Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 06:50 AM

Goodbye Pete Seeger; you've been with us for such a long time it's hard to believe that you're not around anymore. A giant in folk music who brought so much to the world; always a fighter for human rights and dignity; and most of all a true gentleman. Thank you!

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 07:05 AM

The first thing I ever searched for and found on the net was Pete's HUAC testimony..........

There are volumes to say about Pete and absolutely nothing to say. Travel on........and Thanks Pete.......

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 07:20 AM

Pete meant everything to me when I was starting out in 1950. I had a guitar and was learning Burl Ives songs, but it was hearing the Weavers, then Pete's first Folkways LP that made me seek out a 5-string (they were rare then) and learn to play it.

I first saw Pete live at Woodstock, Vermont. Pete came to Dartmouth College in February 1956 at my behest (I'd co-founded a folksingers club with another picker, Dick Martz), gave a stirring concert. He borrowed my ax to chop a log for "Didn't Old John Cross the Water on His Knees," scared the pants off the college administration.

Over the years Pete has been there so many times and in so many places. I watched that Smothers Brothers show when he sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy." Vietnam and all the massed power of the US mil-industrial complex was on its horse and here was one lone voice finally breaking back into TV to sing about the Big Fool telling us to press on.

I was just reflecting this morning that, had it not been for Pete, the Weavers and Moe Asch's Folkways, it's possible there never could have been a folk movement on the scale and of the type that broke out in the 50s.

We're all here in large part because of Pete. Wow. I'm stunned and it will take a while to get used to a world without him. But of course he's still here, singing on in lots of us. They talk about us old folkies being Woody's children, but in a bigger and wider sense we're Pete's kids.

He fixed the world so it will never be the same. Singing on. Picking on. Don't forget.

Bob Coltman

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Hrothgar
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:00 AM

I know he influenced folk music throughout the English-speaking world, and I think he had a solid impact in other languages as well.

We might never see his like again.

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: topical tom
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:02 AM

Pete was a hero of mine since 1955. He taught us to sing together and how we should live together, He championed rights and freedom and fought wrong wherever he found it. Thanks so much, Pete, for the optimism and the fight for the right at all times. It had to happen but there is a lump in my throat this morning. RIP, Pete. You led a great life and deserve a rest.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:20 AM

For a man to change the world for the better using banjo, guitar and voice is certainly a great legacy! A man so unconcerned with legacy who inspired the world to change itself will always be my hero! RIP Pete!

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:21 AM

I've dreaded this day. My first encounter with Pete was listening to the Weavers. Then in 1969 we met at the home of our mutual friend, Gordon Bok. Pete gave me my first banjo on that long neck vega of his. I was hooked. We crossed paths a number of times, then when Dan Schatz came up with this memorial cd for Utah Phillips, I asked Pete if he would contribute. He sang the song he wrote for the cd on the telephone! What a hoot.

He was charged with Contempt of Congress! How many of us would qualify for that? He didn't hide behind the 5th amendment, he stood on the FIRST amendment!
One of my few heroes. RIP Pete.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:24 AM

Pete and Malvina Reynolds, introduced to by two different friends, led me into a lifetime love of folk music that has lasted and never waned. Thankyou.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:28 AM

Wasn't that a time.
On this sad day it's comforting to know that so much that is good will live on because of Pete.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,SINS
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:30 AM

My favorite Seeger moment: offering to sing for HUAC. RIP SINS

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Guest-Dianne
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:38 AM

Like so many who posted above, I was introduced to folk music first by Pete and the Weavers. I had the great good fortune to see him in person a few times during the '60's and '70's. His soaring voice, driving banjo were amazing. Pete used the energy of his audience to replenish what he was expending so that every set was full of life and each song seemed "new" again.
Pete lived his values and was a great teacher. We are all better because of him.
Pete's light may be out, but oh how many others he lit during his time among us.
Dianne

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 08:46 AM

Anytime something happened to make you feel bad about America, Pete was there to remind you there's a better side that's more American than that.

Time to remember how Joe Hill put it, "Don't mourn - organize".

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:29 AM

It's good to see that Pete's passing has be given good coverage on BBC TV news.
Pete was my introduction to folk music.
He did radio show for the BBC around 1960.
Just Pete and his banjo and guitar, and a marvellous selection of songs.
I taped the show ans still have it somewhere.
Pete was so good in so many areas.
I only saw him live once at the Manchester Free Trade Hall back in 1964.
He was, is course, quite wonderful.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,buddhuu sans biscuit
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:33 AM

Legend.

Sang the songs and walked the walk.

Well played, Mr Seeger.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Jed Marum
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:36 AM

a wonderful songster with a gift for the music and a light for the spirit of mankind - indeed for all of life! Farewell Pete may your joyous strain echo throughout the generatons.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:54 AM

And, as Joe Hill might have added, and I'm sure Pete would have added "...and sing while you're doing it!"

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 09:59 AM

I recorded the BBC programme of Pete Seeger in conversation with Bob Copper when Bob was taken to New York, two giants in the world of folk music speaking of their lives and the music associated with them. It is an even more precious archive now. Both understandably gone now but never forgotten.

R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:21 AM

I just heard about this a few minutes ago. It's very strange since I just posted a photo yesterday of a very young Pete Seeger on Facebook Forum Exceedingly Good Song Night performing in uniform at a special event in Washington, DC, in 1944: "Pete Seeger, noted folk singer, entertaining at the opening of the Washington labor canteen, Valentine's Day, sponsored by the United Federal Labor Canteen, Federal Workers of American, and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), photographed by Joseph Anthony Horne, February 14, 1944. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is in the audience, seated between two sailors, Prints and Photographs LC-USW3- 040956-D. Mural by Woody Guthrie in the background." I'll post the photo on the Facebook Mudcat Forum page as well.

My parents first took me to a Pete Seeger concert at Bowdoin College in the 1950s. I was able to talk with him at several political song-writing workshops in the early 1980s and was present when he helped launch the Sloop Clearwater from the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in Maine. He certainly has been an inspiration and a role model for me.

He's left us a lot of work to do but he also showed us how to do it.

Here's a verse and chorus from one of my songs that sums up the moment for me:

Now, our time is drawing near,
The farthest shore is becoming clear;
So trim the sail, make fast the sheet,
We've old friends we'd like to meet;
They'll welcome us upon the shore,
And join us in this song.

Pastures of memories,
Sifting through life's mysteries,
Golden cows and butterflies,
All on a summer's day!

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:22 AM

Although I feel a sadness that Pete is no longer with us in body, I totally believe that he lives in each of us, in each person whose life he touched and that is a great chunk of the world's population. As the "six degrees of separation" has lessened through the internet, there are very few whose lives are not touched by his music, thus, by him.

He is with us in spirit. He shared so much of himself and that sharing continues. Nothing can stop it. I have no doubt he will RIP, knowing he did what he could, shared himself completely and left a sharing, caring legacy for us to - Carry it on.

May his death be so well covered by the media that even more of the world will know his worth, his thoughts, his kind and loving spirit, his rebel spirit, his stand up and be counted and rock the boat spirit. He stood for the best in - every aspect of life and in everybody.

Carry it on. Each of us to the best of our ability, knowing he is still supporting us.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 10:28 AM

Amen, Dorothy.

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

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: 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: 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: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 28 Jan 14 - 11:23 AM

Thanks Pete...

Rest in Peace

bob

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 ~