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)
English Is Cuh-ray-zee
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
One out of every seven human beings can speak or read it.
Half the world's books, 3/4 of the international mail are in English.
It has the largest vocabulary, perhaps two million words,
And a noble body of literature. But face it:
English is cuh-ray-zee!
Just a few examples: There's no egg in eggplant, no pine or apple in pineapple.
A writer writes, but do fingers fing?
Hammers don't ham, grocers don't groce. Haberdashers don't haberdash.
English is cuh-ray-zee!
If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?
It's one goose, two geese. Why not one moose, two meese?
If it's one index, two indices; why not one Kleenex,two Kleenices?
English is cuh-ray-zee!
You can comb through the annals of history, but not just one annal.
You can make amends, but not just one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one, is it an odd or an end?
If the teacher taught, why isn't it true that a preacher praught?
If you wrote a letter, did you also bote your tongue?
And if a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
English is cuh-ray-zee!
Why is it that night falls but never breaks and day breaks but never falls?
In what other language do people drive on the parkway and park on the driveway?
Ship by truck but send cargo by ship? Recite at a play but play at a recital?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
English is cuh-ray-zee!
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same
When a wise man and a wise guy are very different?
To overlook something and to oversee something are very different,
But quite a lot and quite a few are the same.
How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
English is cuh-ray-zee!
You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn down
While it is burning up. You fill out a form by filling it in.
In which your alarm clock goes off by going on.
If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?
Well, English was invented by people, not computers
And reflects the creativity of the human race.
So that's why when the stars are out, they're visible,
But when the lights are out, they're invisible.
When I wind up my watch I start it, but when I wind up this rap,
I end it. English is cuh-ray-zee!
In “English is Cuh-ray-zee,” Pete Seeger is pointing out the many quirks and inconsistencies of the English language. He acknowledges that although English is the most widely spoken and influential language in the world, it is also filled with idiosyncrasies that can make it confusing and difficult to learn. Seeger takes the listener through a series of examples of English language oddities, including expressions like “no egg in eggplant” and “boxing rings are square.” He wryly poses questions like, “If you wrote a letter, did you also bote your tongue?” and, “How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same?”
Seeger’s song also touches on the nonliteral quirks of English. He notes that “English was invented by people, not computers” and, as a result, it reflects the creativity and craziness of human beings. Seeger illustrates this point by pointing out paradoxical expressions like “your house can burn down / While it is burning up” and “when the stars are out, they’re visible / But when the lights are out, they’re invisible.” Through these observations, Seeger is able to celebrate the wild, lively spirit of the English language as a reflection of human ingenuity, even if it can be confounding at times.
Line by Line Meaning
English is the most widely spoken language in the history of the planet.
English is one of the most spoken languages in human history.
One out of every seven human beings can speak or read it.
English can be spoken or understood by one-seventh of the world's people.
Half the world's books, 3/4 of the international mail are in English.
English is used in half of the books and 75% of international mail.
It has the largest vocabulary, perhaps two million words,
English possibly has the most extensive vocabulary of two million words.
And a noble body of literature. But face it:
English boasts a significant literary history. However, there is one thing to bear in mind.
Just a few examples: There's no egg in eggplant, no pine or apple in pineapple.
There can be some peculiarities in the English language, for instance, 'eggplant' that doesn't contain any egg.
Quicksand works slowly; boxing rings are square.
Words like 'quicksand' and 'boxing ring' can be misleading, as quicksand doesn't act rapidly, and boxing rings' shape is square.
A writer writes, but do fingers fing?
'Fing' isn't a word, which may seem odd that 'write' is a verb but it doesn't go both ways, as 'finger' or other words can't be used as a verb.
Hammers don't ham, grocers don't groce. Haberdashers don't haberdash.
Some words don't follow the same pattern when made into verbs.
If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?
The rules for forming plurals in English can be confusing.
It's one goose, two geese. Why not one moose, two meese?
Other languages form plurals differently from English, so English rules aren't always consistent.
If it's one index, two indices; why not one Kleenex,two Kleenices?
English rules for plurals aren't always logical or consistent.
You can comb through the annals of history, but not just one annal.
Some words can't be used in the singular.
You can make amends, but not just one amend.
Some words can be plural or singular.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one, is it an odd or an end?
Some words can be complex to understand, confusing or illogical.
If the teacher taught, why isn't it true that a preacher praught?
English grammar rules can be nonsensical.
If you wrote a letter, did you also bote your tongue?
Some words aren't spelled as they sound, which can make English somewhat irrational.
And if a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Some words are illogical or bizarre and can make the language seem crazy.
Why is it that night falls but never breaks and day breaks but never falls?
English idioms and phrases can be peculiar or unexplainable.
In what other language do people drive on the parkway and park on the driveway?
Words can be used in different contexts, which can be perplexing.
Ship by truck but send cargo by ship? Recite at a play but play at a recital?
Words can be paradoxical or irrational, so the language may seem crazy.
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
English phrases and idioms can be varied and not just contextually different but can sound illogical.
You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn down While it is burning up.
English can be a nonsensical language with words that don't make sense when brought together.
You fill out a form by filling it in.
Phrases can have multiple meanings making English one of the most challenging languages. It doesn't matter how the application is filled.
In which your alarm clock goes off by going on.
Some English phrases or idioms can be nonsensical or confusing.
If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?
English words can be puzzling, and phrases often make no sense.
Well, English was invented by people, not computers And reflects the creativity of the human race.
The foundation of the English language is human creativity and has evolved over the years accordingly.
So that's why when the stars are out, they're visible, But when the lights are out, they're invisible.
Words aren't always used consistently rules, and idioms cannot be explained.
When I wind up my watch I start it, but when I wind up this rap, I end it. English is cuh-ray-zee!
The wordplay shows that English can be amusing, but the language can also be completely nonsensical.
Contributed by Kaitlyn T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.