Pete Seeger Debuts New BP Protest Song

Video: Pete Seeger Debuts New BP Protest Song

Songwriter talks inspiration behind "God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You"

Pete Seeger may be 91 years old, but the iconic folk singer still has plenty to protest. On Friday night at New York's City Winery, Seeger debuted a new song he wrote about the disastrous BP oil spill as part of a fundraising concert for the Gulf Restoration Network and Global Green USA . "It's a strange, strange song," said Seeger about the new tune, which featured a simple finger-picked chord progression and gravelly ominous lyrics like, "When the drill baby drill turns to spill baby spill/God's counting on me/God's counting on you." Check out video of "God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You" above.
After his set, Seeger told Rolling Stone he doesn't write many songs these days, but the oil spill inspired him to team up with folk singer Lorre Wyatt to write the track at his home in Beacon, New York. "I'm a fan of old songs that have a lot of repetition, spirituals," Seeger said. "Some of the greatest songs in the world only have one line, like 'This little light of mine.' "
It was a busy week for Seeger. On Wednesday, he traveled to Albany, New York, where he sang the new number outside the state senate chamber to protest hydraulic fracturing, a controversial natural gas drilling technique. "I performed for 40 newspaper and radio reporters," he said. "It made sense down there, too. When there's a great big problem lets get together and do something about it and not leave it up to the government, the rich the poor."

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