Sunday, October 23, 2011

Pete Seeger and pals attend NYC protest action

Activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, center, sings before a crowd of nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests at a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, center, sings before a crowd of nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests at a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, center, marches with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, exits the Symphony Space on the Upper West Side to march with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Demonstrators symphathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests wait for activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, to exit the Symphony Space on the Upper West Side and march together to Columbus Circle for a brief acoustic concert, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, in New York. Nearly a thousand people marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests sing at a brief acoustic concert featuring activist musician Pete Seeger, not shown, in Columbus Circle, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

(AP) ? Folk music legend Pete Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City's tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores.

The 92-year-old Seeger, accompanied by musician-grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram, and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out a verse as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted.

They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle. Police watched from the sidelines.

At the circle, Seeger and friends walked to the chant of "We are the 99 percent" and "We are unstoppable, another world is possible." Seeger stopped to bang a metal statue of an elephant with his cane ? to cheers from the crowd.

At the center of the circle, Seeger and Amram were joined by '60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie in a round of "We Shall Overcome," a protest anthem made popular by Seeger.

After more singing, Seeger asked for a mic check to tell the crowd: "The words are simple: I could be happy spending my days on the river that flows both way-ay-ays."

During the march, the younger Seeger, in troubadour fashion like his grandfather, walked among the protesters playing songs. Amra took up a flute and others enlivened the night protest with the sounds of the accordion, banjos, and guitars.

At the front of the throng, marchers held American flags and a large blue flag that said: "Revolution Generation ... Debt is Slavery." Along the way, the crowd sang protest songs made popular or written by Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and others of the protest era.

Occupy Wall Street began a month ago in lower Manhattan among a few young people, and has grown to thousands around the country and the world. An Associated Press-GfK poll says more than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protesters, and even more ? 58 percent ? say they are furious about America's politics.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-22-Wall%20Street%20Protest-Seeger/id-a6d4b8914d0d44ecb2a74401f382e66b

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