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)
Golden Vanity
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And she put out to sea
And the name of the our
Ship was the Golden Vanity
And she sailed upon the low and lonesome low
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea
We had not been out but two weeks or three
As we sailed upon the low and lonesome low
As we sailed upon the lonesome sea
The quickly up spoke our little cabin boy
Sayin', "What will you give me
If I will them destroy
If I sink 'em in the low and lonesome low
If I sink 'em in the lonesome sea?"
The man that them destroy"
Our captain then replied
"Five thousand pounds and my
Daughter for his bride
If he sink 'em in the low and lonesome low
If he sink 'em in the lonesome sea"
Then the boy he smote his
Chest and overboard jumped he
And he swum till he came
To the Turkish Revelee
As they sailed upon the low and lonesome low
As they sailed upon the lonesome sea
Now he had a little tool that
Was made for the use
And he bored three holes in
Her side all at once
And he sunk her in the low and lonesome low
And he sunk her in the lonesome sea
Then he swam back to the ship
And he beat upon the side
Sayin', "Captain, pick me up
For I'm drifting with the tide
And I'm sinking in the low and lonesome low
And I'm sinkin' in the lonesome sea"
"I will not pick you up"
The Captain then replied
"I'll shoot you, I'll drown you
I'll sink you in the tide
And I'll sink you in the
Low and lonesome low
And I'll sink you in the lonesome sea"
Then the boy he took his tool in
Our side he bored holes three
Saying, "Captain, i'll take you with me to
The bottom of the sea
And I'll sink you in the
Low and lonesome low
And I'll sink you in the lonesome sea"
And we sank into the lonesome sea
And we sank into the lonesome sea
The song "Golden Vanity" tells the story of a ship called the Golden Vanity and its encounter with the Turkish Revelee. The ship sets sail, navigating the low and lonesome sea. After a few weeks at sea, they are overtaken by the Turkish ship. The cabin boy proposes to sink the Turkish ship in exchange for a large sum of money and the captain's daughter as his bride. With the captain's agreement, the boy jumps overboard, swims to the enemy ship, and sabotages it by drilling three holes in its side. He then returns to the Golden Vanity, pleading to be rescued. However, the captain, fearing the boy's potential power and the betrayal he demonstrated, refuses to pick him up and threatens to harm him. In response, the boy drills three holes into their ship, declaring that he will take the captain down with him to the bottom of the sea. The song ends with both ships sinking into the lonesome sea.
Line by Line Meaning
There was a lofty ship
There was a grand ship
And she put out to sea
And she set sail
And the name of the our
And our ship was named
Ship was the Golden Vanity
The ship was called the Golden Vanity
And she sailed upon the low and lonesome low
And she sailed upon the calm and lonely sea
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea
While sailing on the desolate sea
We had not been out but two weeks or three
We had only been at sea for a short while
When we were overtaken by the Turkish Revelee
When we were captured by the Turkish fleet
As we sailed upon the low and lonesome low
While sailing on the calm and lonely sea
The quickly up spoke our little cabin boy
The little cabin boy quickly spoke up
Sayin', 'What will you give me
Saying, 'What will you offer me
If I will them destroy
If I destroy them
If I sink 'em in the low and lonesome low
If I sink their ship in the calm and lonely sea
If I sink 'em in the lonesome sea?'
If I sink their ship in the desolate sea?'
The man that them destroy'
The person who destroys them
Our captain then replied
Our captain then responded
Five thousand pounds and my
Five thousand pounds and my
Daughter for his bride
Daughter as his bride
Then the boy he smote his
Then the boy struck his
Chest and overboard jumped he
Chest and jumped overboard
And he swum till he came
And he swam until he reached
To the Turkish Revelee
To the Turkish fleet
As they sailed upon the low and lonesome low
While they sailed on the calm and lonely sea
As they sailed upon the lonesome sea
While they sailed on the desolate sea
Now he had a little tool that
Now he had a small tool that
Was made for the use
Was made for this purpose
And he bored three holes in
And he drilled three holes in
Her side all at once
The ship's side all at once
And he sunk her in the low and lonesome low
And he sank the ship in the calm and lonely sea
And he sunk her in the lonesome sea
And he sank her in the desolate sea
Then he swam back to the ship
Then he swam back to the ship
And he beat upon the side
And he pounded on the side
Sayin', 'Captain, pick me up
Saying, 'Captain, rescue me
For I'm drifting with the tide
Because I'm being carried away by the current
And I'm sinking in the low and lonesome low
And I'm sinking in the calm and lonely sea
And I'm sinkin' in the lonesome sea'
And I'm sinking in the desolate sea'
'I will not pick you up'
'I will not rescue you'
The Captain then replied
The Captain then responded
'I'll shoot you, I'll drown you
'I'll shoot you, I'll drown you
I'll sink you in the tide
I'll sink you in the current
And I'll sink you in the
And I'll sink you in the
Low and lonesome low
Calm and lonely sea
And I'll sink you in the lonesome sea'
And I'll sink you in the desolate sea'
Then the boy he took his tool in
Then the boy took his tool and
Our side he bored holes three
He drilled three holes in our ship's side
Saying, 'Captain, i'll take you with me to
Saying, 'Captain, I'll bring you with me to
The bottom of the sea
The ocean floor
And I'll sink you in the
And I'll sink you in the
Low and lonesome low
Calm and lonely sea
And I'll sink you in the lonesome sea'
And I'll sink you in the desolate sea'
And we sank into the lonesome sea
And we sunk into the desolate sea
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Woody Guthrie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind