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)
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And the jungle fires were burning,
Down the track came a hobo hiking,
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws nor picks,
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
The song Big Rock Candy Mountain starts off describing a hobo hiking down a track and inviting the boys to come see the Big Rock Candy Mountains with him. The next verse praises the land that’s far and promises a place where handouts grow on bushes, and they can sleep out every night. The following verse assures that there will be no struggle or hard work while living there, as the cops have wooden legs, the bulldogs have rubber teeth, and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs. The fourth verse mentions a lake of stew and whiskey which they can paddle around in a big canoe. The fifth verse talks about how in the Big Rock Candy Mountains, the jails are made of tin, and there are no axes, saws or picks, and the jerk who invented work was hung.
Line by Line Meaning
One evening as the sun went down
As the sun began to set and the jungle fires flickered, a hobo appeared walking down the track.
And he said, 'Boys, I'm not turning
The hobo called out to the surrounding people, declaring that he would not be swayed from his intended destination.
I'm headed for a land that's far away
The hobo proclaimed that he was going to travel to a distant and unknown land.
Besides the crystal fountains
He described this land as having pure and refreshing sources of water.
So come with me, we'll go and see
The hobo beckoned to his audience to join him on his journey.
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
The name of the mythical land which the hobo is describing.
Where the handouts grow on bushes
In this land, food is abundant and can easily be acquired.
And you sleep out every night
People in the Big Rock Candy Mountains sleep outside because the weather is always fair.
Where the boxcars all are empty
Trains pass through this land, but the railway cars are all devoid of cargo.
And the sun shines every day
The weather is eternally sunny and clear in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
And the birds and the bees
The flora and fauna are plentiful and free.
And the cigarette trees
There are even cigarettes that grow on trees.
The lemonade springs
There are also naturally occurring sources of sweet and refreshing drinks.
Where the bluebird sings
The birdsong in this land is particularly beautiful.
All the cops have wooden legs
Law enforcement personnel in the Big Rock Candy Mountains have prosthetic wooden legs instead of real ones.
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
Even the dogs in this land have artificial components, with rubber teeth as a common feature.
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The chicken eggs in this land are already cooked to the desired consistency.
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
Fruit trees belonging to the locals are brimming with ripe and ready to eat produce.
And the barns are full of hay
Livestock has an easy living in this land, with plenty of hay for them to feast on.
Oh I'm bound to go
The hobo proclaims his unwavering desire to travel to the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
Where there ain't no snow
Unlike the real world, this mythical land is always free of snow and harsh weather.
Where the rain don't fall
In addition to the lack of snow, the Big Rock Candy Mountains does not experience much rainfall.
The winds don't blow
The only weather condition in this land is a complete absence of wind.
You never change your socks
Life in the Big Rock Candy Mountains is so easy that even the most basic of chores, like washing socks, are unnecessary.
And the little streams of alcohol
Interestingly enough, there are even small streams that dispense alcoholic beverages.
Come trickling down the rocks
These streams flow down the hills and mountainsides of this land.
The brakemen have to tip their hats
In this land, even the brakemen on passing trains have to show respect by tipping their hats.
And the railway bulls are blind
The railroad security officials are either blind or lenient, as train-hoppers can easily avoid detection.
There's a lake of stew
One of the food sources in this land is a large body of stew that is readily available to all who live there.
And of whiskey too
Not only are there streams of alcohol, but there is a whole lake of whiskey for residents to enjoy.
You can paddle all around it
This whiskey lake is so large that visitors can traverse it in a canoe.
In a big canoe
The canoes that can handle this whiskey lake are massive, further emphasizing the absurdity of the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
The jails are made of tin.
Even the prisons in this land are not serious, as they are made of easily broken tin.
And you can walk right out again,
Prisoners in this land can simply leave whenever they please.
As soon as you are in.
There are no barriers or obstacles preventing people from entering or leaving these prisons.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
Common work tools, such as shovels, are not found in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
No axes, saws nor picks,
Tools that require hard physical labor are nonexistent in this land.
I'm bound to stay
The hobo declares his commitment to making the Big Rock Candy Mountains his permanent home.
Where you sleep all day,
The lifestyle in this land is so easy-going that people sleep constantly.
Where they hung the jerk
The residents of the Big Rock Candy Mountains have such disdain for people who work hard and take life seriously, that one of them was hung for inventing work.
That invented work
This line reveals that the people in this land are so lazy and averse to hard labor, that they regard the inventor of the concept of work as a jerk.
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
This line concludes Pete Seeger's vivid and absurd depiction of a mythical land where life is comfortable, lazy, and exaggeratedly easy.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: TRADITIONAL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind