He sang for the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s, and for environmental and antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond. “We Shall Overcome,” which Mr. Seeger adapted from old spirituals, became a civil rights anthem.
Point is that we shouldn't forget that Pete was an angry man. He did something great with his anger.
— JeffSharlet (@JeffSharlet) January 28, 2014
Baud
DFH RIP.
currants
@Baud: Yes. With utmost respect.
Davis X. Machina
A good man. Speaking the truth. Well.
That’s what you had in Pete Seeger.
The ideal citizen, by the standards of the people who invented the idea.
Catherine D.
I wondered how long he’d hang on after Toshi died.
Judge Crater
A true “radical” is the best sense of the word.
PurpleGirl
One thing I found funny in the story on New York 1 — they kept saying he was an activist. But they didn’t exactly explain what he was a activist for. Didn’t say that he was a soc-ialist, left-winger, an original DFH.
Rethuglicans talk about someone being a “principled man”… Seeger was that man.
Davis X. Machina
@PurpleGirl:
They talk about ‘principle’ only as a preliminary to talking about interest.
Eric
@Davis X. Machina: golf clap
jayjaybear
Sharlet’s right, though. Cue the media cleansing of Seeger into a beloved icon whitewashed of everything that made him both beloved and an icon. Too important to sweep under the rug but too “inconvenient” to acknowledge honestly.
Sherparick
A wonderful man for whom I will be forever grateful. Organizing workers in the 1930s and 40s, standing up to HUAC and going to jail for it in the 1950s, pied-pieper for the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam war movement in the 60s, leading the movement to clean the Hudson in the 70s and 80s, he was almost always right (and unlike some, was willing to admit he was wrong about at times, specifically mentioning regretting support for folks like Stalin and Mao). And always that wonderful music.
Chris
@PurpleGirl:
I suppose he’ll be the next MLK… or Truman, or Teddy Roosevelt, or Abe Lincoln, or George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Adam Smith or Jesus Christ. A generic figure for the right to praise as a Sensible, Principled, (dare we say it – Conservative) man that they can like for his iconicness while carefully ignoring everything he actually said and did.
Don’t know much about him, but his resume reads like a summary of all the high points of liberal activism in the last century. Strong recommendation, indeed.
raven
He was mad when Bob wasn’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm anymore.
Paul in KY
@Chris: They will really have to whitewash his life or amp up their cognitive dissonance to get away with that.
They will probably try doing that.
big ole hound
His greatest accomplishment was forcing the manufacturers and cities near rivers to stop using them as toilets. Using his sloop “Clearwater ” on the Hudson as a platform and taking some to federal court, most major watershed areas in the northeast were clean by the 90s. As one who lived on the Connecticut River in the 70s and 80s, I thank him for turning a “dead” waterway into one in which my kids and I could fish and swim and watch the Bald Eagles and Osprey return. Thanks Mr Seager.
Citizen_X
Sail on, Mr. Seeger.
Joel
Seegers adaptation of “We Shall Overcome” is amazing.
Chris
@Paul in KY:
More than they had to for MLK?
They can do it.
Lolis
I loved him. RIP.
Elizabelle
A long life, and he was courageous and made his life matter.
Hope he gets a major shoutout tonight at the SOTU.
@Catherine D.:
They had a good, long life together, but yeah.
NYTimes from 2010; Pete was 90; what he did with his Sundays. (He’d also just written a song on the Gulf oil spill and released a new album). Sundays, though:
vtr
He deserves a tribute for his musicianship as well. A virtuoso on guitar and banjo, perfectly capable of showing off, he seldom did. I never heard him let his paying get in the way of the message of his song.
Caravelle
Heaven knows this was going to happen someday but I am gutted. The man was half my childhood.
He had a life well-lived if anyone did.
:( :( :(
satby
He will be missed. High point of the first Obama inauguration (beside the inauguration itself) was Pete singing.
Anya
RIP, Pete! Another great who strived to make the world a better place dies. I hope we have your replacement.
Caravelle
@satby: Do you know if he ever sang an updated “If you miss me on the back of the bus” for the occasion ?
Patricia Kayden
Another great man gone. RIP Pete.
kideni
Arlo Guthrie’s Facebook post today was beautiful:
If anyone is in or near Madison, Wisc., today and has some free time, come to the Capitol between noon and one or between around 5:15 and 6. We’ll be doing a proper Pete Seeger sing along.
Bill Arnold
Listened to a long (hour+?) interview with him (from the 90s?) on the AMC(Northeast Public Radio) NPR this AM. Interesting guy.
I have a memory of him sharing a fresh fig with me (a little boy) and others at Croton Point (Hudson river) in the late 1960s. This must have been one of the early Clearwater fundraisers. He was that kind of guy, helping people experience new things and ideas. (My geek payback is showing people Saturn and/or Jupiter+moons and/or the Orion Nebula and/or crescent Venus for the first time with their own eyes.) The river cleanup activism was a big deal; small boating on the Hudson river in the 70s, rules were no swallowing water and a shower afterwards else you might get a rash. It’s cleaner now, swim-able most of the time.
Paul in KY
With apologies to Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Seeger, another stanza:
Oh did you hear that ole Pete Seeger died?
Sung the hard truths to us, Lord how he tried.
His journey is ended, his soul is mended,
This land was made for Pete and me.
dp
@Caravelle: Well put, and summarizes my thoughts as well.
themis
@kideni: If it weren’t cold enough to freeze my car, I’d be there. But if you hear a prayer from a cold heartless atheist, that’s me doing my best Arlo. This is the end of an era – it shouldn’t be, but it is.
Dream On
It is a very gratifying justice that Pete Seeger’s long life of integrity and decency outlived and discredited right-wing ’50s blacklisting.
Longevity grants opportunities; Seeger could make a personal choice 50 years down the line on whether he should bother to make that little journey to piss on Joe McCarthy’s grave.
Someguy
Not many Trotskyites around these parts, I see.
Gustopher
You know, just like MLK, JFK and every other lefty hero other than FDR, if Seeger were alive today, he would be a Republican.
Linnaeus
I’ve been sharing this song of his (or, rather, one he sang) because the harmonies are really beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHIy1UvYqpw
Caravelle
@Gustopher: Impressive how fast that transition happens isn’t it ?
JR
I saw and heard Pete several times, often close up.
A neighbor picker opened for him years ago…
Sad to lose the monster influences of our age! I saw and heard him at Newport once, and a long year or so later at the Moratorium demonstration in DC in 1969. I was a stage hand there, helped set up speaker towers and such, and got passes to go anywhere to do the work, which included down in front.
The courage to make a long and storied life of fighting those in power for truth and justice for the underdog, for clean water and air, for working people… What a hero we lose today!!
Chet
@Chris:
Well, I dunno. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) how many notionally “mainstream” righties, even now, condemn Lincoln as a tyrant and MLK as a commie.
billB
Watch Pete and Bruce sing in front of Lincoln at the Inaugural with the great youth choir, and think how good Obama could have been for America. Instead of how he spent our money for his buds, the banksters. Pete had to leave now, he could not take any more heart break. I do not blame him for giving up hope.
Paul in KY
Slight mod to stanza:
Oh did you hear that ole Pete Seeger died?
Sung the hard truths to us, Lord how he tried.
His journey has halted, his soul exalted,
This land was made for Pete and thee.
Copyright Paul in KY 2014, all rights reserved.