Bonus Song of the Month: Pete Seeger - "The Phoenix and the Rose"

Pete Seeger's Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay bears the dubious honor of being the only album I have ever shared with a history professor. This song, "The Phoenix and the Rose", is a big part of the reason I did. My professor was writing her book about New York during the 18th century. Naturally she'd want to hear Pete's four minute plainsong a cappella recording of some vaguely contemporary satire from the Hudson River Valley.

Pete Seeger & Ed Reenhan - "The Phoenix and The Rose"

I loved this song when I was 8 years old. I loved the story, and I especially loved the way Pete told it. And I still do. I love the marching, mocking, formality and the perfectly petty British: "into the vacant stores they stormed/in search of things for tea." I love how the sailors "cursed the town in language unrestrained", and when I was 8 years old I especially loved the way Pete trusted me to understand that line.

This was a huge part of Pete's gift. He trusted children to understand adult complexities and he trusted adults to find wisdom in the experiences of childhood. His songs give us a language for speaking in meaningful ways to children and adults at the same time. Anyone old enough to have made an excuse should empathize with the steward on The Phoenix.

It's been quite a busy day sir, what with all the shelling

and the raiding and the burning, and the general raise-helling//

//there's been precious little time to spare for foraging and looting

because of which aboard this ship of some four and forty guns

there was not a single thing to eat, but some carrots and stale buns