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)
Dr. King on Violence
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Not many of us here tonight were then alive
A young Baptist preacher led a bus boycott
He led the way for a brand
New day without firing a shot
Don't say it can't be done
The battle's just begun
You too can learn to sing so drop the gun
Oh those must have been an exciting 13 years
Young heroes, young heroines
There was laughter, there were tears
Students at lunch counters
Even dancing in the streets
To think it all started with sister Rosa
Refusing to give up her seat
Song, songs, kept them going and going
They didn't realize the millions of
Seeds they were sowing
They were singing in marches
Even singing in jail
Songs gave them the courage to
Believe they would not fail
We sang about Alabama 1955
But since 9-11 we wonder
Will this world survive
The world learned a lesson from Dr king:
We can survive, we can, we will
And so we sing
Don't say it can't be done
The battle's just begun
Take it from Dr king
You too can learn to sing so drop the gun
In "Take it from Dr. King," Pete Seeger reflects on the Civil Rights Movement and the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The song pays tribute to the power of music and how it helped sustain the movement. Seeger reflects on the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, led by Dr. King, which served as a catalyst for a new era of activism.
Seeger reminds us that change does not always have to come through violence or guns. Dr. King's leadership and peaceful activism brought about significant change, inspiring young heroes and heroines to stand up against injustice. He emphasizes the importance of music and songs, which were a critical aspect of the movement, from marches to protests to the songs sung in jail. He reflects on the power of music to bind people together, uplift spirits and give courage: with music, anything can be achieved.
The song also reflects on the present-day state of the world. Seeger recognizes that there is still much work to be done to make the world a better place, even after the lessons learned from Dr. King. Nevertheless, Seeger insists that the struggle for progress can continue and that we can make it happen, as long as we learn from the example set by Dr. King and continue to sing.
Line by Line Meaning
Down in Alabama, 1955
The setting of the story and events that led to significant change.
Not many of us here tonight were then alive
Acknowledging that those who were alive then have a unique perspective.
A young Baptist preacher led a bus boycott
A reference to Martin Luther King Jr's leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
He led the way for a brand
Dr. King's leadership was trailblazing.
New day without firing a shot
The changes brought about by non-violent resistance.
Don't say it can't be done
Encouragement to overcome challenges and obstacles.
The battle's just begun
Emphasizing the ongoing struggle for equality.
Take it from Dr king
Dr. King's example is a powerful guide.
You too can learn to sing so drop the gun
Non-violent resistance is an effective way to fight for change.
Oh those must have been an exciting 13 years
Reflecting on the progress made during the civil rights movement.
Young heroes, young heroines
Acknowledging the important role of young activists.
There was laughter, there were tears
The struggle for civil rights was emotionally intense.
Students at lunch counters
The sit-ins were a powerful symbol of non-violent resistance.
Even dancing in the streets
Celebrating the joy of coming together for change.
To think it all started with sister Rosa
Reflecting on the pivotal role of Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement.
Refusing to give up her seat
A powerful act of resistance and protest against segregation.
Song, songs, kept them going and going
The importance of music and song in the struggle for civil rights.
They didn't realize the millions of
They couldn't have known the full impact their actions would have.
Seeds they were sowing
The lasting impact of their efforts.
They were singing in marches
The role of song during marches and protests.
Even singing in jail
The importance of song in maintaining hope and resilience.
Songs gave them the courage to
The way that song inspired and motivated activists.
Believe they would not fail
The way that song helped activists stay focused and determined.
We sang about Alabama 1955
Referencing the power of song to remember and reflect on the past.
But since 9-11 we wonder
Reflecting on the current social and political climate.
Will this world survive
Voicing concerns about the future.
The world learned a lesson from Dr king:
Recognizing the global importance of Dr. King's message.
We can survive, we can, we will
Maintaining optimism and a sense of determination.
And so we sing
Continuing to use the power of song to inspire and unite.
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind