Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger - Precious Friend

Precious Friend is a 95-minute compilation of a series of concerts in the summer of 1981, back when Pete Seeger was performing regularly with Arlo Guthrie. Guthrie was of course the son of the legendary Woody Guthrie, with whom Seeger had performed in the Almanac Singers. Guthrie, who had made his own name with Alice's Restaurant, was a good match for Seeger with his aw-shucks persona and quirky humor, not only in such songs as "Do Re Mi" and "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler," but also explaining the concept of the "un-neutron bomb" or teaching the audience to sing along "Pete style" with "Garden Song." Seeger offers his own brand of humor and banter, and is without peer in leading the audience in song. The sense of fun is infectious in classics including "Wimoweh (Mbube)" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," but the pair also have a long grounding in songs of social protest, and songs such as the finale, "Amazing Grace," carry a lot of emotional power. --David Horiuchi Amazon.com

A great folk album from the 1980's....yes, from the 1980's...

I bought this album when it came out. It came out in 1982, during the height of New Wave music and MTV videos. It was not running up the charts when it was made, but I didn't care. It is an absolutely wonderful album, with not one false song in the batch. It is amazingly eclectic. Arlo, Pete, and their superb band do ragtime, folk, blues, gospel, and back to folk. There are so many damn highlights it's impossible to pick just a few. The album starts off with the best rendition of Wabash Cannonball I've ever heard. The rendition of Harry Chapin's Circles (Harry had just died the previous year) is really beautiful and precious. I love Arlo's passion on Run, Come, See Jerusalem. How Can I Keep from Singing? is very powerful, and the title track is rousing as hell. It goes on for 7 minutes or so, and it has a chilling finish to it with the crowd fully totally into it. Do Re Mi (a tune by Arlo's dad, Woody) is better than the original, I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler is a great dig at corporate welfare (before the term corporate welfare really came into being). Garden Song is absolutely hilarious (especially the way Arlo "teaches" it), and the rendition of If I Had a Hammer is the most rousing I've ever heard (and I've heard at least 10 versions of the song). Hard to believe that a great folk album like this got released in the 1980's (and on a major label too), but we should be grateful. It shows that occasionally major labels get some things right.... March 30, 2007

PRECIOUS FRIEND

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD OLD FASHIONED, TOE TAPPING, SING ALONG, (FOLK) MUSIC THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT. IT EVEN HAS A SONG SHEET. YOU CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL GOOD AFTER VISITING WITH PETE AND ARLO. February 4, 2007

They gave me hope--not just the ol' soft soap...

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





February 19, 2006

As it was in concert.... captured.

My tape copy has been worn out, my CD replaced twice, once because my friend's daughter was going overseas and she wanted it and the next because my own original had a skip or two.

If you listen to Pete Seeger singing the Walbash Cannonball the melody will haunt you and Wehomaweh will amaze you with the range of his voice and the Tarantella will have your toe tapping. Smiles will come every time you hear The Garden Song, with Pete & Arlo singing. And in this troubled time I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler and The Neutron Bomb sung by Arlo makes one shake thier head, and sort of smile.

The musical quality is superb for a live recording, the choices of songs for this CD were at the time topical and are still. This is a CD or tape or album that is timeless and amazing to listen to and will become a favorite of the whole family...tiny ones love The Garden Song and my teen just refered to the Chrysler song as a political ballad that she needed to hear again since it had been a year or 2 since she had listened to it. April 29, 2005

Great Folk Disc

Every fan of Pete or Arlo should have this cd. It's got some great tunes and classic Arlo comedy. There's not a bad song on the two discs. This is my second favorite live recording by these two.

My favorite record of theirs is finally available on cd, and you can even buy it at Amazon now. It's called Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger Together in Concert. It came out in 1975 and the concert was shown on PBS.

So my advice is to buy this one, and if you like it go get the other one too. November 16, 2004

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