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)
I
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I don't know why she swallowed a fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a spider
It riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I know an old lady who swallowed a bird
How absurd to swallow a bird
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a cat
Imagine that, she swallowed a cat
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a dog
Oh, she was a hog to swallow a dog
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a goat
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a cow
I don't know how, but she swallowed a cow
She swallowed a cow to catch the goat
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird
Swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That riggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly
But I don't know why she swallowed that fly
I guess she'll die
I know an old lady who swallowed a horse
She's dead of course
Pete Seeger's folk song "I Ride an Old Paint" tells the story of a cowboy heading towards Montana to throw a houlihan, a type of boisterous ranch party. The first verse describes the cow-hand leading an old mare and heading towards the state, preparing to feed and water his horses in the coulees and draws, despite their unkempt appearance, with matted tails and raw backs from the saddle.
The second verse introduces another character, Old Bill Jones, singing about his two daughters and son. His wife died in a brawl, and he keeps on singing. The third verse, in turn, reflects on the singer's own life, designed to show a hard-working life filled with calluses and blisters, that he or she wishes to escape, go to Montana, and throw a houlihan.
The final verse introduces a touch of Romanticism as the singer says, "When I die," he or she hopes for a cowboy burial, with saddle and pony in hand, riding west to the prairies as the wind takes them off. In summary, Seeger's song captures the experience of the cowboy's life, the working class' struggles, and the wishes for something simple, romantic, and existential.
Line by Line Meaning
I ride an old paint, lead an old dam,
I am riding a horse of a certain age, while I lead another which has had offspring before.
Goin' to Montana to throw the houlihan
I am headed to Montana to participate in an event called the houlihan.
Feed 'em in the coulees, and water in the draw,
I will be feeding the horses in a natural feeder, called coulees, while I will be fetching water from a nearby stream, also referred to as a draw.
Tails are all matted and their backs are all raw
The horses' tails are full of tangles, and their backs are sore and uncomfortable.
Ride around, little doggies, ride around them slow,
As we traverse the open plains, please take it easy and slow, for the safety of the livestock.
They're fiery and snuffy and a-rarin' to go
The horses are energetic and eager to proceed.
Old Bill Jones had two daughters and a song,
Old Bill Jones was a father to two daughters and a son.
One went to college, and the other went wrong
While one daughter gained a college education, the other daughter took the wrong path in life.
His wife got killed in a free-for-all fight,
Unfortunately, his wife lost her life in a physical altercation with others.
Still he keeps singin' from mornin' till night
Despite these struggles, Bill Jones was never disheartened and kept singing from morning till nightfall.
I've worked in your town, worked on your farm,
I have been employed in your town, as well as working on your farm.
And all I got to show is the muscle in my arm,
Despite all these efforts, the only improvements I have gained physically is the strengthening of my arm muscles.
Blisters on my feet, and the callus on my hand,
I have earned blisters on my feet and calluses on my hand due to the rough nature of my work.
And I'm a-goin' to Montana to throw the houlihan
Despite these difficulties, I am traveling to Montana to compete in the houlihan.
When I die, take my saddle from the wall,
When I depart this world, remove my saddle from the display on the wall.
Put it on my pony, lead him out of his stall
Saddle my horse with the saddle and lead him out of his stall.
Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west,
Please secure my remains to his back, and set us off towards the direction of the setting sun.
We'll ride the prairie that we loved the best
Allow us to have a final ride through the plains that we both favored, one last time.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Rose Bonne, Alan Mills
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
SimpleSam
Don't lose the forest for the trees, friend.
The balmy arguments drive a wedge, and cloud the only important question.
The only important distinction is centralization vs. decentralization.
The 'founding fathers' understood this fact; Marx understood this fact; today's 'hackers' and open source community as well.
Different faces of the same coin, the same understanding, weighed down my ideological lead.
Federalists, socialists, communists, liberals, libertarians, pirates - are all fighting for decentralization; if they can shed their ideological chains.
Centralization is fragile and inefficient.
It can only win when federalists and libertarians are convinced that federalism doesn't apply to our economic life.
It can only win when socialists and communists are convinced that a centralized party is required for a workers revolution.
The rest is a distraction.
Angry Goat
These union songs get SO harsh. I love it.
"They'll always get along from what they steal out of blind men's cups"
These songs are so wonderful and energizing. Why don't we sing these protest songs any more?
Shlabulax
we got pat the bunny these days
Don't Ask What Kind Of Music
@iron 13 these comments aged well
iron 13
cuz the cops have guns
also "BUT STALIN" and "BUT MADURO'S VENEZUELA"
Joe Mazino
can't let that go unanswered....
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/study-guides/myth-transitional-society
http://www.nysun.com/arts/seeger-speaks-and-sings-against-stalin/61666/
Braydon Dozier
Pete Seeger admired Stalin...
Socialism: The transitory society between Capitalism and Communism
Communism: A stateless, moneyless, and classless society
Just FYI
Dain Bramage
This man is the embodiment of what it used to mean to be an American.
Grym Reiper
I had the great fortune to work with Pete on His Clearwater Project back in the mid 70's.
Great Man.
vaping rac
@Chris H ?
Soylent Ramen
"not recalling" if he pocketed any money from re-doing some unknown South African tunes...no they still pull shit like that.