I heard "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" after it topped the American Pop charts at #1. I'll never forget Pete Seeger's yodeling. And, he did it AGAIN for the videotaped performance, here. Amazing! They're all 65-75 or more by now. I'm 70, myself, and I know what, I myself, feel to merely sing karaoke at a bar with a recording machine musical backup and a screen in front of me. ---Lee
Geee-Zus! Pete Seeger is a force of nature! Tell me how many men of at least 60 as he was here can sing falsetto at the top of his lungs like that! The man is amazing!
@@erickblu4882 For vocal chords with that kind of range it is unusual. A lot of singers don't know how to sing properly and trash their voiced well before 60.
I'm thrilled to see these dear people - they meant so much to my parents and I was raised on them. Pete can still throw back his head and wail, like he always used to do. Beautiful! [*sniffs back tears*]
Awesome performance. Pete shines, all are great, but I have particular affection for Lee Hays (in the wheelchair just a few months before he passed away) from my adopted home town of Little Rock.
@@davidteller7681 I think that all four musicians could feel the love from the crowd when they came out onstage. A sheer celebration of what the band had done. I got to see Pete Seeger perform by himself at our college's Tue morning series. Pete wasn't affected by the early hour like some bands were.
Hey you forgot Fred. Carl Sandburg said it best. "When I hear the Weavers, I hear America singing." They were wonderful. I never get tired of listening to them.
@migasaguiar Pete was concerned about the limitations of the instrument, he couldnt play in F# and other keys required constant re-tuning. So he persuaded an instrument maker to saw off the head of his banjo and extend it by three frets whilst he was away at war in 1942 Thus the long necked banjo was born.
Just great; My mother used to play the original Carnegie Hall album from the fifties- this song was one of the first I knew-or heard- as a child. Bless them all!
At first when i saw this video i thought it was something i might giggle at but Seeger's voice gave me gooshbumps! I've since become a fan and I check back here everyone now and then and watch this again and again!
The most famous Newport Folk Festival of all. Bob Dylan going Electric 7/25/65. Beatles at Shea 8/15/65. Next thing we know, we all take fentanyl. Sorry, I tried to be funny and got sidetracked. Good times.
You can just hear the melody being sung without instruments by returning tribesmen through the forested jungle. Then you add the banjo and you get that wafting of the Appalachian Trail and well,… Goodnight Irene!!!
I love to see groups like the Weavers headlining in places like Carnegie Hall even though this happened a long time ago. Very cool. Very primordial musically.
In 1964 or 1965 my uncle, Morrie Hamilton made a recording of this song (Wem-O-Weh) I don't know if he ever had any contact with the Weavers but the similarity in their various renditions is uncanny.
I was lucky enough to see them live in Chicago. That was when they were still doing their annual tours around the country. It is hard to pick a favorite song. You hear one, and that is my favorite. Then you hear another, no that is my favorite.
I'm still shocked that Pete never got involved much with Jim Henson and friends aside from recording Garbage, Garbage, Garbage alongside Oscar the Grouch. Watching him here it feels like all the brilliance, creativity, and love of a Muppet Show episode distilled into a three and half minute song. Pete and Jim were certainly cut from the same cloth, both in their own way Bodhisattvas.
I didn't recognize the band name, or Fred Hellermans name at first until s heard some these ole familiar songs! They obviously were very popular in their time.
I do not think that Pete would have promoted mao, stalin or sanders. communism is a worse virus then coronavirus and has killed thousands of times more people you can not blame a society for quarantining itself from such things but like now we are face to face with that same idea SAFE or FREE
@@FukcYuo-cy5yg FYI Pete Seeger was blacklisted as a result of Mccarthy's circus.. The whole thing was a very dark chapter in US history, and I hope that is not forgotten. Maybe it already has been..
I saw a documentary with Seeger in it and I think it dated from about 2009 or so. He sang and sang well. Yep, a few cracks and flaws but this is a song stylist and he made all sound just fine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weavers The group disbanded in 1964, but Gilbert, Hellerman, and Hays occasionally reunited with Seeger during the next 16 years. In 1980, Lee Hays, ill and using a wheelchair, wistfully approached the original Weavers for one last get-together. Hays' informal picnic prompted a professional reunion, and a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall on November 28, 1980, which was to be the band's last full performance. They appeared one final time in June 1981 at the Clearwater Festival, in an informal "rehearsal."[11]
I can't figure out when that concert was. I'm thinking it was around 1980, since their last reunion was about 25 years after their first carnegie hall appearance. Seeger was born in 1919. He's still around. I don't know if he's still singing, but he was as late as 2007.
These guys and others used this song which was originally created by Solomon Linda and The Evening in Africa. They were never paid royalties for their song and because of it, Solomon Linda died at a far too young age due to poverty. Link to the song: /watch?v=mrrQT4WkbNE Seeger went to the weavers and created this version of the song, no royalties paid to Linda. Disney used the original in The "Lion King", refused to pay anything to Linda. Tokens took the song and made "Lion Sleeps Tonight"
If you knew the complete story you would leave Pete Seeger out of this. When he wrote his version of the song he thought it was "old" fold music with no author to be found. Remember that type of information was not readily available back then and the recording studios didn't want to know because then they would lose money. However, when Seeger found out it wasn't an open domain song he made sure he signed all royalties over to Mr. Linda through his music company. Unknown to him, it was the music company that didn't follow through and hid that fact from Mr. Seeger. I don't know about the others, but I get real tired of people criticizing Mr. Seeger for something that isn't true.
From the perspective of "Art" and talent, what exactly are the distinctions among "copy", "interpretation", "rip-off" and "tribute"? Seems to me that if the song works and the performer feels that it does and has the skill and heart to express it, it doesn't much matter what color he/she is nor what language he speaks nor even that he or she might have lived a half dozen centuries ago. To paraphrase, Life is short ,but Art lives forever!
savvyscottyboy:His heart was/is Good....."Political radical" won't matter in Heaven.We'll all just get to sing together...which is what God probably wanted all along. mscentrum04
That was our old country coming out on that stage. The country that defeated fascism that stood for FDR social democracy whose ally and nor her enemy was the great Soviet Union of Lenin. RIP Ronnie Pete Fred and lee. And RIP to our once great and beautiful USA
In your life have you EVER seen anyone sing with as much unbridled joy as Pete Seeger? I have not! ❤❤❤❤
Awwww Pete, God should have given you another 100 years. 😇😢 Rest in Peace, you were a living legend. 🕊️🌹🌹
For all of us old-timers this is just about as good as it gets
I heard "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" after it topped the American Pop charts at #1. I'll never forget Pete Seeger's yodeling.
And, he did it AGAIN for the videotaped performance, here.
Amazing! They're all 65-75 or more by now.
I'm 70, myself, and I know what, I myself, feel to merely sing karaoke at a bar with a recording machine musical backup and a screen in front of me.
---Lee
Geee-Zus! Pete Seeger is a force of nature! Tell me how many men of at least 60 as he was here can sing falsetto at the top of his lungs like that! The man is amazing!
60 is not that old
@@erickblu4882 For vocal chords with that kind of range it is unusual. A lot of singers don't know how to sing properly and trash their voiced well before 60.
Unreal. Did this group really exist? They are the mold, man.
It's pretty extraordinary to think that Pete Seeger was 60 here in 1980 but still had 34 years of life and performances ahead of him!
this is the most beautiful thing I've seen on the net in a long long time....this is simply divine
They are all smiles after the song and on a high like "Damn, we still got it!"
Ronnie had the voice of an angel - pure, sweet and ringing like a bell.
Seeger is nothing short of amazing here.
Awesome Pete Seeger!
Got that right!
I'm thrilled to see these dear people - they meant so much to my parents and I was raised on them. Pete can still throw back his head and wail, like he always used to do. Beautiful! [*sniffs back tears*]
WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From a mad keen 74yo Aussie fan.
Awesome performance. Pete shines, all are great, but I have particular affection for Lee Hays (in the wheelchair just a few months before he passed away) from my adopted home town of Little Rock.
I am really happy he got to experience this and to feel the love before he passed
@@davidteller7681 I think that all four musicians could feel the love from the crowd when they came out onstage. A sheer celebration of what the band had done. I got to see Pete Seeger perform by himself at our college's Tue morning series. Pete wasn't affected by the early hour like some bands were.
It's nice to still be able to have heros and these guys certainly qualify. Brings tears to the eyes.
Rest in peace dearest Ronnie and give big hugs to Lee and Pete/ the music in heaven just got a little sweeter.............
Hey you forgot Fred. Carl Sandburg said it best. "When I hear the Weavers, I hear America singing." They were wonderful. I never get tired of listening to them.
I have listened to this song for over 50 years and it is still fantastic. Talk about having heart!! THANKS WEAVERS!
@migasaguiar
Pete was concerned about the limitations of the instrument,
he couldnt play in F# and other keys required constant
re-tuning. So he persuaded an instrument maker to saw
off the head of his banjo and extend it by three frets
whilst he was away at war in 1942
Thus the long necked banjo was born.
@Joe Stead: Fascinating and cool! Thanks for sharing the info! (Love to learn about this kind of stuff!)
My parents liked to play their records.
All their songs bring back childhood memories for me.
Just great; My mother used to play the original Carnegie Hall album from the fifties- this song was one of the first I knew-or heard- as a child. Bless them all!
At first when i saw this video i thought it was something i might giggle at but Seeger's voice gave me gooshbumps! I've since become a fan and I check back here everyone now and then and watch this again and again!
An absolutely extraordinary performance by Pete Seeger.
spine-tinglingly beautiful, love all of these people. RIP Ronnie.
OMG what I would have given to be there on that memorable night!
We miss you Pete.
One of my favorites, from long ago. Still nice to listen to. Great vocals!
I got goosebumps on goosebumps
I feel the same way.
Sooooooooooo great! Blessed to have had them!
I was so lucky. I saw them in 1965 at Newport Folk. This was beautiful.
The most famous Newport Folk Festival of all. Bob Dylan going Electric 7/25/65. Beatles at Shea 8/15/65. Next thing we know, we all take fentanyl. Sorry, I tried to be funny and got sidetracked. Good times.
You can just hear the melody being sung without instruments by returning tribesmen through the forested jungle. Then you add the banjo and you get that wafting of the Appalachian Trail and well,…
Goodnight Irene!!!
Lyrics are so inspirational...
You are correct about the concert date. Lee Hayes died in 1981.
Want to say something but I can’t stop the tears.
Likewise amazing they never lost their skills huge respect for these World Treasures
...the sound of joy at being alive...
I love to see groups like the Weavers headlining in places like Carnegie Hall even though this happened a long time ago. Very cool. Very primordial musically.
I can only imagine what they must have felt like when they went on stage, to a reception like that.
In 1964 or 1965 my uncle, Morrie Hamilton made a recording of this song (Wem-O-Weh) I don't know if he ever had any contact with the Weavers but the similarity in their various renditions is uncanny.
I grew up on these guys. So sweet no matter where or when❤️❤️
My oh my !
I just got goosebumps watchin this vid!
How awesome that was!!
Wow!
*****
My parents would have loved this - they taught me to sing - I love this
My children do not understand any of it
Such is the watershed
I was lucky enough to see them live in Chicago. That was when they were still doing their annual tours around the country. It is hard to pick a favorite song. You hear one, and that is my favorite. Then you hear another, no that is my favorite.
Still sends a chill up my spine what a beautiful song
They sure are having fun! What a powerful performance
This is awesome and spirited. They loved singing together and it is obvious and beautiful. Thank you!!!!
The best of music from the best of times
even after 50 years they move me
many fads come and go these songs live on forever.
@AnnaKeller This was in late 1980.
I love it, Thank you for posting this.
@ELVIS4221 OMG is that right! I could listen to this over and over! Pete is AWESOME!
Pete Seeger is on top his game here. Talk about a performer who was made for an auditorium like that, with that sound.
Love it, replayed 3 x
Loved Pete's voice, hated his communist politics, loved his voice.
Without communist politics we wouldn't have the 5 day work week, the 40 hour day or regulations for children in the workplace
Ronnie Gilbert - PRESENTE! PRESENTE! PRESENTE
FABULOUS!!!!!
THANKS.
My favorite version of this song. This is definitive music at its best people.
R.I.P. Fred Hellerman
A Mighty Wind is so on point
amen. may. Ronnie. rest in peace
I have all the Weavers' albums. Great to see them still performing. Thanks to Stewball for sharing this.
A national treasure.
And that's how you do that, brother.
I'm still shocked that Pete never got involved much with Jim Henson and friends aside from recording Garbage, Garbage, Garbage alongside Oscar the Grouch. Watching him here it feels like all the brilliance, creativity, and love of a Muppet Show episode distilled into a three and half minute song. Pete and Jim were certainly cut from the same cloth, both in their own way Bodhisattvas.
THANKS FOR POSTING THIS VIDEO. IT WAS GREAT!
really great !!!
best modern version of this song out there. check out the original from '39
Fantablulous!
I didn't recognize the band name, or Fred Hellermans name at first until s heard some these ole familiar songs! They obviously were very popular in their time.
RIP.
I wish I had been there. Early 1980s, as I recall...
hello. wally it. was Dec. 1980 I. have. the cassette. tape of that. concert
+Donald Zahnke I would definitely have gone to New York to see this concert, but I was clueless and didn't even know that it was happening.
+Wally Norlander In fact, now that I check my old appointment calendars, I see that I was in New York City during the first week of December in 1980.
+Wally Norlander What would I have paid a scalper for a ticket? $500? Maybe.
talent,wow
Amazing........
thanks for posting
beautiful
Take that Joe McCarthy...
since russia opened we discovered that mc carthy was absolutely right and correct. today we now have bernie.
Take that Don. Ronnie’s gone but there’s still one gal left. #BAEZ
wish we had a McCarthy today with all the Red stuff i have been hearings these days.
not to mention all the Bernie Bros terrorising people
I do not think that Pete would have promoted mao, stalin or sanders.
communism is a worse virus then coronavirus and has killed thousands of times more people
you can not blame a society for quarantining itself from such things but like now we are face to face
with that same idea SAFE or FREE
@@FukcYuo-cy5yg FYI Pete Seeger was blacklisted as a result of Mccarthy's circus.. The whole thing was a very dark chapter in US history, and I hope that is not forgotten. Maybe it already has been..
Rock and roll, Pete!
Type in "Solomon Linda" and you will be taken to the site to hear the original of this song.
That's incredible how " you are a lion" becomes " oh, wimoweh" just by crossing an ocean. 😋
I saw a documentary with Seeger in it and I think it dated from about 2009 or so. He sang and sang well. Yep, a few cracks and flaws but this is a song stylist and he made all sound just fine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weavers
The group disbanded in 1964, but Gilbert, Hellerman, and Hays occasionally reunited with Seeger during the next 16 years. In 1980, Lee Hays, ill and using a wheelchair, wistfully approached the original Weavers for one last get-together. Hays' informal picnic prompted a professional reunion, and a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall on November 28, 1980, which was to be the band's last full performance. They appeared one final time in June 1981 at the Clearwater Festival, in an informal "rehearsal."[11]
GREAT!!!!!
Yes it was really smashing hearing this reunion version but does anyone have the original weaver record to upload on TH-cam?
omg
To all white americans here, never forget where came this tune from: a black broomer in Johannesburg, South Africa, that he wrote in 1920.
american legend.
wow
oh my
i love how Wisconsinites say Wisconsin.
🍓💞♥️
I can't figure out when that concert was. I'm thinking it was around 1980, since their last reunion was about 25 years after their first carnegie hall appearance. Seeger was born in 1919. He's still around. I don't know if he's still singing, but he was as late as 2007.
The story behind this song is truly saddening. Sure this version is an awesome song, but nothing, in my eyes, will compare to the original version.
These guys and others used this song which was originally created by Solomon Linda and The Evening in Africa. They were never paid royalties for their song and because of it, Solomon Linda died at a far too young age due to poverty. Link to the song:
/watch?v=mrrQT4WkbNE
Seeger went to the weavers and created this version of the song, no royalties paid to Linda.
Disney used the original in The "Lion King", refused to pay anything to Linda.
Tokens took the song and made "Lion Sleeps Tonight"
If you knew the complete story you would leave Pete Seeger out of this. When he wrote his version of the song he thought it was "old" fold music with no author to be found. Remember that type of information was not readily available back then and the recording studios didn't want to know because then they would lose money. However, when Seeger found out it wasn't an open domain song he made sure he signed all royalties over to Mr. Linda through his music company. Unknown to him, it was the music company that didn't follow through and hid that fact from Mr. Seeger. I don't know about the others, but I get real tired of people criticizing Mr. Seeger for something that isn't true.
Starts at 1:38.
From the perspective of "Art" and talent, what exactly are the distinctions among "copy", "interpretation", "rip-off" and "tribute"? Seems to me that if the song works and the performer feels that it does and has the skill and heart to express it, it doesn't much matter what color he/she is nor what language he speaks nor even that he or she might have lived a half dozen centuries ago. To paraphrase, Life is short ,but Art lives forever!
WHEN was this??? What year??
Recorded May 2 and 3, 1963 (i think) from this link audionote.shop/other-music-sz/vinyl-record-the-weavers-reunion-at-carnegie-hall
1980
And then there were none!
is this Mozart Opera ?
savvyscottyboy:His heart was/is Good....."Political radical" won't matter in Heaven.We'll all just get to sing together...which is what God probably wanted all along.
mscentrum04
That was our old country coming out on that stage. The country that defeated fascism that stood for FDR social democracy whose ally and nor her enemy was the great Soviet Union of Lenin. RIP Ronnie Pete Fred and lee. And RIP to our once great and beautiful USA
@jillgivler
YOU BETTER TIE PETER DOWN CAUSE HE'S GOING TO GO NUTS.
IS THIS THE GREATEST MOMENT YOU EVER HEARD
I’d like to thank them for dressing and bathing for the occasion.
assumed they were black.. was wondering why there were so many white people there
Solomon Linda was the original composer and singer on this song that's probably why the assumption occurred. Look him up
This angers me.
It's an EXACT copy of a truly moving song and they have ruined it.
Please don't mark this as spam until you know the true story.
What is wrong with u. Must be angry at the world.