave Marsh
Da Capo Press; Published: 2006-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
Heroes And Villains: The True Story Of The Beach Boysby Steven Gaines
Da Capo Press; Published: 1995-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.15
Price in other shops:
Handbook for Sound Engineers, Third Editionby Glen Ballou
Focal Press; Published: 2002-01-21; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Jazz Anecdotesby Bill Crow
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1990-05-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.18
Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williamsby Paul Hemphill
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-08-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
How to Train Singers/ Book and Tapeby Larra Browning Henderson
Parker; Published: 1991-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.95
Price in other shops:
I, Tina: My Life Story (icon!t)by Tina Turner, Kurt Loder
It Books; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Pete Seeger - We Shall Overcome: Complete Carnegie Hall ConcertRelease date: 1989-10-10; Music CD
Best price: $12.87
Price in other shops:
Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert/ 2 DVD SetDVD
Best price: $35.00
Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Songby David Margolick, Hilton Als
Harper Perennial; Published: 2001-01-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.04
Price in other shops:
Blues People: Negro Music in White Americaby Leroi Jones
Harper Perennial; Published: 1999-01-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)by Ron Eyerman, Andrew Jamison
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1998-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.80
Price in other shops:
"To Everything There is a Season": Pete Seeger and the Power of Song (New Narratives in American History)by Allan M. Winkler
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-08-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.68
Price in other shops:
Political Folk Music in America from Its Origins to Bob Dylanby Lawrence J. Epstein
McFarland; Published: 2010-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $35.00
Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singalong Memoirby Pete Seeger
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-11-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.68
Price in other shops:
Pete Seeger: The Power of SongWellspring Media INC; Release date: 2008-08-05; DVD
Best price: $10.12
Price in other shops:
The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger (Vintage)by Alec Wilkinson
Vintage; Published: 2010-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops: