ODETTA. THE VOICE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. R.I.P.
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The Voice Of The Cicil Rights Movement has been silenced. Odetta. For those of us of a certain age Odetta's voice was a call to action. In her career as a folk singer she sang for paupers, kings, & presidents. She used her popularity & that gorgeous projecting voice to combat the injustices of American society and along the way inspiring others to speak out. Her infuence on a young Bob Dylan cannot be denied. Pete Seegar, another strong voice in the Civil Rights Movement, often traveled through the deep south with Odetta performing impromtu sets for workers in the fields, helping to organize workers, educating them, moving them to action.
But it was that voice....that glorious voice. Odetta could sing the softest lullabys, or traditional songs of romantic love. But she'll live on in many a heart because she used that voice to tear down walls of hatred and distrust. She helped a whole generation of college stundents understand that any injustice sullies us all. Her contribution to music,& society cannot be overstated.
Comments (10)
Nice post Jeff, r.i.p. Odetta, sorry to see you go....
Sad to hear this..It seems like there have been quite a few more passings lately, but I guess the folks of the various post-1950 movements are reaching that certain age. RIP.
Tragic news, my sympathies. I just recently became aquainted with Odetta's music. There is a great concert from the Lexington, Ky show "Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour" It is show #381 at: http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp
(the host, Michael Jonathon, always performs one song at the beginning...don't give up.)
Thanks Jeff!
Great tribute, Jeff. RIP :(
Amen! Amen! When I was a boy in the 50s I listened to my sister's Odetta album, one of the wonderful ways I was positively influenced by my sister. I will never think of the song "Children Go Where I Send Thee" without hearing Odetta's strong voice, full of her great heart and faith and humanity. Thank God for Odetta.
You might visit Natinal Public Radio's web site for some remembrances better than I could write. Here's a good one to start with:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97735199
sigh
Very nice post... a great loss.
sad news, indeed.
GOD, she was boring. and pretentious. Sorry, Jeff. My wife and I both grew up in the 60s and when we heard the news..well, let's just say we won't always remember where we were when we heard the news.
No Mark, I believe your opinion was formed without examining all the evidence. She had a rather stentorian voice that could project forever, I will give you that.....and that's mostly what you remember I'll bet. But she could sing the softest lullabys, torch songs, the Blues of Bessie Smith, etc etc. Odetta was a uniquely American Voice when we needed her most, dude, and without her our culture would be much different today. Unlike Joshua, Odetta stood inside the walls she helped bring down. The reverberations are still being felt. She was one tine on a cultural tuning fork with millions of tines. When she started vibrating she touched off wave after wave of sympathetic vibrations in the tines around her. She left the world a better place for having been alive. That's a helluva legacy.