Waist Deep in the Big Muddy - Pete Seeger

Written by Seeger in 1967, when the U.S. was about neck-deep in Vietnam, the song was censored by CBS when Seeger first performed it on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in September, 1967, but the network reversed itself, and Seeger would ultimately perform Waist Deep on the show in February 1968.

Seeger noted in May 1983,

Now the Smothers Brothers did a clever thing. They took their argument to the newspapers and they got lots of free publicity. They said, "CBS censors our best jokes, they censored Seeger's best song. It ain't fair." Finally in the month of January, 1968, the word came from New York, "O.K., O.K., you can sing the song if you want."

On 48 hours' notice I flew out to California, taped the song, and this time 7 million people saw it and even got some extra newspaper publicity. Only one station, I think, in Detroit, scissored the last verse out of the tape.

Did the song do any good? No one can prove a damned thing. It took tens of millions of people speaking out, before the Vietnam War was over. A defeat for the Pentagon, but a victory for the American people.

Head to Toe mp3 Downloads From Amazon

I'm going to start trying something new, and rather than links to albums that an episode's song appears on, I'm going to start linking to available mp3 downloads at Amazon, which run on average from $0.89 to $0.99 each.

Starting us off is this week's Head to Toe episode, where I was fairly successful in locating 9 8 of the 14 songs Our Host played. A couple of caveats: These may not be the same cuts as the ones played on Theme Time - if you're looking for a specific cut - for example, the Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms cut is by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys rather than the Monroe Brothers - preview it first to ensure you're getting what you want. Second, I get a percentage of each sale; think of it as Dreamtime being your own personal NPR. But, if you don't like that idea, just make note of the link and go back to Amazon at another time.

Head to Toes - November 2007

1. Going to a Go-Go - The Miracles*
   
   
2. Dry Bones - The Delta Rhythm Boys
   
   
3. I've Got You Under My Skin - Louis Prima & Keely Smith
   
   
4. Fist City - Loretta Lynn
   
   
5. Finger Poppin' Time - Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
   
   
6. Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms - Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys
   
   
7. She's Scattered Everywhere - Archibald
   
   
8. Brain Cloudy Blues - Bob Wills
   
   
9. Waist Deep in the Big Muddy - Pete Seeger
   

* You ask, what does Going to a Go-Go have to do with Head to Toes, Fred? And the answer is, absolutely nothing. But somehow between the time I looked up The Miracles' From Head to Toes (which isn't available as an Amazon mp3) and wrote the blog posting, gremlins had convinced me that one was just like the other. It finally occurred to me several days later that it seemed like a strange track for a Head to Toes theme, and indeed, GtaG-G was not played on the Head to Toes episode. I leave it up for historical purposes. And who knows? Maybe somebody out there has been looking for Going to a Go-Go.