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)
Fare Ye Well Old Ely Branch
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I′m tired o' livin′ on dried beef and tomatoes
And I'm a-goin' away
When we had a strike in Ely this spring, these words ol′ Hughes did say
Come along boys go back to work, we′ll give you the two weeks' pays
When they put on their mining clothes, hard work again they tried
And when ol′ payday rolled around, they found ol' Hughes had lied
So fare ye well old Ely Branch, fare ye well I say
I′m tired o' livin′ on dried beef and tomatoes
And I'm a-goin' away
When Hughes thinks his mines was goin′ to stop, a sight to see him frown
There′s gas enough in old Hughes, to blow these mountains down
Oh take your children outta Ely Branch, before they cry for bread
For when ol' Hughes′ debts are paid, he won't be worth a thread
So fare ye well old Ely Branch, fare ye well I say
I′m tired o' livin′ on dried beef and tomatoes
And I'm a-goin' away
Now Hughes claims he owns more mines than these, he says he gots money to lend
But when ol′ payday rolls around, he can′t pay off his men
I'd rather be in Pine Grove jail with my back all covered in lice
Than to be in old Hughes′ coal mines, diggin' coal at Hughes′ price
I think John Yaeger's a very nice man, he′s the same ol' John every day
But a man can't live can′t live on dried beef and tomatoes, an′ I'm a-goin′ away
So fare ye well old Ely Branch, fare ye well I say
I'm tired o′ livin' on dried beef and tomatoes
And I′m a-goin' away
Pete Seeger's song Fare Ye Well Old Ely Branch highlights the harsh realities of life in the mining town of Ely, West Virginia in the early 20th century. The song laments the difficulties of living on meager rations of dried beef and tomatoes and the broken promises of mine owner, Hughes. The song was written during a time of great struggle for coal miners in West Virginia as they fought for better working conditions and fair wages. The lyrics speak to the desperation of those who felt betrayed by the system and had no choice but to leave the town to find a better life.
The first verse sets the tone for the song as the singer bids farewell to Ely Branch and expresses their exhaustion with their current way of life. The second verse refers to a strike in Ely and how the mine owner, Hughes, promised the miners two weeks' pay if they agreed to go back to work. However, when payday came around, the miners discovered that Hughes had lied and they had not been paid. The third verse paints a picture of a tyrannical mine owner who would stop at nothing to maintain his wealth, even if it meant sacrificing the livelihoods of his workers. The fourth verse is a testament to the mines' inability to pay their workers adequately, even though the owner claims to have money to lend.
Overall, the song captures the bleak reality of life in a coal-mining town and the desperation of the workers who had no choice but to leave in search of a better life.
Line by Line Meaning
Fare ye well old Ely Branch, fare ye well I say
Goodbye to you, Ely Branch. I'm leaving.
I'm tired o' livin' on dried beef and tomatoes
I'm tired of living off of the bare minimum and want more.
And I'm a-goin' away
And I am leaving to find a better life.
When we had a strike in Ely this spring, these words ol′ Hughes did say
During the strike in Ely this spring, Hughes said these words:
Come along boys go back to work, we'll give you the two weeks' pays
Come back to work and we'll pay you for two weeks.
When they put on their mining clothes, hard work again they tried
When they put on their mining clothes, they tried hard to work.
And when ol′ payday rolled around, they found ol' Hughes had lied
But when payday came, they found out that Hughes had been lying.
There's gas enough in old Hughes, to blow these mountains down
Hughes is so full of hot air that he could blow these mountains down.
Oh take your children outta Ely Branch, before they cry for bread
Take your children out of Ely Branch before they go hungry.
For when ol' Hughes' debts are paid, he won't be worth a thread
When Hughes' debts are paid off, he will be broke.
Now Hughes claims he owns more mines than these, he says he's got money to lend
Hughes claims to own more mines and have enough money to lend.
But when ol' payday rolls around, he can't pay off his men
But when payday arrives, he can't pay his workers.
I'd rather be in Pine Grove jail with my back all covered in lice
I'd rather be in jail with lice on my back than work in Hughes' coal mines for his low wages.
Than to be in old Hughes' coal mines, diggin' coal at Hughes' price
I'd rather be in jail than work in Hughes' mines for his low wages.
I think John Yaeger's a very nice man, he's the same ol' John every day
I think John Yaeger is a good person and consistent in his actions.
But a man can't live can't live on dried beef and tomatoes, an' I'm a-goin' away
But a man can't live on bare minimums like dried beef and tomatoes, so I'm leaving to find a better life.
Writer(s): Unknown
Contributed by Aria W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.