Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,gillymor Date: 29 Jan 14 - 01:32 PM Here's another video of Pete on the Johnny Cash Show, doing Bring 'em Home. I love this. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,silver Date: 29 Jan 14 - 11:48 AM It's sad that we have lost Pete, but what a legacy he left us! I heartily agree with all the praise above. I never met him, but he was kind enough to answer my letters several times. Imagine that! A world-famous man humble enough to answer fan mail in person, by hand! He must have spent a fortune on postage stamps. The first time he wrote, it was on a piece of brown paper with a pressed autumn leaf glued to it. (Maybe Toshi helped him with that.) Simple, but thoughtful. I think of him as the best teacher I ever had. Thanks, Pete, Precious Friend! "You gave me hope, not just the old soft soap". Ulla |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Duane D. Date: 29 Jan 14 - 11:38 AM A little aside comment about "How Can I Keep From Singing" and Doris Plenn. Many of you probably know I work for Caroline Paton and Folk Legacy. Caroline was remembering how she and Sandy had a conversation with Pete in the mid-60s and told him they were buying a house in Sharon, Connecticut. He told them about Doris Plenn and that she was living in Sharon. After they settled in their home, they met Doris and learned additional information pertaining to the song. Folk Legacy is so full of folk music history and information. I'm trying to absorb all I can. Duane. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: voyager Date: 29 Jan 14 - 11:06 AM A few more comments on the life and music of Pete Seeger - I'm worried now (but I won't be worried long) with Johnny Cash (1970) Songs of the Civil War (my first listen to Pete Seeger) - 1960 How Can I Keep From Singing (1957) My life flows on in endless song Above earth's lamentation. I hear the real, thought far off hymn That hails the new creation Above the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing; It sounds an echo in my soul How can I keep from singing? What through the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth. What through the darkness round me close, Songs in the night it giveth. No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that rock I'm clinging. Since love is lord of Heaven and earth How can I keep from singing? When tyrants tremble, sick with fear, And hear their death-knell ringing, When friends rejoice both far and near, How can I keep from singing? In prison cell and dungeon vile Our thoughts to them are winging. When friends by shame are undefiled, How can I keep from singing? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Pete Seeger helped to make this song fairly well-known in the Folk-revival. He learned it from Doris Plenn, who had it from Her North Carolina family. It can be found in SING OUT, Vol 7, No 1, 1957. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,deckman sans cookie Date: 29 Jan 14 - 11:00 AM He not only lit the way ... but he brought the matches. bob(deckman)nelson |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:50 AM Ah, what a loss, what a loss. Not tragic, exactly, after all, we had him for almost a century, but what an empty place on my life's record shelf. My dad was into people who were being blacklisted in the 50's. Pete's are my versions of all the childrens' songs, those that I still sing today and those that will remain forgotten till I hear a few notes of them, when I will remember them completely. And that was way before I could get into any of his union songs, his civil rights songs, his life as a happy, outsinging atheist songs. I will have to find all his records on mp3 now. |
Subject: Obit: Pete From: GUEST,Alan in Royston Date: 29 Jan 14 - 06:40 AM Sad news today. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pete-seeger-iconic-figure-folk-music-dies-072511407.html#PizBTVn Moved from a new thread. --Mod |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Big (sad) Ballad Singer Date: 29 Jan 14 - 12:16 AM I dreamed I saw ol' Pete tonight alive as you and me. "But Pete," said I, "I heard you're dead." "I never died" said he. He never will. Pete, you told us all to "take it easy, but take it." Same to you, friend. Go get the rest you've earned. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: ChanteyLass Date: 29 Jan 14 - 12:02 AM And I just saw this blog about Pete. http://www.rifuture.org/rest-in-peace-pete-seeger-thanks-for-making-rhode-island-a-better-place.html Sandywoods, mentioned there, has already organized a Valentine's Day memorial concert. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: mark gregory Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:34 PM see also French newspaper Le Monde obit Mort de Pete Seeger, icône du folk américain and Melbourne newspaper the Age obit the Age m. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: mark gregory Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:20 PM see the UK Guardian Obit at http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/28/pete-seeger-dies-aged-94 regards mark |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Mike B. Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:19 PM I was disappointed at the relatively tepid response to the news about Pete Seeger by the same broadcast and cable TV networks which recently went into hysterical overdrive when Justin Bieber was arrested - a sad commentary on the decline of journalistic values and priorities in the US over the past 20 years or so. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: ChanteyLass Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:09 PM I heard the news this morning before I left home. I knew when I got to Mudcat tonight there would be a thread with many posts. When I first started hearing Pete on the radio, it took me a long time to connect his name to the familiar voice. I don't know why that was: I'd certainly also heard his name many times. It may be because my parents didn't listen to folk music but to the great American songbook type of music, so mostly I heard Pete on my friends' radios. I was lucky enough to see him a few times: in Boston, at the Newport Folk Festival (not in its early days but more recently) at Pawtucket, RI's, Labor and Ethnic Heritage Festival, and best of all in the small venue of my "home" music venue, Stone Soup Coffeehouse, where I got to talk to him briefly. At the Labor and Ethnic Heritage Festival and at the Newport Folk Festival, he strolled the grounds, banjo slung over his back, and it was comfortable saying, "Hi, good to see you!" to him. Pete was the reason Stone Soup was founded. Scroll down to Joyce Katzberg's post at the lower left (next to the soup-pot-with-guitar graphic) on Stone Soup Coffeehouse's Founder's Page, here. http://www.stonesoupcoffeehouse.com/page1/FoundersVoices.html I wonder how many other folk venues Pete inspired. He sang songs of peace, and now he will rest in peace. Thank you, Pete, for everything. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,stevesg Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:17 PM I feel like part of me died. there are no words Goodbye and godspeed, Pete Seeger s. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,mark-s Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:47 PM May the rest of us be half as influential and committed . |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Mark Ross Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:45 PM My favorite memory of Pete was when Utah Phillips invited me to the Joe Hill Memorial in Salt Lake City in 1990. Pete, Earl Robinson, Utah, Faith Petric, and Joe Glazer were there. They were putting everybody up in the Hotel Perry which Utah remembered as a Skid Road flophouse that he used to haul drunks out of when he was working with Ammon Hennacy at Joe Hill House. In the ensuing years it had been gentrified and turned into a posh upscale hostelry. At the close of the weekend the Committee who had staged this memorial invited us all down to dinner in the fancy restaurant off the lobby. We walked in without a reservation of course, and asked for a table for 18 (could have been more, I don't recall exactly). The staff immediately starting putting tables together and setting them for this unexpected influx. There was a large space cleared in the center where they placed the chairs out of the way well they rearranged everything. Pete immediately lined up the chairs and started to whistle POP GOES THE WEASEL leading our dinner party around in a game of musical chairs, Pete skipping with his hands behind his back. In Earl Robinsons autobiography there's a picture of the assembled performers from just after the show. If anyone has the book and could post that picture on FB I'd be grateful. Mark Ross |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Dan Schatz Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:31 PM I have been alternately singing and crying all day, and sometimes both at once. It feels like losing a close family member, and I didn't even know him all that well. I've talked to people who feel the same way who had never met him at all. Pete was more than an influential figure - as Utah Phillips said, "He invented what I do." I doubt many of us would be singing the music we sing, and living the lives we live, were it not for Pete. I know that I certainly would not be the person that I am. So I took advantage of an unusually light schedule this evening to write down some thoughts about Pete in a blog post. Somehow I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. And now I guess it's the turning of an era - more and more it is up to those of us who are the musical and spiritual children and grandchildren of Pete to carry the music on, to keep getting people singing with each other, keep bringing people together, keep holding on to what is right and what is possible, keep honoring the old songs and the good new ones. Pete gave us 94 years, and they were good ones. Now it's our turn. Well may the world roll. Dan |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Donuel Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:13 PM Pete brought my parents together with his music. Dad was a fan of Woody and Pete and was only a year older than Pete. After the un-American activity commission you could say he was an ardent fan. His meager record collection was simply the Weavers, The Investigator, Union songs and later Paul Robson. My mother Irene certainly lingered in Dad's dreams with a little help from the song 'goodnight Irene'. When I was 3 I enjoyed the attention I got by singing Pete's songs. I have the 2 hour documentary on Pete's life and have the means to supply a dvd copy. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Joybell Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:46 PM We're so very sad. Joy and her True-love |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: olddude Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:24 PM thought we would have him forever, I just can come to grips with him being gone now. Thanks for all the great music Pete. RIP |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: mark gregory Date: 28 Jan 14 - 07:09 PM Pete knew that everyone could sing and in his concerts he proved it every time. I was lucky enough to be part of the organising group that welcomed him to Sydney on his first visit and just one of the many unpaid volunteers that helped organise his concert at Sydney University. Pete always knew there was a community there to help when the some of the most powerful in the world were still trying to stop him. "guard well our human chain" indeed Farewell Pete ~ mark in sydney ~ |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Trad Folkie Date: 28 Jan 14 - 07:01 PM Here are links to two additional obits of Pete: Facebook Obit by Judy Collins Sloop Clearwater's Obit of Pete Pete we will miss you!!!! |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Susanne (skw) Date: 28 Jan 14 - 06:52 PM If there's one person who should have lived forever - not because he'd want to but because he is needed - surely that must be Pete Seeger! A sad day, and yet - he's left us so much to go on learning and enjoying. RIP, Pete! |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Desert Dancer Date: 28 Jan 14 - 05:27 PM Oh, thanks, Dorothy Parshall. To My Old Brown Earth ~ Becky in Long Beach |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 28 Jan 14 - 04:54 PM What Pete Said: "To my old brown earth, and to my old blue sky I now give these last few molecules of 'I;' And you who weep, and you who stand nearby, I do charge you not to cry: Guard well our human chain-- Watch well you keep it strong As long as sun will shine. And this, our home, keep pure and sweet and green, For now I'm yours, and you are also mine." ---Pete Seeger |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Learaí na Láibe Date: 28 Jan 14 - 04:12 PM I gcór na bhflaitheas go raibh a ghuth binn le clos go brách. RIP |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,BanjoRay Date: 28 Jan 14 - 04:10 PM Pete totally changed my life, for which I will always be grateful. Bye Pete..... |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,John Salicco Date: 28 Jan 14 - 03:57 PM Pete Seeger was one of the first musical influences in my life. He was the one who inspired me to get my first banjo. Pete demonstrated, more than anything else to me, the tremendous power of song in bringing people together. His passing strikes a wistful chord with all of us who were enriched by his performance artistry and convictions. "He's a long time gone/ But his songs live on". |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Jan 14 - 03:50 PM Here is a search at The New Yorker for articles about Pete Seeger. There are several to choose from. SRS |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Arkie Date: 28 Jan 14 - 03:48 PM I had the pleasure of attending several of Pete's concerts and am the owner of a few of his Folkways recordings. He did as much as one can man can do to make the world a better place. I am glad we had him with us for so long. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: bbc Date: 28 Jan 14 - 03:21 PM How nice to hear from you, Peter, & how nice to see Rick Fielding's name. Pete enriched so many lives! Barbara |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Peter T. Date: 28 Jan 14 - 03:06 PM Rick Fielding and I used to talk about Pete Seeger all the time -- he was the reason Rick became a musician, he'd seen him in a concert in Montreal. I remember thinking that I had missed out on seeing Pete Seeger in my life, and then he came to Toronto for a documentary film and I got to see him play. One of the thrills of my life. There is a lovely story in a New Yorker profile of Seeger some years ago. The author of the profile had interviewed Seeger a number of times and was trying to figure out how to end the piece. The author had to put things on hold to go and visit his mother who lived north of Albany, so he got into his car and drove north through a pelting rainstorm. This was during the runup to the Iraq War. Somewhere on the road to Albany he passed a man standing out in the middle of nowhere beside the highway, all alone in the pouring rain, holding up a sign saying "No to the War in Iraq!". As he was going by, the author suddenly realized that the man was Pete Seeger. And let us not forget that he was one of the great early voices for the environment. My music group will be singing "Sailing Up, Sailing Down" next week in tribute. Bye, Pete. You were one of the few proofs that human beings are worthy of existence. Peter T. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Crowhugger Date: 28 Jan 14 - 02:57 PM Ohhhhhhhhhh no... Teethed on his music, toddled to the sound of my mom learning banjo using his how-to book and record, then mixing those banjo techniques with her own guitar style. His music was integral to my whole childhood and teens, less so in early adulthood and more so again lately. Wowwww. Been dreading this day. I don't know how to honour his passing in a way that'll do him justice. Will give it my best shot. When I figure it out it'll surely be about conscience as much as music. You RIP, Pete. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Peter the Squeezer Date: 28 Jan 14 - 02:49 PM RIP Pete Thanks for all that you did for all of us - every citizen of planet Earth! |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Don Firth Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:52 PM I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Pete in October of 1954 when the newly-formed Pacific Northwest Folklore Society sponsored him in a concert here in Seattle. There was a party after the concert, and about a half-dozen of us wound up at four o'clock in the morning sitting cross-legged on Carol Lee Waite's living room floor with Pete, passing my newly purchased Martin guitar back and forth and asking Pete questions like, "What is that weird chord Leadbelly uses on 'Black Girl?'" with Pete picking up the guitar and demonstrating. Fantastic session! And learning experience! Then again in 1957, when he again sang in Seattle and held a workshop in the afternoon before the concert. Pete was remarkably generous and eager to share his knowledge with people. This morning, NPR's John Hockenberry, on his program "The Takeaway" did a very nice feature on Pete Seeger. After playing a sampling of Pete singing songs he either wrote or is strongly associated with, Hockenberry finished the feature by saying, "He once asked, 'where have all the flowers gone?' Well, now we know. He left them all behind. For us." I must admit, I got a bit emotional. . . . Don Firth P. S. Report from On High today is that a whole bunch of angels are trading in their harps on long-necked 5-string banjos. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Fred McCormick Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:43 PM Amergin. Thanks for remembering the Alan Seeger poem. I'm trying to persuade Radical Liverpool, which is a left wing performance venue we have in Liverpool, to devote next month's session to Pete, and was wondering what I could contribute. Absolutely perfect. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Duane D. Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:26 PM (Mudcat wouldn't let me sign in, tried four times) Here is a link to an image given to me from the intermission at the Short Sister's concert Barbara mentioned. I just posted it to my Flickr pages. I'm in the center talking to Pete. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberastrofolkie/12192240424/ |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: bbc Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:16 PM I guess the last time I saw Pete was when he made a surprise appearance, as an audience member, at our folk society's concert in Hyde Park, New York on November 7, 2008. The concert featured the Short Sisters. Pete said he'd never had a chance to hear his niece, Kate, perform. It was great fun, having him & his family sit in the row, just behind me. One man approached him, during the intermission, & told him he looked just like Pete Seeger! Barbara |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:15 PM What I was trying to say: Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the mornings hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there; I did not die. Mary Elizabeth Frye. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Steve Parkes Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:05 PM Goodbye Pete ... thanks for, well, everything; I owe you so much. Your legacy will live on. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Amergin Date: 28 Jan 14 - 01:02 PM His uncle Alan Seeger was a poet killed in the First World War...and now Pete has had his own rendezvous with Death. I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air— I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath— It may be I shall pass him still. I have a rendezvous with Death On some scarred slope of battered hill, When Spring comes round again this year And the first meadow-flowers appear. God knows 'twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, Where hushed awakenings are dear... But I've a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Dharmabum Date: 28 Jan 14 - 12:37 PM May we all strive to leave behind a legacy as impressive as Pete Seeger has. RIP Mr.Seeger |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Jan 14 - 12:02 PM The Takeaway (a National Public Radio program) is just starting here, but I see the segment discussing Pete is already posted. It offers links to other stories. SRS |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Rex Date: 28 Jan 14 - 12:02 PM Pete was devoted to pointing out injustice and he did so by singing. I was fortunate to attend some of his concerts and to get to talk to him. It is true that Earl was an influence in my picking up the banjo but so was Pete. Most of my life I've played the banjo as he showed us. The world is a better place for his being here. |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Haruo Date: 28 Jan 14 - 12:02 PM NPR Memorial this morning |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:23 AM Thanks Pete... Rest in Peace bob |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: frogprince Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:10 AM How often has one person so combined wisdom, courage, compassion, and such ability to inspire countless others by communicating it all simply and joyfully? "Now here's the part for you angels to the left of me.." |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Bill D Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:54 AM Pete was invited to sing in Wichita, Kans. in 1962, by the Classic Guitar Society... which had a 'folk' branch. I was in the lobby when this tall, gaunt man walked in wearing multicolored patchwork shirt & jeans. I wondered what THIS was about.......... then he went onstage, and I saw little old ladies standing & singing to the most amazing music! I stood and sang & clapped & laughed myself... and I was hooked. One of my first 5 LPs was The Weavers. One of the numbers Pete did that night was the recitation, daring the audience to follow him.. "One big fat hen, two ducks, three limerick oysters...etc." Over 40 years later I attended the concert where Pete, Mike and Peggy were together for the last time, and I got to speak to Pete, shake his hand, and ask him about that recitation. His eyes lit up and he stood there in the crowd and recited the entire thing for me! I have somewhere, a picture my wife took with me in the frame with Pete... I will make it my desktop for awhile. So long, Pete...... thanks for everything........ |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: Charley Noble Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:46 AM Here's a link to the photo I mentioned above of a young Pete Seeger singing at a special event in Washington, DC, in 1944 that I pasted to the Facebook Mudcat Cafe Forum: Click here for photo! You may have to scroll down to view it. Charlie Ipcar |
Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014) From: eddie1 Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:37 AM A big loss to the world of folk music, conservation and activism but he has left one hell of a legacy! I was fortunate enough to meet him back in the days when......... Pete was doing a concert at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. For those who don't know it, it is Edinburgh's equivalent of London's Albert Hall or New York's Carnegie Hall! History of symphony concerts etc. First big positive – we've all been to concerts by "stars" when the first 45 minutes of each half are taken up by a relatively unknown and the star does a hurried 25 minute spot before the interval and maybe 30 minutes at the end? None of that with Pete – there was no-one else. He was announced and came onstage carrying that big Stan Francis 12-string and his famous Vega long-neck banjo. He left the stage to return with a double-headed felling axe! Off again and back with a huge tree-trunk! Pete then sang "Take This Hammer" while chopping hell out of the tree trunk! The real show however, was the hallkeeper, standing at the side of the stage and watching this guy making a mess of his precious stage! His face went from pink, to red, to purple, to black! The concert was truly wonderful! After the concert, a bunch of us went to The Howff in High Street and that took up the rest of the night. Pete & Toshi were there with daughter sleeping in the guitar case! Pete did plenty of singing but took plenty of time to sit back and listen to other singers, joining in choruses and applauding. A true gentleman who will be sorely missed. RIP Pete Eddie |
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