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)
Cement Octopus
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gets red tape to eat, gasoline taxes to drin,
And it grows by day and it grows by night
And it rolls over everything in sight.
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.
Who knows how the monster started to grow that way;
But the taxes keep coming, they have to be spent
On big bull dozers and tanks of cement,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.
That octopus grows like a science-fiction blight,
The Bay and the Ferry building are out of sight,
The trees that stood for a thousand years,
We watch them falling through our tears
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.
Dear old MacLaren won't take this lying down,
We can hear his spirit move in the sandy ground,
He built this Eden on the duney plain,
Now they're making it a concrete desert again,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.
The men on the highways need those jobs, we know
Lets put them to work planting new trees to grow.
Building new parks where kids can play,
Pushing that cement monster away,
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery
The song "Cement Octopus" by Pete Seeger speaks about a giant octopus made of cement that sits in Sacramento and grows day by day and by night, consuming red tape and gasoline taxes. The song reflects on the destructive nature of cities and freeways, which lead to the destruction of natural habitats, like trees that have stood for thousands of years. The lyrics also refer to the frustrations faced by the citizens who feel powerless against the unstoppable monstrosity of the cement octopus. The song is a powerful protest against the rise of industrialization, urbanization, and the destruction of the environment.
Seeger's use of metaphors in the lyrics invites us to consider the true cost of progress and development, often destroying natural habitats and landscapes to make room for concrete jungles. The song highlights the need for preserving natural habitats and creating more green spaces while acknowledging the importance of providing jobs for people. In conclusion, "Cement Octopus" is a moving song that urges us to consider the plight of the natural world around us and our ability to bring about positive change.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a cement octopus sits in Sacramento, I think,
There's an enormous entity made of cement that seems to be spreading across Sacramento.
Gets red tape to eat, gasoline taxes to drink,
The octopus is fed by bureaucracy and taxes that are meant to maintain a growing infrastructure.
And it grows by day and it grows by night
The cement octopus is expanding and becoming more widespread every passing day and night.
And it rolls over everything in sight.
The cement octopus is destroying everything in its path and spreading chaos throughout Sacramento.
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
The artist is asking for people to stand together and fight for the preservation of nature amidst the overwhelming development.
From the freeway misery.
The singer is referencing the damage caused by the cement octopus and how it's perpetuating misery for those who are surrounded by it.
Who knows how the monster started to grow that way;
The singer is unsure how the cement octopus started to develop and become so colossal.
Its parents are frightened and wish it would go away.
Even the originators of the cement octopus are apprehensive of the destruction it's causing and want it to stop.
But the taxes keep coming, they have to be spent
Due to the increasing taxes, there are not many options regarding where the funds should go, and they end up mainly being used to support infrastructure.
On big bull dozers and tanks of cement,
The money collected from taxes is mostly used to fund the building of infrastructure which promotes the growth of the cement octopus.
The Bay and the Ferry building are out of sight,
The cement octopus is so extensive that it's blocking the view of iconic San Francisco landmarks, such as the Bay and the Ferry Building.
The trees that stood for a thousand years,
The artist is lamenting the destruction of trees that have stood for centuries being destroyed as a result of the cement octopus' growth.
We watch them falling through our tears
The destruction of natural beauty is being mourned by people who see the cement octopus taking over and resulting in the destruction of existing ecosystems.
Dear old MacLaren won't take this lying down,
The singer is referencing MacLaren, who was willing to preserve the earth and believed in the importance of environmentalism. He won't just let the destruction continue and wants people to take action to save our planet.
We can hear his spirit move in the sandy ground,
The singer is using figurative language to say that MacLaren's legacy is still present to inspire and motivate people to protect the environment.
He built this Eden on the duney plain,
MacLaren is responsible for creating a beautiful landscape full of life on a previously barren plain of sand.
Now they're making it a concrete desert again,
The artist is saying that the cement octopus is undoing all of the work that MacLaren did to make a paradise and instead turning it into a lifeless place full of concrete structures.
The men on the highways need those jobs, we know
People working in construction desperately need the employment opportunities that come with the expansion of infrastructure projects.
Lets put them to work planting new trees to grow.
The singer is proposing the creation of a new program to give people jobs that involve planting trees and creating green spaces, promoting job growth while still preserving nature.
Building new parks where kids can play,
The artist is suggesting that, in addition to planting trees, new parks should also be built to provide public access to green spaces that can be enjoyed by all.
Pushing that cement monster away,
The artist wants people to fight back against the cement octopus and enforce limitations on its growth to preserve natural beauty.
Contributed by Ava V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.