RIP, Pete Seeger

[BDBoop]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/a...d-champion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html?_r=0

Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died Monday. He was 94 and lived in Beacon, N.Y.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Mr. Seeger’s career carried him from singing at labor rallies to the Top 10 to college auditoriums to folk festivals, and from a conviction for contempt of Congress (after defying the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s) to performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for Barack Obama.

 

[bayoubill]

wow... I had no idea the dude was still alive...

oops... just now realized I'm in a Boop thread...

'bye, y'all...

 

[Pogo]

I just read about this. Strangely I had gone to his bio for other reasons and read the words "Pete Seeger was"... "was"?

Pete was an amazing guy. I'm stunned. I knew he was 94 but still -- it's the end of an era.

Pete Seeger 1919-2014​

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Damn.

 

[westwall]

I grew up with his music. A sad, sad day.

 

[BDBoop]

He was married to the same woman for 70 of those years. She died this past July.

 

[BDBoop]

I cried when Johnny Cash died. Here they are together, back in 1970.

 

[Pogo]

This is Pete with the guy in my sig line Henry Wallace -

 

[Pogo]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8_9mohCUeE"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8_9mohCUeE[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St_tAzNVQ7Y"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St_tAzNVQ7Y[/ame]

 

[Mojo2]

Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94

By JON PARELES

JAN. 28, 2014

Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died Monday. He was 94 and lived in Beacon, N.Y.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Mr. Seeger’s career carried him from singing at labor rallies to the Top 10 to college auditoriums to folk festivals, and from a conviction for contempt of Congress (after defying the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s) to performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for Barack Obama.

For Mr. Seeger, folk music and a sense of community were inseparable, and where he saw a community, he saw the possibility of political action.

Mr. Seeger was a prime mover in the folk revival that transformed popular music in the 1950s. As a member of the Weavers, he sang hits including Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” — which reached No. 1 — and “If I Had a Hammer,” which he wrote with the group’s Lee Hays. Another of Mr. Seeger’s songs, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” became an antiwar standard. And in 1965, the Byrds had a No. 1 hit with a folk-rock version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” Mr. Seeger’s setting of a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Mr. Seeger was a mentor to younger folk and topical singers in the ‘50s and ‘60s, among them Bob Dylan, Don McLean and Bernice Johnson Reagon, who founded Sweet Honey in the Rock. Decades later, Bruce Springsteen drew the songs on his 2006 album, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,” from Mr. Seeger’s repertoire of traditional music about a turbulent American experience, and in 2009 he performed Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” with Mr. Seeger at the Obama inaugural. At a Madison Square Garden concert celebrating Mr. Seeger’s 90th birthday, Mr. Springsteen introduced him as “a living archive of America’s music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along.”

Although he recorded more than 100 albums, Mr. Seeger distrusted commercialism and was never comfortable with the idea of stardom. He invariably tried to use his celebrity to bring attention and contributions to the causes that moved him, or to the traditional songs he wanted to preserve.

Mr. Seeger saw himself as part of a continuing folk tradition, constantly recycling and revising music that had been honed by time.

During the McCarthy era Mr. Seeger’s political affiliations, including membership in the Communist Party in the 1940s, led to his being blacklisted and later indicted for contempt of Congress. The pressure broke up the Weavers, and Mr. Seeger disappeared from television until the late 1960s. But he never stopped recording, performing and listening to songs from ordinary people. Through the decades, his songs have become part of America’s folklore.
”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/a...&gwh=64FA8C3D099348161B5F4DD1D6210100&gwt=pay

 

[BDBoop]

Love the new avatar, Pogo.

 

[Pogo]

Love the new avatar, Pogo.

TheDoctor did it first; I'm a copycat. Pete Seeger put Bertrand Russell on the bench, how awesome is that.

Although I have used Woody's "this machine kills fascists" in the past...

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The only music I remember playing in my house when I was young was my mother's personal "big three" - Woody, Pete and Harry (Belafonte).

I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Mr. Seeger a few years ago, while I was working in lefty politics in New York City and we got him to tape an ad for us.

This is a sad day - as much as I understand human biology, I never really thought that Pete would ever die.

 

[Old Rocks]

Well, another great and memorable American is gone. He reminded us of our rich heritage of song in this nation, and added to it.

 

[JimH52]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/a...hampion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html?hp&_r=0

WOW! This guy was huge. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude for the music he left us with. God bless Pete Seeger....

 

[Sallow]

He lived a long and fruitful life.

Would have still liked him around for a few more years.

RIP

 

[editec]

I confess I never really liked so-called "folk" music.

I admire Seeger for his commitment to saving the Hudson River, though.

 

[Nosmo King]

Pete Seeger has been a fixture in American culture for his entire life. May he rest in peace. I know his songs and message live on.

 

[bodecea]

Well, another great and memorable American is gone. He reminded us of our rich heritage of song in this nation, and added to it.

Awwwwww!

 

[Delta4Embassy]

"In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League (YCL), then at the height of its popularity and influence. In 1942 he became a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) itself. He eventually "drifted away" (his words) from the Party in the late 1940s and 1950s."

Be interesting to see how many conservatives do the RIP thing ignorant of who he was.