Figure 1.--The photo depicts Charles Louis Seeger Jr, his first wife, Constance de Clyver Edson, and their children Pete is the baby. The other children are Charles III and John. The photograph was taken May 1921. |
|
Pete Seeger was born in New York during 1919. He was a son of Charles Seeger ( -1979) was an ethnomusicologist who taught at Yale and Julliard and later held New Deal posts. Politically he was a strong critic of World War I, both because of the abhorance of war and his great respect for Germany, in part because of the German music tradiution. Like many others after the War, little thought was iven to what would have happened had Germany won the war. Pete had a privlidged if rather unorthodox childhood, attending a private boarding school and Harvard University. His heart from an early point was with the rural folk music his parents studied. It was involvement with his parent's work that he became emersed in folk music and the five-string banjo. While at Harvard he experimented with Communism. He seems to have rejected the regimentation, but was drawn to the social message. After dropping out of Harvard in the late-1930s he worked for folklorist Alan Lomax in cataloguing and preserving traditional songs. Over the next few years, Seeger and friends formed the Almanac Singers, one of several groups he sang with, and lived in a kind of commune in Greenwich Village. He struck up a friendship with Woody Guthrie. After World War II, he helped spearhead an American folk revival. He championed folk music which he saw as both a vital national treasure and a potential catalyst for social change. He turned 'We shall overcome' into a theme song of the Civil Rights Movement. The issues he chmpioned included the labor, civil rights, anti-war, and environmental movements. He began singing at labor rallies and became a concert hit during the folk era (1950s-60s). His music was a heady mix of protest and traditional folk music. As a youth, I was moved by the power and persuaiveness of his message. He was a stong voice for the Americam left and protest. He once said, "If you love your country you will find a way to speak out." I would agree, but why did he never speak out to afirm the strengths of America? His music and ideology thus included many contradictions. He was a strong supporter of the labor movement, but seemed unaware that it was free market capitalism that bought prosperous lives to workers. His song tickie-taki criticised suburban housing which helped bring reasonably priced housing to workers. He was a mainstay of the anti-War movement, but after the Communist victory expressed no concern for the mass killing and supression of indivudual linerties carried out by the victorious North Vietnamese. While criticising violations of civil liberties in America, he never raised his voice to criticise much more massive violation of human rights in Communist countries. His Depression era unbringing and focus on protest never enabled him to fully inderstand Americas role in the world or earth changing potential of free maket capitalism.
Pete was a son of Charles Seeger ( -1979) was an ethnomusicologist who taught at Yale and Julliard and later held New Deal posts. Politically he was a strong critic of World War I, both because of the abhorance of war and his great respect for Germany, in part because of the German music tradiution. Like many others after the War, little thought was iven to what would have happened had Germany won the war.
Pete Seeger was born in New York during 1919. Pete had a privlidged if rather unorthodox childhood.
Pete attended a private boarding school and Harvard University.
His heart from an early point was with the rural folk music his parents studied. It was involvement with his parent's work that he became emersed in folk music and the five-string banjo. He both wrote songs and sang the music of others, often adapted to his own tastes. He performned uite a range of songs, including topical, children's, and humerous pieces in additio to asthemes ans material with a social message.
While at Harvard he experimented with Communism. He seems to have rejected the regimentation, but was drawn to the social message. He was convicted for contempt of Congress by the House Un-Ameican Activities Committee during the Cold War Era, but years later perforned an an inagural concert for Barack Obama.
After dropping out of Harvard (late-1930s) he worked for folklorist Alan Lomax in cataloguing and preserving traditional songs.
Over the next few years, Seeger and friends formed the Almanac Singers, one of several groups he sang with, and lived in a kind of commune in Greenwich Village. He struck up a friendship with Woody Guthrieand would sing his songs at his later concerts. His best known group was The Weavers. Some of their songs became Top 10 hits. The sang Leadbelly's 'Good night Irene" which reached number 1 on the charts. Also popular was 'If I had a hammar'.
Seegar struck up a friendship with Woody Guthrie, an important folk song writer, and would sing his songs at his later concerts. They met at a labor rally for migrant California workers. They taveled together. No one incluenced Seegar and his music more than Guthrie. They shared a love of vernaculr music. Gutherie did not have the benefit of a father who studied it academically. But like Seegar he saw the potential of the music for agitprop. During their travels together, Seegar acquired many new songs for his repertory and well as some of Guthrie's style. He also hitchhiked and hoppd freight trains in building his repertoire. Trading and learnung new songs.
Seegar like many other left-wing Americans became caught up in the Cold War. This began during the McCarthy era. Writers commonly describe the 'anti-Communist hyteria' which was certainly evident in Senator McCathy's ravings and trumped-up charges leveled against totally innocent individuals. By the same token, there were many Americns to various degrees that were in fact aiding the Soviets in the Cold War, including involvement in espionge and treason. The Soviets conducted an extensive espionage effort. Exposing massive abuses of human rights and the death of millions, including workers and peasants, by totalitarian Communist regimes, was not one of the causes Seegar sought to champion. To my knowlege he never explained his silence. But such silence was not uncommon in liberal circles. He was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (1955). He told the Committee, "I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature." And this was surely true. Seegar coulkd not have been more honest and open about his social message. The Committe indicted him on 10 count of Contempt of Congress. He was convicted and sntenced to a year in prison (1961). An appeals court dismised the conviction.
After World War II, he helped spearhead an American folk revival. He saw himself as part of an ongoing folk tradition, both recycling and revising music that had long been sung as well as adding new pieces of his own and others to that tradution. He championed folk music which he saw as both a vital national treasure and a potential catalyst for social change. Seegar recorded some 00 albums, but distrusted commercialism.
He turned 'We shall overcome' from a trdiional piritual into the theme song of the Civil Rights Movement. He used his celeberity to bring attention to issues that touched him or to the tradional song he especially loved. He helped found the Newport Folk Festival (1959). The issues he championed included the labor, civil rights, anti-war, and environmental movements. He began singing at labor rallies and became a concert hit during the folk era (1950s-60s). His music was a heady mix of protest and traditional folk music. As a youth, I was moved by the power and persuaiveness of his message. While beginning to sing at labor rallies, his songs reached the Top 10. He was a frequent presence in college audotoriums and folk festivals. His docus chnges over times, begining with thevlabor movemnt (1940s-50s), civil rights and anti-Vietnam war (1960s), and environmental and anti-war causes (1970s-80s).
Seegar songs were widely sung by the hugely successful folk groups (1960s). The Kingston Trio popularized 'Where have all the flowers gone?' and it reached the top 40 (1962). Peter Paul and Mary had even geater success with 'If I had a hammar' and it reached the Top 10. Columbia Records, the most successful recording studio, signed Seegar (1961). He cut several albums with them duting the height of the folk revival. His agent once told him that he had to stop writing 'all those protest songs.' To whome he relied, 'Then you got the wrong singer.' Network televiion was a different matter. Riding the Folk Music crest, ABC produced 'Hootnanny' (early-1960s). They refused to book Seegar. As a result, importnt folk singers, including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, boycotted the show. The producers evenually relented and offered a booking, if he signed a loyalty oath. He refused.
He not only speerheaded a folk revival, but mentored many younger luminsries duting the 1950s and 60s. They included Bob Dylan, Don McLean, and Bernice Johnon Reagon. She founded Sweet Honey in the Rock. He wa an ifluence on many of the most important American singers, including Bruce Springsteen. He even produced an album, 'We hall overcome: Th Seegar Sensations' (2006). He chose songs from Seegar's repertorie encompsing the turbulent American experience. Springsteen would perform the Gutherie classic, 'This land is your land' with Seegare at the On=bama inagural. And on Seegar 90th birthday, Springsteen at a m=Masison Square Garden celebration intiduced him as 'a living archive of america's music and conscience, a testament of the power of soing and cukture to nudge history along.'
He was a stong voice for the Americam left and protest. He once said, "If you love your country you will find a way to speak out." I would agree, but why did he never speak out to afirm the strengths of America? His music and ideology thus included many contradictions. He was a strong supporter of the labor movement, but seemed unaware that it was free market capitalism that bought prosperous lives to workers. His song 'Tickie-taki' criticised suburban housing which helped bring reasonably priced housing to workers. He was a mainstay of the anti-War movement opposing U.S. involvement im Vietnam, but like many liberals after the Communist victory expressed no concern for the mass killing and supression of individual liberties carried out by the victorious North Vietnamese. While criticising violations of the civil liberties he cherished in America, he never raised his voice to criticise much more massive violation of human rights in Communist countries. His Depression era unbringing and focus on protest never enabled him to fully inderstand America's role in the world or earth changing potential of free maket capitalism.
