RIP Pete Seeger

hey, we've still got the black keys and mumford and sons

Seeger's HUAC testimony.

MR. TAVENNER: The Committee has information obtained in part from the Daily Worker indicating that, over a period of time, especially since December of 1945, you took part in numerous entertainment features. I have before me a photostatic copy of the June 20, 1947, issue of the Daily Worker. In a column entitled "What's On" appears this advertisement: "Tonight-Bronx, hear Peter Seeger and his guitar, at Allerton Section housewarming." May I ask you whether or not the Allerton Section was a section of the Communist Party?

MR. SEEGER: Sir, I refuse to answer that question whether it was a quote from the New York Times or the Vegetarian Journal.

MR. TAVENNER: I don't believe there is any more authoritative document in regard to the Communist Party than its official organ, the Daily Worker.

MR. SCHERER: He hasn't answered the question, and he merely said he wouldn't answer whether the article appeared in the New York Times or some other magazine. I ask you to direct the witness to answer the question.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I direct you to answer.

MR. SEEGER: Sir, the whole line of questioning-

CHAIRMAN WALTER: You have only been asked one question, so far.

MR. SEEGER: I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it.

MR. TAVENNER: Has the witness declined to answer this specific question?

CHAIRMAN WALTER: He said that he is not going to answer any questions, any names or things.

MR. SCHERER: He was directed to answer the question.

MR. TAVENNER: I have before me a photostatic copy of the April 30, 1948, issue of the Daily Worker which carries under the same title of "What's On," an advertisement of a "May Day Rally: For Peace, Security and Democracy." The advertisement states: "Are you in a fighting mood? Then attend the May Day rally." Expert speakers are stated to be slated for the program, and then follows a statement, "Entertainment by Pete Seeger." At the bottom appears this: "Auspices Essex County Communist Party," and at the top, "Tonight, Newark, N.J." Did you lend your talent to the Essex County Communist Party on the occasion indicated by this article from the Daily Worker?

MR. SEEGER: Mr. Walter, I believe I have already answered this question, and the same answer.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: The same answer. In other words, you mean that you decline to answer because of the reasons stated before?

MR. SEEGER: I gave my answer, sir.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: What is your answer?

MR. SEEGER: You see, sir, I feel-

CHAIRMAN WALTER: What is your answer?

MR. SEEGER: I will tell you what my answer is.

(Witness consulted with counsel [Paul L. Ross].)

I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature and I resent very much and very deeply the implication of being called before this Committee that in some way because my opinions may be different from yours, or yours, Mr. Willis, or yours, Mr. Scherer, that I am any less of an American than anybody else. I love my country very deeply, sir.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: Why don't you make a little contribution toward preserving its institutions?

MR. SEEGER: I feel that my whole life is a contribution. That is why I would like to tell you about it.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I don't want to hear about it.

MR. SCHERER: I think that there must be a direction to answer.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I direct you to answer that question.

MR. SEEGER: I have already given you my answer, sir.

MR. SCHERER: Let me understand. You are not relying on the Fifth Amendment, are you?

MR. SEEGER: No, sir, although I do not want to in any way discredit or depreciate or depredate the witnesses that have used the Fifth Amendment, and I simply feel it is improper for this committee to ask such questions.

MR. SCHERER: And then in answering the rest of the questions, or in refusing to answer the rest of the questions, I understand that you are not relying on the Fifth Amendment as a basis for your refusal to answer?

MR. SEEGER: No, I am not, sir.

MR. TAVENNER: I have before me a photostatic copy of May 4,1949, issue of the Daily Worker, which has an article entitled, "May Day Smash Review Put on by Communist Cultural Division, On Stage," and the article was written by Bob Reed. This article emphasizes a production called Now Is the Time, and it says this: Now Is the Time was a hard-hitting May Day show of songs and knife-edged satire. New songs and film strips walloped the enemies of the people in what the singers called "Aesopian language." And other persons [participated], including Pete Seeger. Lee Hays is recited to be the MC, or master of ceremonies. Did you take part in this May Day program under the auspices of the Music Section of the Cultural Division of the Communist Party?

MR. SEEGER: Mr. Chairman, the answer is the same as before.

MR. SCHERER: I think we have to have a direction.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I direct you to answer the question.

MR. SEEGER: I have given you my answer, sir.

MR. TAVENNER: The article contains another paragraph, as follows: This performance of Now Is the Time was given in honor of the twelve indicted Communist Party leaders. And then it continues with Bob Reed's account of the show: This reviewer has never seen a show which stirred its audience more. Add up new material, fine personal and group performances, overwhelming audience response-the result was a significant advance in the people's cultural movement. Now Is the Time is that rare phenomenon, a political show in which performers and audience had a lot of fun. It should be repeated for large audiences. Mr. Lee Hays was asked, while he was on the witness stand, whether or not he wrote that play, and he refused to answer. Do you know whether he was the originator of the script?

MR. SEEGER: Do I know whether he was the originator of the script? Again my answer is the same. However, if you want to question me about any songs, I would be glad to tell you, sir.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: That is what you are being asked about now.

MR. TAVENNER: You said that you would tell us about the songs. Did you participate in a program at Wingdale Lodge in the State of New York, which is a summer camp for adults and children, on the weekend of July Fourth of this year?

(Witness consulted with counsel.)

MR. SEEGER: Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.

MR. TAVENNER: I am going to ask you.

MR. SEEGER: But I decline to say who has ever listened to them, who has written them, or other people who have sung them.

MR. TAVENNER: Did you sing this song, to which we have referred, "Now Is the Time," at Wingdale Lodge on the weekend of July Fourth?

MR. SEEGER: I don't know any song by that name, and I know a song with a similar name. It is called "Wasn't That a Time." Is that the song?

CHAIRMAN WALTER: Did you sing that song?

MR. SEEGER: I can sing it. I don't know how well I can do it without my banjo.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I said, Did you sing it on that occasion?

MR. SEEGER: I have sung that song. I am not going to go into where I have sung it. I have sung it many places.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: Did you sing it on this particular occasion? That is what you are being asked.

MR. SEEGER: Again my answer is the same.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: You said that you would tell us about it.

MR. SEEGER: I will tell you about the songs, but I am not going to tell you or try to explain-

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I direct you to answer the question. Did you sing this particular song on the Fourth of July at Wingdale Lodge in New York?

MR. SEEGER: I have already given you my answer to that question, and all questions such as that. I feel that is improper: to ask about my associations and opinions. I have said that I would be voluntarily glad to tell you any song, or what I have done in my life.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: I think it is my duty to inform you that we don't accept this answer and the others, and I give you an opportunity now to answer these questions, particularly the last one.

MR. SEEGER: Sir, my answer is always the same.

http://www.peteseeger.net/HUAC.htm

heh, xp

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...