ABSTRACT
On April 25, 2006, Bruce Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, an album of songs previously performed by Pete Seeger recorded with a new band in three recording sessions (1997, 2005, and 2006) at Springsteen’s farm in New Jersey. The album included a variety of what Seeger would call “folk songs”: minstrel tune “Old Dan Tucker”; nineteenth century ballads “John Henry” and “Jesse James”; sea shanty “Pay Me My Money Down”; and classic civil rights anthems “We Shall Overcome” and “Eyes on the Prize.” The album and the tour are central to understanding Springsteen’s artistic and political mission during his later career, including his commitment to progressive politics, and live performance as communal ritual.
In this chapter, I use The Seeger Sessions as a vehicle for discussing Springsteen’s relationship to folk music, authenticity, and community, all central issues in Springsteen scholarship. Springsteen’s recent work is informed by his evolving relationship with folk music. The album and tour transformed his use of the folk medium from what historian Benjamin Filene (2000) called the “cult of authenticity” (p. 49) surrounding folk music and the folk singer to what folklorist Charles Seeger (Pete’s father) thought of as the politically revolutionary tools of the folk tradition. Filene argued that the “cult of authenticity” is a presentation of folk performers as “the real thing” (p. 131), which he clarified as always circumscribed by “when, by whom, and to whom it is applied” (p. 77). For Charles Seeger, the perceived “authenticity” of folk music, with its basis in the proletarian rather than bourgeois classes, enabled the American Left to seize upon it for politically progressive purposes. I argue that Springsteen, in his evolving use of the folk music medium, is including his commitment to progressive politics, and live performance as communal ritual.
In this chapter, I use The Seeger Sessions as a vehicle for discussing Springsteen’s relationship to folk music, authenticity, and community, all central issues in Springsteen scholarship. Springsteen’s recent work is informed by his evolving relationship with folk music. The album and tour transformed his use of the folk medium from what historian Benjamin Filene (2000) called the “cult of authenticity” (p. 49) surrounding folk music and the folk singer to what folklorist Charles Seeger (Pete’s father) thought of as the politically revolutionary tools of the folk tradition. Filene argued that the “cult of authenticity” is a presentation of folk performers as “the real thing” (p. 131), which he clarified as always circumscribed by “when, by whom, and to whom it is applied” (p. 77). For Charles Seeger, the perceived “authenticity” of folk music, with its basis in the proletarian rather than bourgeois classes, enabled the American Left to seize upon it for politically progressive purposes. I argue that Springsteen, in his evolving use of the folk music medium, is slowly changing his use of folk music from Filene’s “cult of authenticity” to Seeger’s politically revolutionary tradition.
