Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014)

Image from npr.org

A giant in the life of American music passed away this week. Pete Seeger's exceptional musicianship touched almost every corner of this country. Some of his songs made other artists famous: "Turn, Turn, Turn" -- based on a passage from Ecclesiastes -- was recorded by the Byrds in 1965. In the PBS American Masters episode about him, Pete said: "I see myself as a planter of seeds." (Go to about 48 minutes into the show.) He references Jesus' words from the parable of the planter. Pete hoped that some seeds of his influence would sprout in fertile ground. He did indeed plant folk music in the minds and hearts of a generation of Americans.

Since he was blacklisted from TV, Pete spread folk music by performing at children's camps and college campuses. He wasn't allowed to go through the media to create change -- instead he did the difficult work of making face-to-face encounters and organizing from the grassroots. He sang "This Land is your Land" while picking the banjo and sitting on the floor with children. Would he have had that much influence if he had a weekly TV or radio show? Maybe the government was doing us all a favor by forcing him to get out with the people. That generation who learned his songs later grew up to run the country's schools, companies, and government. (I remember singing Little Boxes in music class in the 1980s, a song he popularized decades earlier.)

Pete had a special interest in the diverse musics of the world. His group the Weavers sang "Wimoweh" -- a song with African influences. (See video clip above.) He also touched the lives of many ethnomusicologists, who were just launching the Society for Ethnomusicology in the 1950s. (Anthony Seeger, Pete's nephew, is a past President of the Society.)

His music also crossed racial barriers. Seeger's version of "We Shall Overcome" caught fire in the civil rights movement. If you sang this song last week during MLK Day, you have Pete to thank for some of the verses.

Many remember Pete Seeger as an anti-war folk singer with ties to the Communist Party. (That's the angle the Economist took in its tribute to him.) Less remembered is the fact that he served in the US Army during WWII, or that he broke ties with the communists in the 1940s. The American Masters episode showed that the folk music scene in the mid-20th century included a mix of interests: peace, labor, anti-consumerism, civil rights, and various streams of activism. Many of those leaders are now working in the mainstream of society, and almost all of them were inspired by Pete and his music. Even though he had to work from the margins, there was no doubt that he loved his country. There is a great clip around 58 minutes into that American Masters episode: Pete is called a patriot by none other than Johnny Cash.

Rest in peace Pete.