Summary

In Chapter 41, “Pete Seeger,” the musician Pete Seeger explains how he came to sing the poem by Woody Guthrie about the plane crash in Los Gatos. In the chapter, Pete is 94 years old and need prompting to remember some of the events. He remembers that a man named Marty Hoffman first gave the poem a melody. The author plays Marty’s version for Pete Seeger using an mP3 player and headphones.

In Chapter 42, “Rough Rock, Arizona, Navajo Nation,” the author describes how Marty committed suicide in his home in Apache territory at the same time that the folk musician Joan Baez was laying down a version of the song. At the end of the chapter, Marty’s cousin speculates that Marty liked the song because it was about loss, something he knew well.

In the last chapter, Chapter 43, “The First Recording,” the author...