Pete Seeger

Peter Seeger (3 May 1919 – 27 January 2014) was born in New York, New York and was destined for a life in folk music. He became a protege of Woody Guthrie and in time he became one of the most famous American folk singers. His father was Charles Seeger, a musicologist and proselytizer of decidedly leftist political views. Seeger’s father and mother were faculty members at the Julliard School of Music. Seeger founded The Almanac Singers in 1940 and later joined The Weavers in the 1949, but that group ran into the buzzsaw of the Red Scare in 1955. The members were blacklisted by Sen. Joe McCarthy’s Senate sub-committee on un-American Activities as Communist sympathizers. Seeger made a comeback in the 60s with several folk songs supporting international disarmament, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and environmental causes.

Seeger was a thin man, almost painfully so, but he had a strong tenor voice and a gregarious stage presence. He played the 12-string guitar and (his own modified, longneck) 5-string banjo. He sang topical songs, children’s songs, humorous tunes and earnest anthems, and was always encouraging his audience to sing along. His social views were always to the left: He sang for the labor movement in the 40s and 50s, for civil rights and for an end to the Vietnam War in the 60s, and for environmental and international human rights from the 70s until his death.

Seeger was a mentor to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Don McClean. He eschewed stardom, seeing himself as part of a continuing folk music tradition, constantly recycling and revising music that had been honed by time.

Seeger has been named as a major influencer of many artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Arlo Guthrie and Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary). He won a room full of awards that include the Harvard Arts Medal, the National Medal of Arts, five Grammy awards, induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Kennedy Center Honor.

About his leftist social views, Seeger has said this:

I’m still a communist in the sense that I don’t believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. I think the pressures will get so tremendous that the social contract will just come apart.