The banjo-playing troubadour was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for his political views. But Seeger continued being an activist and folk singer all of his life. He died at a New York hospital Monday night at age 94. His grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson said the American musical legend passed after six days in the hospital.
Seeger was born in New York City into a musical and politically active family. His father, Charles, was a musicologist and antiwar activist during World War I, and had previously lost his position as the head of the music department at the University of California, Berkeley, because of his pacifist views. His mother, Constance, was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Julliard School. His parents divorced when Seeger was seven, and he grew up in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.
But like his predecessor Woody Guthrie, the banjo-picking troubadour sang for migrant workers, children, and political causes during his long career. During the 1960s Folk Revival, Seeger performed with Bob Dylan and at anti-Vietnam war protests. And Dylan absorbed the legacy of both men in his long career as well. Seeger first gained fame as a member of the Weavers folk quartet in the 1940s.
The group was made famous by its song, “Goodnight Irene.” As a songwriter, Seeger wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, “If I Had a Hammer”, and “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Those are four classics of the folk idiom. Seeger was also known for popularizing the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” that Martin Luther King made his anthem. Seeger’s songs have been recorded by many artists, including The Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Byrds, Judy Collins, and Bruce Springsteen. If ever there was an A-list, that is it.
He performed up until recent months, and remained politically active. In 2009, he performed in Washington, DC, at a gala for Barack Obama’s inauguration. In October 2011, he marched through New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Last year, he performed at Farm Aid, an annual benefit for family farmers. The perennially young Seeger got around.
During the McCarthy era in the 1950s, when thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers, Seeger’s political views got him blacklisted and he did not perform on commercial television for more than a decade. In 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to plead the Fifth Amendment and instead defied the committee and refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that it would be in violation of his First Amendment rights. Seeger stated: “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.” In the dark era of McCarthy’s long night, Seeger was a beacon.
In 1943, Pete married Toshi-Aline Ōta. The couple remained together, living in upstate Beacon, NY, until Toshi’s death six months ago. Perhaps they are joined in some higher place now, where people don’t have to fight to speak their mind.
But Seeger’s name will forever be linked with the Hudson River. A conversation about the river’s transformation from sewer to treasured waterway can’t be done without mentioning Seeger. He founded the flagship vessel of the waterway’s rebirth, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and set his love of America’s river to music.
With his voice and his banjo, Seeger pleaded for a cleaner river in the 1960s, hoping his “dirty stream” would no longer exist. But he always said, “Still I love it and I’ll keep the dream that someday, though maybe not this year, my Hudson River will once again run clear,” he sang in “Sailing Up My Dirty Stream.” That song describes much of what drove Seeger in his adult life.
Though he was held in contempt by McCarthy’s congressional subcommittee and censored by network television, he was embraced by civil rights and labor leaders and remained a beacon for environmentalists. Seeger saw a Hudson with fishing, swimming and sailing generations before anyone else did. And we have all reaped the benefits of it many times over.
“He was one of the big guns. He would wince to hear me say that I suppose,” said Christopher Letts, a longtime Hudson River naturalist and educator from Cortlandt, NY. “Literally hundreds of thousands of people have listened to his words, listened to his music and resolved to do something to help the Hudson River.”
John Cronin of Cold Spring, whose career on the Hudson spans 40 years, first met Seeger when the sloop sailed into Beacon in October 1973. “There’s Pete in the bow and a big pile of orange pumpkins,” Cronin recalled, adding Seeger that day put a call out for help to rebuild a dock there on the waterfront.
Cronin was a commercial fisherman who worked for several environmental groups, served as an adviser to state and federal officials and was the Hudson River keeper for 17 years. He waded in the Hudson off Yonkers as a toddler but his love affair with the river started with Clearwater.
When asked about his religious views, Seeger once replied: “I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars, [I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it’s all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something I’m listening to God.” Me too, Pete! And I’m empowered by it. Next time I look at a starry night, I vow to think of you.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
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Folk legend and activist Pete Seeger dies at 94
Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jerry Mazza
The banjo-playing troubadour was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for his political views. But Seeger continued being an activist and folk singer all of his life. He died at a New York hospital Monday night at age 94. His grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson said the American musical legend passed after six days in the hospital.
Seeger was born in New York City into a musical and politically active family. His father, Charles, was a musicologist and antiwar activist during World War I, and had previously lost his position as the head of the music department at the University of California, Berkeley, because of his pacifist views. His mother, Constance, was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Julliard School. His parents divorced when Seeger was seven, and he grew up in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.
But like his predecessor Woody Guthrie, the banjo-picking troubadour sang for migrant workers, children, and political causes during his long career. During the 1960s Folk Revival, Seeger performed with Bob Dylan and at anti-Vietnam war protests. And Dylan absorbed the legacy of both men in his long career as well. Seeger first gained fame as a member of the Weavers folk quartet in the 1940s.
The group was made famous by its song, “Goodnight Irene.” As a songwriter, Seeger wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, “If I Had a Hammer”, and “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Those are four classics of the folk idiom. Seeger was also known for popularizing the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” that Martin Luther King made his anthem. Seeger’s songs have been recorded by many artists, including The Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Byrds, Judy Collins, and Bruce Springsteen. If ever there was an A-list, that is it.
He performed up until recent months, and remained politically active. In 2009, he performed in Washington, DC, at a gala for Barack Obama’s inauguration. In October 2011, he marched through New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Last year, he performed at Farm Aid, an annual benefit for family farmers. The perennially young Seeger got around.
During the McCarthy era in the 1950s, when thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers, Seeger’s political views got him blacklisted and he did not perform on commercial television for more than a decade. In 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to plead the Fifth Amendment and instead defied the committee and refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that it would be in violation of his First Amendment rights. Seeger stated: “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.” In the dark era of McCarthy’s long night, Seeger was a beacon.
In 1943, Pete married Toshi-Aline Ōta. The couple remained together, living in upstate Beacon, NY, until Toshi’s death six months ago. Perhaps they are joined in some higher place now, where people don’t have to fight to speak their mind.
But Seeger’s name will forever be linked with the Hudson River. A conversation about the river’s transformation from sewer to treasured waterway can’t be done without mentioning Seeger. He founded the flagship vessel of the waterway’s rebirth, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and set his love of America’s river to music.
With his voice and his banjo, Seeger pleaded for a cleaner river in the 1960s, hoping his “dirty stream” would no longer exist. But he always said, “Still I love it and I’ll keep the dream that someday, though maybe not this year, my Hudson River will once again run clear,” he sang in “Sailing Up My Dirty Stream.” That song describes much of what drove Seeger in his adult life.
Though he was held in contempt by McCarthy’s congressional subcommittee and censored by network television, he was embraced by civil rights and labor leaders and remained a beacon for environmentalists. Seeger saw a Hudson with fishing, swimming and sailing generations before anyone else did. And we have all reaped the benefits of it many times over.
“He was one of the big guns. He would wince to hear me say that I suppose,” said Christopher Letts, a longtime Hudson River naturalist and educator from Cortlandt, NY. “Literally hundreds of thousands of people have listened to his words, listened to his music and resolved to do something to help the Hudson River.”
John Cronin of Cold Spring, whose career on the Hudson spans 40 years, first met Seeger when the sloop sailed into Beacon in October 1973. “There’s Pete in the bow and a big pile of orange pumpkins,” Cronin recalled, adding Seeger that day put a call out for help to rebuild a dock there on the waterfront.
Cronin was a commercial fisherman who worked for several environmental groups, served as an adviser to state and federal officials and was the Hudson River keeper for 17 years. He waded in the Hudson off Yonkers as a toddler but his love affair with the river started with Clearwater.
When asked about his religious views, Seeger once replied: “I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars, [I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it’s all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something I’m listening to God.” Me too, Pete! And I’m empowered by it. Next time I look at a starry night, I vow to think of you.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.