RIP Pete Seeger

What a badass^^^^^

And knuckleheads years later were still mad at him

Communist folk singer Pete Seeger and Springsteen perform for Obama at Inaugural blast

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2167212/posts

MR. SEEGER: "These features": what do you mean? Except for the answer I have already given you, I have no answer. The answer I gave you you have, don't you? That is, that I am proud that I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I have never refused to sing for anybody because I disagreed with their political opinion, and I am proud of the fact that my songs seem to cut across and find perhaps a unifying thing, basic humanity,and that is why I would love to be able to tell you about these songs, because I feel that you would agree with me more, sir. I know many beautiful songs from your home county, Carbon, and Monroe, and I hitchhiked through there and stayed in the homes of miners.

I don't think crying at movies is the same thing as crying while reading, because movies seem sort of designed to be cried at? although the example I was about to give is imagistic. there was a (fairly bad, actually) profile of Pete Seeger in the New Yorker a while ago. I think maybe it was by Alex Ross. Anyway, there was no real narrative thread, but toward the end, the writer started to speculate on the possibly self-aggrandizing motivations behind strident activism of a certain type--it certainly wasn't a loving portrait of Seeger's politics, in other words. It also discussed how active Seeger was in antiwar protests circa the leadup to the Iraq war. The profile abruptly ended, though, with a description of Seeger standing alone in a downpour on a two-lane highway in the middle of upstate New York, holding up a sign. And from the way the profile had been headed, you kind of expect the sign to say something really cutting and nasty about the Bush administration's motivations for the war (which would have been completely fair as far as I'm concerned, but anyway.) The description of him standing there is perfectly done and saves the revelation for the final sentence: the sign Seeger's carrying just says, "Peace". I was reading the article on the train and had to really struggle not to completely lose it. As it was, I totally teared up.
― horseshoe, Monday, April 2, 2007 6:46 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh my god, I found the article, on a Pete Seeger fansite! It's by Alec Wilkinson, not Alex Ross. I had somewhat mischaracterized the last paragraph, but it's still awesome. now that I've kind of ruined it, here it is:

"Here is a story told to me lately by a man named John Cronin, who is the director of the Pace Academy for the Environment, at Pace University. Cronin has known Seeger for thirty years. "About two winters ago, on Route 9 outside Beacon, one winter day, it was freezing—rainy and slushy, a miserable winter day—the war in Iraq is just heating up and the country's in a poor mood," Cronin said. "I'm driving north, and on the other side of the road I see from the back a tall, slim figure in a hood and coat. I'm looking, and I can tell it's Pete, He's standing there all by himself, and he's holding up a big piece of cardboard that clearly has something written on it. Cars and trucks are going by him. He's getting wet. He's holding the homemade sign above his head—he's very tall, and his chin is raised the way he does when he sings—and he's turning the sign in a semicircle, so that the drivers can see it as they pass, and some people are honking and waving at him, and some people are giving him the finger. He's eighty-four years old. I know he's got some purpose, of course, but I don't know what it is. What struck me is that, whatever his intentions are, and obviously he wants people to notice what he's doing, he wants to make an impression—anyway, whatever they are, he doesn't call the newspapers and say, 'I'm Pete Seeger, here's what I'm going to do.' He doesn't cultivate publicity. That isn't what he does. He's far more modest than that. He would never make a fuss. He's just standing out there in the cold and the sleet like a scarecrow. I go a little bit down the road, so that I can turn and come back, and when I get him in view again, this solitary and elderly figure, I see that what he's written on the sign is 'Peace.'"

RIP, an American hero

That HUAC Morbi linked to is amazing

re Dylan's "betrayal," I remember reading a Rolling Stone piece in which Seeger's iceskating, while speakers blast "Maggie's Farm" ("Dear Landlord" was another post-betrayal fave that day). Here he and Tao lead singalongs, on download even: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111337844
Also, he strolls through "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", with verses I didn't remember, in finale of Emmylou's set, which is well-worth downloading too, though wish you could still see it, like I did: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/01/137183774/newport-folk-2011-emmylou-harris-live-in-concert

I remember seeing him with HARP at the Berkeley Greek, where my brother Peter left him an unintentionally-hilarious note (which Seeger responded to in kind!). I remember singing his songs at my mom's funeral, and finally weeping, embarrassedly, as he sang This Land Is Your Land at Obama's inauguration, impishly inserting the more communistic verses and getting everyone to sing along with his unique crowd-poking cadence. We have lost an American treasure today.

God damn it this guy ruled so bad

As I got into here, one characteristic that's so easy to forget about the eras from which Seeger emerged with so much dignity and warmth was that values we now take for granted, such as segregation being evil and totalitarian and stupid, were once considered prima facie evidence of Communist support.
http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/06/something_about.php

BTW my grandparents were also under suspicion of communist activities, and my grandfather went through the local equivalent of a HUAC-type hearing.

And one of the allegations about them was that they "had negros over to their home"

Dr Morbius -- nice of you to post that transcript - i was going to do the same. The level of discourse we see these days is a tad embarrassing.

This clip isn't quite as fiery as the one that came on Pete and Arlo, Together in Concert, but it sure captures one my favorite periods in his career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXVi1nwidek

Hopped freight trains with Woody Guthrie. Learned "Good Night Irene" from Leadbelly himself, and then made it a no. 1 hit. Introduced MLK to "We Shall Overcome." Learned banjo from Bascom Lamar Lunsford and "John Henry" from Thomas Hart Benton. Braved the KKK with Paul Robeson. Told HUAC to get stuffed and lived with the blacklist for years. Spent the last several decades cleaning up the Hudson River just because nobody else would. Not just a folk singer -- a Folk Hero. John Henry with a banjo. (He DID have a hammer.)

Didn't realize he was a Harvard dropout and

The teenage Seeger also sometimes accompanied his parents to regular Saturday evening gatherings at the Greenwich Village loft of painter and art teacher Thomas Hart Benton and his wife Rita. Benton, a lover of Americana, played "Cindy" and "Old Joe Clark" with his students Charlie and Jackson Pollock; friends from the "hillbilly" recording industry; as well as avant-garde composers Carl Ruggles and Henry Cowell. It was at one of Benton's parties that Pete heard "John Henry" for the first time.[24

Thanks Wikepedia

I haven't grieved this hard for the death of a public figure in a long time. Maybe ever. So long, Pete. It's been good to know ya.

Smithsonian Folkways tribute page: text & links to Pete audio (incl. podcasts), video, slideshows, tribute playlist, more http://www.folkways.si.edu/PeteSeeger

Pete Seeger, Musician
By Richard Brookhiser
January 30, 2014 10:11 AM
Comments7
Print Text

The admirers of Pete Seeger have had their say, and so have the record keepers (see John Fund’s piece yesterday). One point I haven’t seen anywhere is that, when you came right down it, he wasn’t a very good musician.

Oh, he could play his instruments and carry a tune and he had an ear for good old songs. But he made everything bland and boneless. He was the ideal leader of happy-clappy sing-alongs — the Mitch Miller of the folk revival. Musically, the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary were his children.

This style of performing crippled Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers movie about a fictional folk singer. I must be the only person who saw it who liked the movie better than the music. The songs were good, but the performances were anodyne.

The irony is that the movie was loosely based on Dave Van Ronk, who was anything but. Van Ronk moaned, roared, chuckled, and sometimes seduced. To hear him sing “Motherless Children,” “He Was a Friend of Mine,” “Come Back, Baby” or “Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her” is to enter another world.

something is happening here but richard brookhiser doesn't know what it is

i will always treasure the time i was in a roomful of people that pete led in "somos el barco, somos el mar" - the lyrics of which i remember TO THIS DAY

Dave Marsh's tribute:

If nothing else, Pete Seeger made me understand how far behind enemy lines I was living—he showed me the road that had to be traveled, if I really wanted to live. He did this the same way that James Baldwin and Elvis Presley and John Coltrane did it: by example, and with the same generosity and the same sense that the world was packed with a load of insurmountable cruelty and that, nevertheless, the truth was that something better had managed to survive within it. Which meant, for each of us, a choice and a chance.

Seeger's songs were sung to me as lullabies by my mother (or played via cassette tape when she was too busy or tired), and are the first songs I remember hearing as a child.

I always marveled at how full of joy, love and energy he was, even in his recent performances over the last few years as a nonagenarian, and deep down hoped he would make it at least another 10-15 years.

To me, he represented endless, boundless love and, most importantly, hope. RIP, Pete. You are a TRUE American Hero and legend. I can only hope that someone comes along who has even a fraction of your heart and your constitution to show this country true inspiration again.

that farm aid clip is amazing!

and uncle neil loves is, doing air banjo and all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt9jWoXmrLw

http://www.wtop.com/551/3663046/Lincoln-Center-to-stream-Seeger-memorial-concert

Sunday

The free concert will be held Sunday at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park. It will feature artists and speakers who had a close personal relationship with the Seegers. They include Judy Collins, Harry Belafonte, Dar Williams, Peter Yarrow, Holly Near and Tom Chapin.

Lincoln Center notes that Seeger loved to lead singalongs. In that spirit, it's inviting audiences to take part in a global online singalong.

you ppl r rather quiet about Ronnie Gilbert

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/08/412805143/ronnie-gilbert-voice-of-folk-band-the-weavers-dies-at-88

:( Saw her with HARP at the Greek back in the 80s...