As a member of The Weavers, Seeger had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. He was formerly a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and was a major contributor to folk and protest music in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Perhaps best known today as the author or co-author of the songs Where Have All the Flowers Gone, If I Had a Hammer, and Turn, Turn, Turn, songs that have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and which are still sung all over the world. Flowers was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn" in the mid-1960s.
Early work
Seeger dropped out of Harvard (where he had been studying journalism) in 1939, and he took a job in Washington, D.C. at the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress. In that capacity, he met and was influenced by many important musicians such as Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. He met Woody at a "Grapes of Wrath" migrant workers concert on March 3, 1940 and the two thereafter began a musical collaboration.
In 1948, Seeger wrote the first version of his now-classic How to Play the Five-String Banjo, a book that many banjo players credit with starting them off on the instrument. He went on to invent the Long Neck or Seeger banjo. This instrument is three frets longer than a typical banjo, and slightly longer than a bass guitar at 25 Frets, and is tuned a minor third lower than the normal 5-string banjo.
As a self-described "split tenor" (between an alto and a tenor), he was a founding member of the folk groups the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and the Weavers with Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman. The Weavers had major hits in the early 1950s, before being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.
On August 18, 1955, Pete was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where he refused to name personal and political associations stating it would violate his First Amendment rights... "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." Seeger's refusal to testify led to a March 26, 1957 indictment for contempt of Congress; for some years, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York. He was convicted in a jury trial in March 1961, and sentenced to a year in jail, but in May 1962 an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction.
Seeger started a solo career in 1958, and is known for songs such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "If I Had a Hammer" (co-written with Lee Hays), "Turn, Turn, Turn," adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and "We Shall Overcome" (based on a spiritual and later became the unofficial anthem for the civil rights movement). Seeger became influential in the 1960s folk revival centered in Greenwich Village. He helped found Broadside Magazine and Sing Out!. He was strongly associated with Moses Asch and Folkways Records. To describe the new crop of folk singers, many of whom were politically minded in their songs, he coined the phrase "Woody's children", alluding to his former bandmate Woody Guthrie, who by this time had become a legendary figure. He has often sung and is associated with the song "Joe Hill".
In the mid-sixties he hosted a regional folk music TV show called Rainbow Quest which featured folk musicians playing traditional folk music. Among his guests were Johnny Cash, June Carter, Mississippi John Hurt, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Roscoe Holcomb, The Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Richard Fariña and Mimi Fariña, and many others. Thirty-eight hour-long programs were recorded at new UHF station WNJU's Newark studios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi with Sholom Rubinstein.
An early advocate of Bob Dylan, Seeger was supposedly incensed over the distorted electric sound Dylan brought into the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, especially with the inability to clearly hear the lyrics. There are many conflicting versions of exactly what ensued, some claiming that he actually tried to disconnect the equipment. He is often cited as one of the main opponents to Dylan at Newport 1965, but claimed in 2005:
"There are reports of me being anti-him going electric at the '65 Newport Folk festival, but that's wrong. I was the MC that night. He was singing 'Maggie's Farm' and you couldn't understand a word because the mic was distorting his voice. I ran to the mixing desk and said, 'Fix the sound, it's terrible!' The guy said 'No, that's how they want it.' And I did say that if I had an axe I'd cut the cable! But I wanted to hear the words. I didn't mind him going electric.
Later work
Seeger achieved some notoriety in 1967 and 1968 for his song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", about a captain—a "big fool"—who drowned while leading a platoon on maneuvers in Louisiana during World War II. Seeger performed the song on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour after some arguments with CBS about whether the song's lyrics were objectionable. Although the song was cut from the Smothers Brothers show in September 1967, Seeger returned in January 1968 and sang the entire song. It was clearly an allegory about the U.S. under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson which was in over its head in the Vietnam War.
Another slight against Lyndon Johnson can be heard in his singing of Len Chandler's seemingly juvenile song, "Beans in My Ears" from his 1966 album Dangerous Songs!? in which he accuses "Mrs. Jay's little son Alby" (Alby Jay is meant to sound like LBJ) of having beans in his ears, or of not listening to the people.
In 1998 a double-CD tribute album was released - "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: the Songs of Pete Seeger". It contained contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg, Eliza Carthy, Bruce Springsteen, Roger McGuinn, Judy Collins, Indigo Girls, Dick Gaughan, Martin Simpson, Odetta and others.
Pete Seeger still performed occasionally in public until his death, and for a number of years appeared at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough Tennessee to tell stories, mostly children's stories such as Abiyoyo. He performed at MerleFest April 27-30, 2006 in Wilkesboro, NC.
On March 16, 2007, the 88-year old Pete Seeger performed with his siblings Mike Seeger and Peggy Seeger, and other Seeger family members at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where he had been employed as a folk song archivist 67 years earlier.
In April 2006, Bruce Springsteen released a collection of songs associated with Seeger or in Seeger's folk tradition, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Bruce Springsteen performed a series of concerts based on those sessions, to sellout crowds. Springsteen had previously recorded one Seeger favorite, "We Shall Overcome," on the 1998 "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" tribute album.
Seeger lived in the hamlet of Dutchess Junction in the Town of Fishkill, NY and remained very politically active in the Hudson Valley Region of New York, especially in the near-by City of Beacon, NY. He and Toshi purchased their land in 1949, and lived there first in a trailer, then in a log cabin they built themselves, and eventually in a larger house. Seeger joined the Community Church (a church practicing Unitarian Universalism), is considered a famous Unitarian Universalist, and often performed at functions for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Seeger died in 2014 of natural causes.
Awards
Seeger has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including:
A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1993)
The National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994)
Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor (1994)
The Harvard Arts Medal (1996)
Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1996)
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996 for his record "Pete" (1997)
70 Miles
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Seventy miles of wind and spray,
Seventy miles of water,
Seventy miles of open bay--
It's a garbage dump.
What's that stinky creek out there,
Down behind the slum's back stair
Why man, that's San Francisco Bay.
(CHORUS)
Big Solano and the Montecelle'
Ferry boats, I know them well,
Creek and groan in their muddy graves
Remembering San Francisco Bay
(CHORUS)
Joe Ortega and the Spanish crew
Sailed across the ocean blue
Came into the mighty Bay
Stood on the decks and cried, "Ole"
(CHORUS)
Fill it here, fill it here.
Docks and tidelands disappear,
Shaky houses on the quaky ground
The builder, he's Las Vegas bound
(CHORUS)
Dump the garbage in the Bay
City fathers say, "Okay,
When cries of anguish fill the air,
We'll be off on the Riviere."
(CHORUS)
The song "70 Miles" by Pete Seeger is a commentary on the environmental degradation of San Francisco Bay. The lyrics highlight the irony of a beautiful natural resource, the bay, being polluted and treated as a garbage dump. The chorus repeats "Seventy miles of wind and spray, seventy miles of water, seventy miles of open bay-- it's a garbage dump," emphasizing the vastness of the problem.
The second verse of the song depicts a "sludgy puddle, sad and gray" which is revealed to be the bay itself. The lyrics convey a sense of disbelief that such a once-natural wonder has been degraded to such an extent. The following verses serve to give a brief history of the bay, referencing the names of specific ferries and crews, highlighting the human connection to this ecological disaster.
Finally, the last verse is a biting commentary on society's prioritization of development and profit over the environment. The lyrics suggest that the city leaders are ultimately responsible for the pollution of the bay, as they have allowed for the dumping of garbage and the disappearance of docks and tidelands. The builder in the verse is "Las Vegas bound," symbolizing the predilection for expansion and novelty over preservation and conservation.
Overall, "70 Miles" serves as a condemnation of our disregard for the natural world, particularly in urban settings. Seeger uses poignant lyrics to remind us of the importance of protecting the environment and the impact our societal values have on the world around us.
Line by Line Meaning
Seventy miles of wind and spray,
There are seventy miles of open water in San Francisco Bay.
Seventy miles of water,
San Francisco Bay is large and full of water.
Seventy miles of open bay--
San Francisco Bay is a vast, open body of water.
It's a garbage dump.
Sadly, San Francisco Bay is being treated as a dumping ground for garbage.
What's that stinky creek out there,
There is a creek that smells bad in the bay area.
Down behind the slum's back stair
The creek is located behind a run-down area of the city.
Sludgy puddle, sad and gray?
The creek is mucky and has a dreary appearance.
Why man, that's San Francisco Bay.
The creek is actually part of the larger San Francisco Bay area.
(CHORUS)
This is the chorus of the song, which repeats throughout.
Big Solano and the Montecelle'
These are names of ferry boats that used to traverse the bay.
Ferry boats, I know them well,
The singer is familiar with the ferry boats that have traveled on the bay.
Creek and groan in their muddy graves
The ferry boats are no longer in service, and they rest in the bay, rusting away.
Remembering San Francisco Bay
The ferry boats are a reminder of the importance of the bay in history.
(CHORUS)
The chorus repeats again.
Joe Ortega and the Spanish crew
These are the names of sailors who arrived in San Francisco Bay in the past.
Sailed across the ocean blue
They traveled across a great distance to reach the bay.
Came into the mighty Bay
They were awestruck by the vastness of San Francisco Bay.
Stood on the decks and cried, "Ole"
They were moved to express their joy at having made it to the bay.
(CHORUS)
The chorus repeats again.
Fill it here, fill it here.
The construction industry wants to fill in parts of the bay for development purposes.
Docks and tidelands disappear,
If the bay is filled in, docks and tidal areas will be destroyed.
Shaky houses on the quaky ground
The construction industry is building on unstable ground that could lead to disastrous consequences.
The builder, he's Las Vegas bound
The developer is more focused on making money than on caring for the environment around the bay.
(CHORUS)
The chorus repeats again.
Dump the garbage in the Bay
The city officials allow garbage to be dumped in the bay area.
City fathers say, "Okay,
The people in charge give the go-ahead for this harmful practice.
When cries of anguish fill the air,
When people start to complain about the harm being done to the bay, it will be too late.
We'll be off on the Riviere."
The people in charge will move on to other cities and leave the bay behind, suffering from their neglect.
(CHORUS)
The chorus repeats again.
Contributed by Mia O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.