# Pete Seeger RIP



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Pete Seeger has died at 94.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

A very influential person, a singer that Taggart & I liked and respected.
Rest in peace.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Sad news indeed. A marvellous career and a tremendous influence on American music.

I was looking for one clip to sum him up and couldn't find it. There's just too many good ones all the way from the Almanac singers through the Weavers and then his solo career.

Rest in Peace.


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

94 - a good innings. 

A man who lived his principles, which is a lot, really.

Vale.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Oreb said:


> 94 - a good innings.
> 
> A man who lived his principles, which is a lot, really.
> 
> Vale.


Yes. Exactly.

Tomorrow I'll have another listen to a concert that Smithsonian unearthed a few years ago, and instantly became my favorite of his many concert albums:










but for now:

The first Seeger recording I heard was this version of If I Had A Hammer from Columbia's World Of Pete Seeger collection, and it knocked me sideways (had to try about twenty different versions on YT just now to find it):


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Sad news, he was and is very influential! RIP

/ptr


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## Fortinbras Armstrong (Dec 29, 2013)

I think this would be appropriate


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

A few years ago my family found a letter from Seeger to my grandfather asking for advice on, no kidding, what kind of sailboat he should buy. He signed his name with a small drawing of a banjo.

The purchase never took place because Pete was sent to prison for contempt of congress shortly thereafter.

A brave man and a great musician. He will be missed.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

A great man who has left us a legacy


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## Fortinbras Armstrong (Dec 29, 2013)

I just read the statement from Barack Obama on Seeger's passing that sums it up perfectly

Once called “America’s tuning fork,” Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But more importantly, he believed in the power of community – to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be. Over the years, Pete used his voice – and his hammer – to strike blows for worker’s rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Pete’s family and all those who loved him.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Truth to tell, I'd never heard of him until a couple of years ago. I was surprised to learn that he was considered a big star. From the Summer of Love to the early '70s, it was all Beatles, Stones, Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath and so on. He must have been from the early '60s, before my time.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

brotagonist said:


> Truth to tell, I'd never heard of him until a couple of years ago. I was surprised to learn that he was considered a big star. From the Summer of Love to the early '70s, it was all Beatles, Stones, Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath and so on. He must have been from the early '60s, before my time.


He was also big in the 30's and 40's, he had a bit of a hiatus in the 50's because of problems with Senator McCarthy. His dad was big in ethnomusicology, his mother was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School. His stepmum  was a modernist composer and an American folk music specialist. His half-sister, Margaret (or Peggy) Seeger is a folk singer in her own right and was married to Ewan Macoll. he played with Bruce Springstein at Obama's inauguration in 2009.










Springstein also did a set called the Seeger sessions and many of his songs draw on the folk music of the 30's.

Seeger is one of those people who are timeless - like Woody Guthrie before him.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I read his obituary & what I liked about him is that even when unjustly imprisoned or criticised by his political opponents, he was always serene, jaunty & understanding - no nastiness or bitterness there, just strong beliefs and a wish to bear witness. He achieved a great deal with his life, but more than anything, he seems to have been *a nice person*. :tiphat:


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Pete's was a life well-lived.

Pete has always been part of my life. It's amazing that I've only been there for half of his. I saw him in concert several times; always with Arlo Guthrie, of whom I am a huge fan. Pete would always encourage the audience to sing along and it never seemed corny. When I was a teen, I purchased Pete's book "How to play the 5 string banjo" and learned to play!

On Pete's banjo is written: *This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.*

Pete was a visionary leader of the Hudson River cleanup; a river which used to be severely contaminated with PCBs and and is now in phase 2 of cleanup. It is considered the most aggressive environmental effort to clean up a river.








Pete's sloop _Clearwater_; used to educate people about the river.

When Pete was required to testify before the US House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 for being a Communist, he stated, "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." And then he offered to sing a song, as he felt his music spoke louder than any words.

The New York _Times_ had a comprehensive obituary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/a...ion=BreakingNews&region=FixedTop&action=Click


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

He was a good and decent human being, who never backed down from fighting injustice and prejudice. This world is surely a richer place for having had him amongst us, and is certainly a poorer one today, due to its losing him, even though his spirit and what he stood for shall live on forever.
May you Rest In Peace, Mr.Seeger. Thank you for being our conscience when so many of us seem to have forgotten what that meant.


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## Guest (Jan 30, 2014)

He was a great songwriter, but he did have his flaws. In his early life, as a committed Communist, he parroted the party line. When Stalin and Hitler were allied under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he criticized Roosevelt for any intervention that was seen as detrimental to that pact, but then when the pact was broken by Hitler, he was all for American intervention to stop Hitler.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Who doesn't? I find some of his mythologising a little silly, but he was a great songwriter and person.

There's a classic example here. Seeger is playing banjo with Arlo Guthrie (Woodie's kid) at a session run in 2007 to commemorate the Spanish civil war. He starts by telling the story of how he recorded the original Almanac Singers record for Moses Asch who founded Folkways and then halfway through he goes into a story about how that record helped keep spirits up in Spain after the war.


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

DrMike said:


> He was a great songwriter, but he did have his flaws. In his early life, as a committed Communist, he parroted the party line. When Stalin and Hitler were allied under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he criticized Roosevelt for any intervention that was seen as detrimental to that pact, but then when the pact was broken by Hitler, he was all for American intervention to stop Hitler.


 Unfortunately a great many people of good will on the left were duped by the despots in the USSR throughout the 20th century, leaving many looking compromised by their apparent support for a vile regime associated with the most horrendous acts.

I suggest that the key point is precisely that they *were duped* rather than actively complicit in that evil.

Yes, their naivety and idealism probably contributed to the regime's longevity, and to that extent it's culpable, I guess.

But to my mind responsibility for the acts of Soviet repression lies fundamentally with Soviet rulers and their lackeys rather than good people with a sense of social injustice in the west. (I tend to think not even Marx is to blame for the ills done in his name...)

And to complain that the writer of 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' is naïve ... well, I think that sort of misses the point


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Taggart said:


> erson.
> 
> There's a classic example here. Seeger is playing banjo with Arlo Guthrie (Woodie's kid) at a session run in 2007 to commemorate the Spanish civil war. He starts by telling the story of how he recorded the original Almanac Singers record for Moses Asch who founded Folkways and then halfway through he goes into a story about how that record helped keep spirits up in Spain after the war.


About 2:10 into that video Pete talks about how the Franco government in 1971 said he wasn't allowed to sing the songs in Spain. What he doesn't say here and what I've read elsewhere, he did PLAY them--and the audience knew the words and sang the songs for him.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

I've only just stumbled on this and didn't know that he died over a year ago!

I'll remember him for being silly when Dylan went electric, but mostly for standing up to McCarthy.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Weird or what? I've just been reading Ronnie Gilbert's obituary in the Telegraph when this thread gets revived.

Ronnie Gilbert was one of the founding members of the Weavers with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman - the only one left.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

DrMike said:


> He was a great songwriter, but he did have his flaws. In his early life, as a committed Communist, he parroted the party line. When Stalin and Hitler were allied under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he criticized Roosevelt for any intervention that was seen as detrimental to that pact, but then when the pact was broken by Hitler, he was all for American intervention to stop Hitler.


If those were his only 'flaws', the guy was a saint by human standards-I am a friggin' vampire by comparison. Hypocrisy is a hell of a disease.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Wood said:


> I've only just stumbled on this and didn't know that he died over a year ago!
> 
> I'll remember him for being silly when Dylan went electric, but mostly for standing up to McCarthy.


Dylan and others were always dismissing him later and ignored what he had done to prepare the way for them. Ironically Springsteen ("the new Dylan" - circa 1975) helped rehabilitise his status with The Seeger Sessions.

An artist I respect and am thankful for, rather than love. Would that someone might write my obituary respecting my contribution. RIP.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Taggart said:


> He was also big in the 30's and 40's, he had a bit of a hiatus in the 50's because of problems with Senator McCarthy. His dad was big in ethnomusicology, his mother was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School. His stepmum  was a modernist composer and an American folk music specialist. His half-sister, Margaret (or Peggy) Seeger is a folk singer in her own right and was married to Ewan Macoll. he played with Bruce Springstein at Obama's inauguration in 2009.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 His mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, wrote a heck of a string quartet


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Triplets said:


> His mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, wrote a heck of a string quartet


Step-mother. His mother Constance de Clyver (née Edson) was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School. See wiki.


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