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)
Cotton Mill Colic
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
At the end of the week you're not on the level
Payday comes, you ain't got a penny
'Cause when you pay your bills you got so many
I'm a-gonna starve and everybody will
'Cause you can't make a livin' in a cotton mill
Collector treats you like a measly worm
One dollar down and the Lord knows
If you can't make a payment, they take your clothes
I'm a-gonna starve and everybody will
'Cause you can't make a livin' in a cotton mill
Payday comes, you pay your rent
End of the week you ain't got a cent
To buy fat-backed meat, pinto beans
Cook up a mess o' turnip greens
I'm a-gonna starve and everybody will
'Cause you can't make a livin' in a cotton mill
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Let the rich man live and the poor man bust
We'll never make it, we never will
As long as we work in a rounding mill
I'm a-gonna starve and everybody will
'Cause you can't make a livin' in a cotton mill
Pete Seeger's Cotton Mill Colic is a commentary on the struggles of the working class in the cotton mills in the early 20th century. The lyrics describe the many difficult aspects of working in a mill that ultimately lead to poverty and struggle. At the beginning of the song, Seeger talks about how workers work hard all week, but still can’t make ends meet because payday doesn't provide enough of a salary. The workers’ monthly bills are too high, so they can't save up or enjoy themselves on payday. The limitations of their earnings inflict starvation not just on one, but eventually on everybody.
Seeger then mentions how people make purchases when they can't pay upfront using credit, only to be treated like a useless worm when collectors come after them for payment. Then Seeger talks about how the workers cannot even afford to purchase enough food to live on beyond Friday, forcing them to eat turnip greens, pinto beans, and fat-backed meat. The last lines of the song: “As long as we work in a rounding mill. [...] You can't make a livin' in a cotton mill” are a depressing reminder that the workers are stuck in a lower-class existence, and their fate seems impossible to change.
This song was significant in its time as it brought attention to the hardships that textile workers faced on a daily basis. It was an anthem for trade unions that were fighting for the labor rights of workers in the mills. It protested against the greediness of the mill owners who didn't care about their workers' living conditions, adequate wages or workers' health care. It is also interesting to note that the chorus of the song that says you can't make a living working in a cotton mill is preceded by the singer discussing the trials of each and every day of their work week. This adds emphasis to the message of the chorus. Other interesting facts about this song are:
Line by Line Meaning
When you go to work well you work like the devil
Working in a cotton mill is an extremely difficult and exhausting job.
At the end of the week you're not on the level
Despite working hard all week, cotton mill workers barely make enough money to survive.
Payday comes, you ain't got a penny
Workers are paid very little for their work in the cotton mill, barely enough to cover their expenses.
'Cause when you pay your bills you got so many
Workers have many bills to pay, including rent, utilities, and food, leaving them with little money leftover.
I'm a-gonna starve and everybody will
Workers are struggling to survive and many are going without sufficient food and other necessities.
'Cause you can't make a livin' in a cotton mill
Working in a cotton mill does not provide a livable wage and is not a sustainable way to make a living.
When you buy clothes on easy terms
Workers are often forced to buy clothes on credit due to their low wages.
Collector treats you like a measly worm
Creditors treat workers with disrespect and make them feel powerless.
If you can't make a payment, they take your clothes
If workers are unable to make their credit payments, they may lose their clothes and other possessions.
Payday comes, you pay your rent
Workers are living paycheck to paycheck and most of their money goes towards paying rent.
End of the week you ain't got a cent
After paying their bills and rent, workers are left with virtually no money for other necessities.
To buy fat-backed meat, pinto beans
Workers are unable to afford basic foods that are essential for good health and nutrition.
Cook up a mess o' turnip greens
Workers are forced to make do with cheaper, less nutritious foods in order to survive.
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
This line refers to the inevitable death that all people will face, regardless of their social status or wealth.
Let the rich man live and the poor man bust
The system is rigged in favor of the wealthy, while the poor are forced to struggle and suffer in poverty.
We'll never make it, we never will
Cotton mill workers feel that they will never be able to escape the cycle of poverty and struggle, no matter how hard they work.
As long as we work in a rounding mill
Until cotton mills provide a livable wage and improved working conditions, workers will continue to suffer and struggle to survive.
Contributed by Samuel V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.