Bruce Springsteen
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (Columbia) £14.99
Most rock fans know Pete Seeger as the folk Luddite who wanted to pull the plug on Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. He would thank those rockists for the description. Ned Ludd was the 18th-century refusenik who sabotaged machinery to defend the jobs of weavers in the face of industrialisation.
Seeger, nearly 87, has agitated against everything bad, and in favour of everything good, since the 1930s. He is most famous, however, as a protest singer and curator of American folk music. Seeger adapted 'Turn, Turn, Turn', not the Byrds; every North American schoolchild has probably sung his 'If I Had a Hammer' off-key at some point.
Sadly, neither tune appears on Bruce Springsteen's album of Seeger covers and Seeger associated traditionals. But virtually every song here has the ring of familiarity about it - not least 'We Shall Overcome', the adopted anthem of the civil rights movement, and a song previously recorded by Springsteen in 1998 for another Seeger covers project.
Therein lay the germ of this album, recorded live, off and on over the last eight years. This version gives 'Overcome' a woozy, wistful treatment, piano and accordion to the fore; Springsteen holds back the holler he uses on many of the other 13 tracks.
But despite Seeger's politics and Springsteen's engagement, this is not a protest album, as such. 'Overcome' aside, the most overtly radical song here is 'Mrs McGrath'. 'All foreign wars I do proclaim/ Live on blood and a mother's pain,' declares Mrs McGrath as her son returns from battle without his legs; Springsteen growls the words. Even the tragic songs sound jolly. 'O Mary Don't You Weep' started life as a spiritual, but Springsteen emphasises its rollicking side.
The musicianship is terrific and the songs about ordinary working people can't help but chime with Springsteen's body of work. In contrast to The Rising, Springsteen's post-11 September album, the Boss and his band are hellbent on making a happy racket.
