{"id":12925,"date":"2019-04-19T08:01:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T07:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/happy-100th-birthday-pete-seeger\/"},"modified":"2019-04-19T08:01:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T07:01:51","slug":"happy-100th-birthday-pete-seeger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/happy-100th-birthday-pete-seeger\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 100th birthday, Pete Seeger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-12924\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e-300x233.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e-441x342.jpg 441w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e-1x1.jpg 1w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/615033493d84468fb165029946f0c44e-10x8.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Jenny Farrell<\/strong> honours Pete Seeger as we near what would have been his 100<sup>th<\/sup> birthday\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are few people more famous in the political song movement than Pete Seeger. Along with his contemporaries Paul Robeson, Woody Guthrie and others, Seeger represented the might of song in highlighting the common cause, strengthening courage and inspiring resistance. For these singers, song was a weapon in the struggle for a fair, equal and peaceful society.<\/p>\n<p>Pete grew up in a musical family \u2013 his father Charles was a musicologist and lecturer who lost his job when he opposed US involvement in the First World War. His mother Constance, a violinist, also held socialist and pacifist political views. His parents divorced when Pete was still a young child. Charles remarried and joined the Composers Collective, who performed their songs for strikers and the unemployed. The family travelled the country, playing music and attending folk festivals on many occasions. It was in this context that Pete encountered the banjo, and made it his instrument.<\/p>\n<p>Aged 17 in 1936, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League and in 1942 he became a member of the Communist Party of the USA, leaving it in 1949. In 1938, Seeger enrolled for a course in sociology in Harvard, in the hope of becoming a journalist, although he did not finish it. He went to New York where he met Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax, Lead Belly and others, deeply involving him with traditional American music. They jointly founded the \u201cAlmanac Singers\u201d in December 1940. With their pro-union songs and singing against racism and war, the band propelled Seeger into an active political folksong scene. The band performed for strikers, with songs such as \u201cTalking Union\u201d, and about the struggles for the unionisation of industrial workers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/culture\/jenny_farrell\/PS_1.jpg\" alt=\"PS 1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell and Pete Seeger (left to right)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W7VkWAYHUFQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI Don\u2019t Want Your Millions, Mister\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Unites States had entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941. The Almanac Singers now focused on anti-fascist songs. In June 1942, Seeger enlisted in the US Army to fight fascism. He worked on aeroplane engines in Mississippi and later transferred to Saipan in the Western Pacific Ocean, to entertain troops. Military intelligence deemed him unfit \u201cfor a position of trust or responsibility\u201d due to his \u201cCommunistic sympathies, unsatisfactory relations with landlords and his numerous Communist and otherwise undesirable friends\u201d and described \u201cAlmanac Singers\u201d as \u201cspreading Communist and anti-Fascist propaganda through songs and recordings\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Seeger was a fervent supporter of Republican Spain against Franco and in 1943 recorded several Spanish Civil War songs with like-minded musicians. The album was entitled \u201cSongs of the Lincoln Battalion\u201d:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vnzwXVpZGrA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cViva la Quince Brigada\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After the war, Seeger established \u201cPeople\u2019s Songs Incorporated\u201d (PSI) saying:<\/p>\n<p><em>I hope to have hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of union choruses. Just as every church has a choir, why not every union<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>Soon, the PSI had two thousand members and was growing fast. An FBI file was opened on the organisation.<\/p>\n<p>In November 1948, Seeger co-founded the folk group, \u201cThe Weavers\u201d. The group took its name from a German drama about the Silesian Weavers\u2019 uprising by Gerhart Hauptmann, \u201cDie Weber\u201d, containing the lines, \u201cI\u2019ll stand it no more, come what may\u201d. The group recorded \u201cGoodnight Irene\u201d, a song written by Seeger\u2019s friend, Lead Belly. Censorship threats dictated the chorus be changed from \u201cI\u2019ll get you in my dreams\u201d to \u201cI\u2019ll see you in my dreams\u201d. The record topped the charts in 1950. The band also popularised Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d and other left-wing songs such as \u201cIf I had a Hammer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D2h_ETDoTys\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Inspired by Woody Guthrie, whose guitar declared \u201cThis machine kills fascists\u201d, Seeger\u2019s banjo was inscribed \u201cThis Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It to Surrender\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Seeger\u2019s support of civil and workers\u2019 rights, racial equality, international understanding and peace made him suspicious in the eyes of the State from about 1940. During the McCarthy witch-hunt, Seeger and fellow Almanac singer Lee Hays were identified as Communist Party members in 1955, and summoned to testify before the Committee on Un-American Activities. Seeger refused to answer, on First Amendment grounds, the first to do so after the conviction of the Hollywood Ten in 1950. The House found Seeger guilty of contempt, but had to overturn this conviction in 1961 on technical grounds.<\/p>\n<p>However, anti-communism was rampant since the beginning of the McCarthy era, and the band suffered from a total boycott by the establishment. Right-wing groups sabotaged their concerts, ultimately leading to the group\u2019s dissolution in 1952. For 17 years, the U.S. media ostracised Seeger. He performed at high schools and on college campuses, and for minor trade unions, and this meant smaller audiences. Nevertheless, Seeger reached a lot of people, some of whom later found jobs in the trade union movement, were involved with festivals, with Hollywood, on the radio or Broadway. Famous bands popularised Seeger-authored songs from this time including \u201cWhere have all the flowers gone\u201d, a song that came to him when reading Sholokhov\u2019s \u201cAnd quiet flows the Don\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1y2SIIeqy34\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhere Have All the Flowers Gone\u201d,<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 1957, Pete met another victim of FBI surveillance and intimidation, Martin Luther King, at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. Here began what would become the anthem of the Civil Rights movement, \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d, for which Seeger slightly changed the hymn \u201cI Will Overcome\u201d. In 1963 Seeger sang it on the 50-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, along with 1,000 other marchers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RGSMxW4Ngtw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Seeger, co-founder of the music magazine \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sing_Out!\">Sing Out!<\/a>\u201d, was a senior figure in the 1960s folk revival. The urban folk-revival movement, which Seeger called \u201cWoody\u2019s Children\u201d, after Guthrie, adapted traditional songs for political purposes. The Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) had pioneered this in their \u201cLittle Red Song Book\u201d. This book was compiled by legendary union organizer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joe_Hill\">Joe Hill<\/a>, and was a favourite of Guthrie\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Like King, Seeger was a vocal critic of the US war in Vietnam, writing very popular anti-war songs like <a href=\"https:\/\/folkways.si.edu\/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=44618\">\u201cWaist Deep in the Big Muddy\u201d<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=h4-w2FYIJbw&#038;list=PL393233C543EDA980&#038;index=3\">\u201cIf You Love Your Uncle Sam (Bring \u2018Em Home)\u201d<\/a>. On 15 November 1969, the Vietnam Moratorium March on Washington took place. Seeger led half a million protesters in singing John Lennon\u2019s peace song \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d, calling on Nixon at the White House \u201cAre you listening?\u201d. Seeger visited North Vietnam with his family in 1972.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k9NggDZOjL4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>15 November 1969<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi Ohta lived in a log cabin overlooking the Hudson River. Disturbed by the river\u2019s pollution, they co-founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and started the Great Hudson River Revival, the Clearwater Festival, along with others. In this way, they were instrumental in rallying public support for cleaning the Hudson River. The Clearwater Festival now attracts over 15,000 people each summer, highlighting and improving the river and surrounding wetlands.<\/p>\n<p>Seeger remained politically active into his 90s. In 2012, he performed with Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne and others for Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement, who has been in prison for over 40 years.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Seeger died on January 27, 2014, aged 94. He played an active role in all tof he important struggles of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> and early 21<sup>st<\/sup> centuries \u2013 for peace, for the environment, for civil and workers\u2019 rights. His memory is inscribed indelibly in all those who are part of the same movements, when they sing \u201cWe shall Overcome\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h-aeweP-BFU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis Land is Made for You and Me\u201d, with an introductory quote from Woody Guthrie on the kind of songs he (and Seeger) wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jenny Farrell honours Pete Seeger as we near what would have been his 100th birthday\u00a0 There are few people more famous in the political song movement than&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":456,"featured_media":12924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}