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)
Blowin
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Pete Seeger's iconic song "Blowin' in the Wind" is a poignant reflection on the injustices and moral questions of the time, and its lyrics hold a timeless relevance even today. The song is composed of three stanzas, each posing a set of questions that was meant to make the listener think and contemplate on the issues that they presented. The common thread running through these questions is the futility of war, the struggle for freedom, and the importance of awareness and empathy.
The first stanza of the song asks how many roads a man must walk down before he is called a man, and how many seas a white dove must sail before she can finally find rest. These questions hint at the struggle for identity and belonging, and the search for peace and meaning in a hostile world. The stanza then goes on to ask how long war must continue before it is put to rest. The refrain of the song responds to these questions by saying that the answer is blowing in the wind. This suggests that the answer is not something that can be easily explained or defined, but emerges from our experience and observation of the world around us.
The second stanza poses a set of questions that reflect the struggle for freedom and equal rights. The song asks how long mountains can exist before they are washed away, and how long people must wait before they can enjoy the same rights and freedoms as others. The stanza ends with the question of how long people can pretend to be blind to the plight of others before they cannot ignore it anymore. The refrain of the song continues to provide the answer of "the answer is blowing in the wind", suggesting that there is not an easy solution to these issues, but that they are complex and multifaceted.
Finally, the third stanza raises the issue of the human cost of war and the importance of empathy and compassion. The song asks how many times a man must look up before he can see the sky, and how many ears he must have before he can hear the cries of others. The stanza ends with the haunting question of how many deaths it will take before we realize the terrible cost of war. The refrain once again responds with the enigmatic answer of the answer blowing in the wind, suggesting that the solution to these problems is elusive and difficult to grasp.
Line by Line Meaning
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
What is the threshold for an individual to be considered mature enough to be called a man? How many life experiences must one gather?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
What is the journey threshold for the white dove to finally rest? How far must one go to find peace?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
How many violent conflicts must humans endure before they learn their lesson? When will we have enough war?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
The solutions to these questions are elusive, and perhaps known only to fate, unseen and unheard, like the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
What is a mountain's lifespan in the grand scheme of things? How long does anything last?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
What is the wait time for individuals who are not free? How long before everyone has the chance to live in freedom?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
What is the maximum amount of avoidance one can practice before one finally confronts reality? When does it become too much to bear?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
The solutions to these questions are elusive, and perhaps known only to fate, unseen and unheard, like the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
What is the number of times an individual must look up to distinguish the sky from everything else? How long does it take for a person to realize the beauty in the world?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
What is the number of ears needed to hear the pain of others? How long before some learn empathy?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
What is the death toll before people realize the cost of war? How much tragedy must society endure before we learn our lesson?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
The solutions to these questions are elusive, and perhaps known only to fate, unseen and unheard, like the wind.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@actarusfleed6607
Oh how I long to go back in time and live through those wonderful years.
@user-mx7hc6kw4z
Got told off by my English teacher for referring to this one .Still.a lot of turning a bind eye to it all shame on us all❤❤❤❤❤😂😊😅😂❤❤xxxx❤❤
@marylyn5965
This song should be playing everywhere right now around the world. Peace. ☮️✌️
@juliereminiec4937
Especially in the Ukraine!😭
@lebe220
The world is into a rough ride: Most people addicted to: Drugs, orgasm, alkohol, shopping, power, money....Destroys peace, but nobody, especially Bob Dylan (loves money) seems to understand.
@lmac6388
And Russia. It is quintessentially an anti conscription song.
@chonjason8471
@L Mac aQQQqqq
@beyondalpha1072
Commie scum
@tounoni
I am searching for and listening to all my mum's favourite songs online. I am crying as I listen to each of them. Mum RIP, I love and miss you so much
@jackmandu
Your Mom obviously had great taste in music. My condolences on your loss.