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)
Beans Bacon and Gravy
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've seen many a panic I will own
I've been hungry, I've been cold, and now I'm growin' old
But the worst I've seen is nineteen thirty one
Oh those beans, bacon and gravy
They almost drive me crazy
I eat them 'til I see them in my dreams
When I wake up in the morning
And another day is dawning
I know I'll have another mess of beans
Well we congregate each morning, at the county barn at dawning
Everyone is happy so it seems
But when our day's work is done, and we pile in one by one
And thank the Lord for one more mess of beans
Chorus
We've Hooverized on butter, and for milk we've only water
And I haven't seen a steak in many a day
As for pies, cakes and jellies, we substitute sour bellies
For which we work the county road each day
Chorus
If there ever comes a time, when I have more than a dime
They will have to put me under lock and key
For they've had me broke so long, I can only sing this song
Of the workers and their misery
Chorus
Pete Seeger's song "Beans Bacon and Gravy" tells a story of poverty and struggle during the Great Depression. The opening lines set the scene of a speaker who has seen hardship before and implies that even in that context, the events of 1931 were particularly challenging. The verses continue to paint a picture of daily life, with the community gathering at the county barn to begin their work day, and returning at the end of the day to eat humble meals of beans, bacon, and gravy. The song describes the lack of variety in the workers' diets, with the substitution of sour bellies for pies, cakes, and jellies.
While the lyrics of "Beans Bacon and Gravy" may seem simple, the song speaks to larger issues of class and economic inequality. The phrase "Hooverized on butter" refers to the policies of President Herbert Hoover, who urged Americans to cut back on butter and other dairy products during the Depression. The line "If there ever comes a time, when I have more than a dime / They will have to put me under lock and key" speaks to the desperation of those who had little hope of changing their circumstances.
Overall, "Beans Bacon and Gravy" is a poignant reminder of how the Great Depression affected the everyday lives of Americans. Seeger's lyrics capture the struggles and resilience of those who faced hardship during this time period.
Line by Line Meaning
I was born long ago, in eighteen ninety four
I was born a long time ago, in 1894
I've seen many a panic I will own
I've witnessed many economic depressions
I've been hungry, I've been cold, and now I'm growin' old
I've experienced starvation, freezing, and aging
But the worst I've seen is nineteen thirty one
But 1931 was the worst economic depression I've seen
Oh those beans, bacon and gravy
Oh, that combination of beans, bacon, and gravy
They almost drive me crazy
It's almost driving me insane
I eat them 'til I see them in my dreams
I consume them to the point of dreaming about them
When I wake up in the morning
When I wake up in the morning
And another day is dawning
And a new day is beginning
I know I'll have another mess of beans
I know I'll have another serving of beans
Well we congregate each morning, at the county barn at dawning
We gather every morning at dawn at the county barn
Everyone is happy so it seems
Everyone appears to be happy
But when our day's work is done, and we pile in one by one
But after we finish our workshift, we come together one by one
And thank the Lord for one more mess of beans
And we express gratitude to God for another serving of beans
We've Hooverized on butter, and for milk we've only water
We've had to cut back on butter, and we don't have real milk, only water
And I haven't seen a steak in many a day
I haven't had steak in a long time
As for pies, cakes and jellies, we substitute sour bellies
When it comes to pies, cakes, and jellies, we have to make do with less appetizing options
For which we work the county road each day
We have to work on the county road every day to earn that food
If there ever comes a time, when I have more than a dime
If I ever have more than ten cents
They will have to put me under lock and key
They will have to imprison me
For they've had me broke so long, I can only sing this song
Because they've kept me so poor for so long, all I can do is sing this song
Of the workers and their misery
About the plight of the workers and their suffering
Contributed by Carson S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Dj Eslic
My grandfather used to sing this song when I was very young and I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard, now I listen to it and think about just how I miss him and his fun quirky personality.... Rest well Paw paw.
León Martin Alonso
Pete seeger is probably one of the most underrated American folk singer, his voice is just so good. He he’s one of my favourite artists, next to Cash
O Really?
Woodie Guthrie too.
Taylor Smith
I'm adding this to my Spotify playlist
Kyle Benjamin
Same tune as Jesse James. Love that folk music can switched around to be a completely different song so much.
AlanaD
second comment