Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 14 - 11:40 PM

Since Gargoyle's remarks were responded to they'll stay put, but with Frank's responses it helps to show future readers the scope of the story - what Pete was up against at times.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 28 Apr 14 - 02:51 PM

Pete always called himself a communist with a small c. Stalin was not a real communist but a dictator. The image of Jesus would probably be more in line with a true definition of communist. That's why Woody Guthrie wrote his song about Jesus.

The Left Wing movement in the early days of the century was responsible for:
1. Civil Rights for black people
2. Women's rights and women's suffrage
3. Decent pay for a day's work......labor unions
4. Freedom of speech
5. Protesting wars of imperialism
6. Moving FDR to implement social benefits
7. Social Security

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 28 Apr 14 - 11:02 AM

It's amazing to me that we have John Birchers in our midst on Mudcat.

Gargoyle, you are completely clueless about the Left. This latest isn't about balance,
it's just blatant smearing.

Enough already indeed!

"Pete Seegar is a sad product of the leftist media "

You can't even spell his name correctly so why should anyone listen to you?

The media Leftist? That's a joke. No, the media is reactionary Republican.

We can take back our media by:
1. supporting alternative factual media
2.   We can debunk the garbage spilled by Fox News and CNN
3.   We can support reliable sources for our information
4.   We can articulate our vision for a better world by:
      A. Supporting peace groups that are actually doing something useful
      B. Support Occupy Wall Street in it's latest incarnation (yes, it's still here)
      C. We can report history accurately concerning the Left Wing
      D. We can list Pete's numerous accomplishments such as:
            1. Cleaning the Hudson River
            2. Spawning the folk music revival without Pete....no Mudcat
            3. Celebrating his appeal to humanity by stopping Vietnam war,
            4. Remembering his courageous fight against Jim Crow
            5. Giving permission to anyone to learn to play and sing regardless of
                what they believe their musical ability is.
            6. Reaching children through his stories and songs
            7. Being positive about humanity in spite of Republican negativity.
I think we can all add to this list.

If it weren't for Pete I doubt many of us would be here on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Big Mick
Date: 28 Apr 14 - 10:12 AM

GUEST Gerry, I can tell you this. Pete told me the story himself while he, Toshi, Tinya and I were having a bite to eat at his kitchen table. He was reminiscing on visiting Franco's Spain and some of the things he had to do to outsmart the censors. This was a year and a half ago or so. He was animated and quite specific about the details.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 Apr 14 - 09:54 PM

Enough already!

This thread needs a little balance:
He also celebrated a form of government that was responsible for the execution of tens of millions of innocent people and tortured e

ven more

es, IMHO, Pete Seeger was not patriot. He sang like he was for the poor and downtrodden, but in reality, he was a lover of big government. He most likely loved Obama, our beloved Dictator-in-chief. Pete Seeger loved seeing people on the government dole, living on the Democrat plantation of liberalism. He was totally clueless about the entrepreneurial spirit and freedom and liberty.
The sweetness of the candy coated bitter truth has carried on, and on....

Some snippets gathered from across the web:

Seegar
..was just another Dennis Rodman type political whore, the only difference is he carried a banjo rather than a B-ball.

Pete Seeger was the champion of left-wing socialism which does nothing but keep the poor downtrodden and on the government dole. It probably would have been a good thing if Peter Seeger really had to work at a 40-hr a week job and learn something about capitalism


Just another rich elite Communist that could sing a neat little ditty. He celebrated the form of government that executed tens of millions of people and tortured just as many.



Personally, I think he knew he had been duped and is why he kept such a low profile.


. 50 million people wiped out in Stalin's purges


Yes, Seeger was a useful idiot. He parroted the Stalin line for decades and excused the Soviet Union atrocities. He was against our entrance into WWll until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union and Stalin ordered an about face from all the US commies.

The lefties posting above haven't a clue about the communist infiltration of our government and other institutions during the 30s, 40s and 50s. Most of them have never heard of Whittaker Chambers or Elizabeth Bentley. Perhaps they believe that Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs were innocent. I am sure they never read any of the contents of the Venona files, the KGB files or the Mitrokhin Archives. They surely never listened to the interviews of ex-KGB or FBI agents who were active at that time. I am sure that they are unaware that New Dealers like John Patton Davies, Harold Glasser, Lauchlin Currie, Laurence Duggan, Alger Hiss, Duncan Lee, Irving Goff, Owen Lattimore, Henry Wallace, Harry Dexter White, Victor Perlo, Lee Pressman, John Stewart Service, and about 400 other FDR and Truman hands were indeed working for ole Uncle Joe.

Pete Seegar is a sad product of the leftist media which for 60 years have pounded the American public with one simple message: Joe McCarthy bad -- Commie "patriots" good.


Recall that it was ...
Seeger who was the most distraught and tried to halt the proceedings, when Dylan decided to go electric


Stalin's Songbird"


Seeger joined the Communist Party in 1934 and worked for Stalin until the early 50s when he claimed he left the CPUSA. Stalin died in 1953.


http://variety.com/2014/music/news/pete-seeger-dead-folk-legend-1201073804/

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 27 Apr 14 - 12:48 AM

In the MAY 2014 issue of THE CATHOLIC WORKER there is a tribute to
Pete Seeger by BUD COURTNEY.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 26 Apr 14 - 07:21 AM

Several posts up, there's a great story about Pete Seeger singing (or, rather, not singing) in Barcelona in the late days of the Franco regime. The story is taken from a book by Scott Alarik. But that book is a novel; does anyone know whether what's described there actually happened? I ask because all my efforts to search for that story on the web lead to Alarik's novel; I'd have thought a great story like that would have been told elsewhere over the 40 years since the events it describes.

The David Dunaway biography of Seeger (How Can I Keep From Singing) discusses the tour of Spain on page 298. It lists three songs Spanish censors prohibited him from singing; it also says "He knew he couldn't sing --- and didn't try --- the songs of the Spanish Civil War...." It says police cancelled his concert at a university in Barcelona. But that's it. No mention of his playing forbidden songs on the banjo, the audience doing the singing.

I also found this on the web, written by Seeger's friend, the Spanish singer Raimon, at http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/01/28/actualidad/1390945415_202516.html

Quise convencerle, con mi mujer, Analisa, de que viniera a España a cantar. Como muchos de los artistas progresistas que entonces entendían que estando Franco no debían venir, él dijo que prefería no hacerlo; le convenció finalmente el argumento de que si ellos no venían la gente que vivía aquí pensaría que lo que había por esos mundos era el universo cultural carca que nos llegaba en ese momento.

Actuó en Terrassa el 7 de febrero de 1971. Yo estaba programado también, pero solo le permitieron cantar a él. Siguió en San Sebastián, pero lo prohibieron en Madrid y en la Escuela Industrial de Barcelona; pudo actuar otra vez en Sevilla. Yo traduje las letras de sus canciones y se alojó en nuestra casa. Desde entonces establecimos mucho contacto y en 1976, muerto Franco, vino a cantar a Madrid y Barcelona.

My Spanish is none too good, but it's clear that Raimon does not tell the story Alarik tells, and, again, it's such a good story that it surprises me the Raimon doesn't tell it. So, does anyone have any pre-Alarik references to the Barcelona story?

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Northerner
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 01:27 PM

A wonderful performer! Wish I'd had the opportunity to see him perform. RIP Pete.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 06:04 AM

When you've watched it make sure you catch the awesome clip of John Hurt singing Lonesome Valley, which is advertised on the same page. Pete doesn't join in that one but he's there in the background, as is Hedy West.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: voyager
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 03:16 PM

The more we go 'back to the well' of Pete Seeger's life in music, the cooler is the water, the more nourishing is the drink. Hope this thread goes on forever....

You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley - Pete Seeger and Doc Watson

voyager

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Elmore
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 10:55 AM

Bettynh: Your post yesterday at 11:19 brought back a lot of memories. I was fortunate to have seen Pete's appearance at Boston Common in 1963,which drew an enormous crowd, and Pete gave an electrifying (not electric) performance. The Ford Hall Forum appearance in 1967 was unusual because it gave Pete a chance to explain himself, rather than be explained by others. Finally, by 1987 in Lawrence, Pete's voice was pretty far gone, but his performance gave my son the opportunity to understand what Pete was all about. Thanks for helping me to recall these wonderful events , Elmore.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,harriet jerusha korim
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 10:12 AM

The past days remind me I'm part of an extended family, grieving the loss and celebrating the life of our musical brother, pop or grandpa or great-grandpa, depending how old you are... And all the sharing of photos, anecdotes, songs and videos are like food and drink we would share if we were sitting shiva together.

The kerfluffle about memorials got me thinking what I would love to see is a day of local, global all-ages truly participatory stone-soup potlucks, community sings and dances FOR PETE'S SAKE on May 3.

Remembering long-ago and recent encounters, but even more just feeling the resonance of Pete's presence, his voice, humor, imagination, intelligence, open-heartedness. And so many songs, including ones I heard him sing live and haven't heard or thought of for years, like "Farewell little Fishes" and "Maple Syrup Time" (soon coming):

"...I'll send this song to Scott and Helen [Nearing], up in Maine where they are dwellin'
Hoping they don't mind a little advice in rhyme.
As in life or revolution, rarely is there a quick solution,
Anything worthwhile takes a little time.
We boil and boil and boil and boil it all day long..."

That advice also resonates in Pete's singing of Jacob's Ladder http://youtu.be/n7d6ATNyA98 and in a verse I made up and tacked on to our singing of Steve Earle's great '06 tribute "Steve's Hammer (for Pete)" http://youtu.be/wx9SGI97wuU :

"One of these days I'm gonna pass this hammer on
to a little kid who's listening to our song
'cause life is short, but the struggle's long
it takes generations to right these wrongs
One of these days I'm gonna pass this hammer on."

with gratitude from Jerusha and The Beat Greens...

what never dies "goes on to organize"--

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 12:39 PM

Two things to add to what I wrote earlier.

First, amid the celebrations of Pete's extraordinary life and career in which his broadest impact was made with political and other singer-songwriter material, it's less often mentioned what an extraordinary traditional-style musician he was. Though he preferred to be called, as is correct, a singer of traditional songs, he had the style down pat when he wanted.

His best work in this line is still his first LP, "Darling Corey" (Folkways, since reprinted with Goofing-Off Suite), but it's well to remember he re-embraced the traditional for his wonderful American Ballads and Folk Songs LPs right in the middle of his most politically active period.

You only had to hear his astonishing recreation of Kentuckian Walter Williams' banjo spectacular, "East Virginia," or "Darling Corey," "John Riley" or "Danville Girl" to hear what early traditional song meant to him. It buoyed him all during his career, even as he turned to many other kinds of songs.

Second, I think few remember what an startling unsung role he played in the early folk movement during the 1950s as a true "Johnny Appleseed"-by-mail. He conducted at his own expense (when he had all too little money himself), a tremendous correspondence linking up young folkies, me among them, with singing weekends and other gatherings, and putting us in touch with one another. His practice was to send on what he received from one and swap back something he got from another, for an exciting cross-fertilization when folk singers were still as rare as hen's teeth, and we all scarcely knew what we were trying to do. Kind of an early internet.

Still realizing what a blow his loss is.

Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Bettynh
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 11:19 AM

I've been remembering Pete a lot recently, and it's been memories of my lifetime.

1963, Dad was messing around with his latest technotoy, a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He set it up in front of the tv and recorded air-to-air the WGBH broadcast of Boston's arts festival from Boston Common. Pete, singing and telling songs and stories. We played it over and over and transcribed some of the songs. The Girl Scouts of the area learned "Little Boxes" and "Mrs. McGrath" from that tape. "Little Boxes" wasn't ironic to us at the time - it was a description of our lives.

1967, Dad and I got to go to Ford Hall Forum in Boston. Pete was irate that he had been censored off the Smothers Brothers show. I had been watching him Saturday afternoons on tv for years and the whole thing made no sense to me at the time.

1987. My twins were 5. Dad was retired and had a beard now, a lot like Pete's. Lawrence common, the 75th anniversary of the Bread and Roses strike. Dad was watching from the edge of the crowd, standing, and there were several men of his age there, several with that same beard. I wish I'd known then that Dad and Pete had been on Saipan at the same time. The kids had climbed a statue and sat on top to watch Pete.

2002. The National Storytelling Festival. Harlan, one of the twins now 20, and I saw Pete. His voice was fractured, but the crowd sang well. It was a bit sad, but Pete was still Pete. Harlan did the driving home through DC sniper stories and with "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" on the tape recorder.

Through it all, there were records and tapes and radio programs.

Thanks Pete, we loved you.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: KT
Date: 03 Feb 14 - 01:32 PM

KVMR -NOW! - tune in, listen live - if you'd like to listen to a conversation between Pete Seeger and Utah Phillips.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 03 Feb 14 - 12:02 PM

The best part of that documentary for me was when Toshi told Pete hearing that a man was coming to a concert to kill him, "Peter, you've got to sit down and talk to that man".
Pete did and they resolved their conflict peaceably. That was the real Toshi Seeger.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Feb 14 - 07:38 PM

PBS has been reprising the American Masters episode Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. I caught it this afternoon. You can check your local listings to see if it will be on your local PBS channel.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 02 Feb 14 - 12:25 PM

P.S., the same above goes for Woody Guthrie. It's a case of "now you tell me!"

Or as one poet described it succinctly in an early edition of the Hobo News,
"Throw your bouquets while I'm living, do your knocking when I'm dead." :)

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 02 Feb 14 - 12:20 PM

I find it ironic that finally his life is being celebrated as it should be when for so many years he was vilified by not only the reactionary right but many so-called liberals as well.

That's the way it is with any decent American who takes a courageous stand for the betterment of his or her government.

Why do brave people have to die before their accomplishments can be acknowledged?

It was the same with MLK, lionized after his death and now trivialized by turning him into a cardboard saint. With Pete, he spoke eloquently about the folly of the Vietnam War and others, today, speak out about the insanity of Iraq and Afghanistan and are being largely ignored, especially by the so-called Media.

Pete's legacy to us has to be that we remember what these American heroes had to go through before we could hear their messages. Even so, Pete's life was a life worth living.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Elmore
Date: 02 Feb 14 - 11:51 AM

There are a few things in this world you can depend on. I used to watch the CBS show, Sunday Morning every week, but got out of the habit. I watched it this week and, sure enough, there was an excellent, if short, segment about Pete. Maybe I'll start watching the show again.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 02 Feb 14 - 08:19 AM

The PRI show Living on Earth replayed "Remembering an Afternoon with Pete Seeger" yesterday in which Pete talked about the environment, the Clearwater, communism and other subjects.
Click here
Scroll down to 3rd segment to hear Pete (the rest of the show was interesting, as well) and scroll down further for transcript.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: LadyJean
Date: 01 Feb 14 - 10:59 PM

In the seventies, he came to Pittsburgh to sing with the American Wind Symphony on the Fourth of July. The Symphony played on a floating stage on the Allegheny river. It was so beautiful to sit while the setting sun turned the river gold and silver and listen to him sing those extraordinary songs about ordinary people.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 01 Feb 14 - 11:06 AM

"How could Pete or they have known about the atrocities of the Stalinist regime ? Who among us ordinary people could have sorted out the propaganda from the truth back in the 40s/50s ? Pete believed in the sharing of wealth, but he was living in a most capitalistic society and unable to change things to the way that socialism prefers."

Good point. In the era of the Popular Front, many people belonged to the CPUSA and later changed their minds when the found out the truth about Stalin. Some, vindictively, used this to persecute others or inform on people to be brought before HUAC, people like Burl Ives and Elia Kazan. Pete forgave them as most everyone bought into the "Uncle Joe" ruse.
Pete has apologized for his early support of Stalin many times, displaying a humility to be admired, not to be denigrated. Still, there are those who would smear Pete for his early mistakes because they have a political axe to grind, enjoying the defamation of a noble and productive character in the name of their self-righteous egotism and blind malevolence.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: ex-pat
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 06:54 PM

Bought How to play the 5 string banjo by Pete Seeger in Manchester UK, 1964. Have some great old Folkways albums of his too.
Farewell and Peace always old friend. I still have your book.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Cool Beans
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 05:39 PM

I started playing guitar in high school and learned a lot from Pete's LP and book "The Folksinger's Guitar Guide." By the summer before senior year of college I was competent enough to teach guitar and lead songs at a summer camp for teenagers. Flash forward about 20 years and I'm interviewing Pete about what he'll be playing at a concert in Detroit. He sings a bit of the song "It really isn't garbage till you throw it away." Good song, I say. Did you write it? No, he says, it's by a singer-songwriter I know named Dan Einbender. Oh, I say, he was one of my students at summer camp...

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Elmore
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 01:55 PM

Cartoon on Bartcop.com. Guy checking out the want ads. Ad reads: New Pete Seeger needed. Must start immediately.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 12:34 PM

The wikipedia article on Pete has been updated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

with links way at the bottom to odd stuff you can find... such as video at archive.org of an early banjo teaching session.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Beachcomber
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 12:21 PM

I remember listening to the Weavers singing "Goodnite Irene" on radio, away back. I didn't know then that I was listening to voices, among which was that of a man who would still be singing that song 60 years later as well as so many other great songs. His political philosophy was also, basically, unchanging.
OK, so Pete was a member of the Communist Party back then but it was his Marxist belief that led him to that. How can anyone say that he and others who had similar Marxist beliefs sought the deaths of those who opposed them ideologically ? How could Pete or they have known about the atrocities of the Stalinist regime ? Who among us ordinary people could have sorted out the propaganda from the truth back in the 40s/50s ? Pete believed in the sharing of wealth, but he was living in a most capitalistic society and unable to change things to the way that socialism prefers.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 09:32 AM

This in my opinion is one of the best tribute articles I've seen on Pete.

best tribute IMHO

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: mark gregory
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 10:48 PM

Anthony Ashbolt from the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry University of Wollongong wrote an interesting article about Pete in The Conversation

see http://theconversation.com/pete-seeger-a-life-of-song-and-the-power-of-we-22595

cheers

Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 09:49 PM

thanks for posting the story, elfcape, it was news to me

sandra

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: elfcape
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 02:45 PM

It was wonderful to hear Pete's voice on that Fresh Air interview from so long ago. Most interesting to me was how seriously he took the effect of his refusal to take the 5th. Even so many years later he still felt that entire episode was damaging to his career. Looking at him now, it seems unbelievable that he would have found a comfortable place on television or the entertainment circuit. For me, as a child of the 50s, I cannot imagine Pete's style fitting into any of those places.

Yesterday Dudley Laufman's daughter, Heidi, posted this wonderful story from Scott Alarik's book about Pete in Spain. Probably not news to many here but nice to recall. The man had balls:

THE POWER OF SONG

In the 1970s, Pete Seeger was invited to sing in Barcelona, Spain. Francisco Franco's fascist government, the last of the dictatorships that started World War II, was still in power but declining. A pro-democracy movement was gaining strength and to prove it, they invited America's best-known freedom singer to Spain. More than a hundred thousand people were in the stadium, where rock bands had played all day. But the crowd had come for Seeger. As Pete prepared to go on, government officials handed him a list of songs he was not allowed to sing. Pete studied it mournfully, saying it looked an awful lot like his set list. But they insisted: he must not sing any of these songs. Pete took the government's list of banned songs and strolled on stage. He held up the paper and said, "I've been told that I'm not allowed to sing these songs." He grinned at the crowd and said, "So I'll just play the chords; maybe you know the words. They didn't say anything about *you* singing them." He strummed his banjo to one song after another, and they all sang. A hundred thousand defiant freedom singers breaking the law with Pete Seeger, filling the stadium with words their government did not want them to hear, words they all knew and had sung together, in secret circles, for years. What could the government do? Arrest a hundred thousand singers? It had been beaten by a few banjo chords and the fame of a man whose songs were on the lips of the whole world. - Scott Alarik, Revival

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 11:39 AM

P.S......he was right about the smoking issue.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 11:37 AM

"As engagements dried up, the Weavers disbanded, though they reunited occasionally in the mid-1950s. After the group recorded an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes, Mr. Seeger left, citing his objection to promoting tobacco use."
I know Pete didn't like smoking at his performances but is that really the reason for his departure from the Weavers at that particular time?"

Actually Pete's departure was a long time coming. In Las Vegas, at a crucial point in the career of the Weavers, Pete Cameron, the first official manager of the Weavers (Toshi was never given credit) decided that they should limit their activities to safe appearances but Pete wanted them to sing at a union rally but the other members apparently objected to that.
Pete was incensed and well the story is that he broke a glass table in the hotel room where they were staying. It's possible that it happened because Pete was human and had a rare temper as we all do. I don't blame him, however for being pissed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 07:27 AM

Guest - Lucky Strike - that's the story in David King Dunaway's biography of Pete - start of chapter 9 in my copy.
Derek

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 06:43 AM

Roy. Nobel peace Prize. I'm fairly certain that nominees have to be living to qualify. So we've left it a bit late. Let's canonise him instead.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 14 - 06:08 AM

I was intrigued by this paragraph in Tuesday's New York Times obituary of Pete :
"As engagements dried up, the Weavers disbanded, though they reunited occasionally in the mid-1950s. After the group recorded an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes, Mr. Seeger left, citing his objection to promoting tobacco use."
I know Pete didn't like smoking at his performances but is that really the reason for his departure from the Weavers at that particular time?

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: mark gregory
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:54 PM

ABC New Obit and video is now online

see

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/folk-singer-activist-pete-seeger-dies-ny-22259978

m

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:41 PM

Fantastic interview. Truly fantastic.

Dan

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:22 PM

Fresh Air replayed this 1985 interview with Pete the other night.

Click here

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:08 PM

Here's another link. http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20140128/NEWS/140126180/?tag=1

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 08:31 PM

Yes, it sounds like lies to me. Is this the Michael Moynihan whose Wiki states"In the 1990s, Moynihan was frequently identified as a fascist or neo-fascist by some critics and fans. Moynihan accepted these descriptions with reservations in the 1990s, but in the 2000s dismissed them as inapplicable buzzwords used by "anti-this and anti-that activist types" and denounced the far right."?

It's an Obituary thread.
As a moderator, if you want a debate, take it elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 08:24 PM

Pete was NOT a Stalinist! He was a member of the communist party for a short while, but people like Stalin convinced him that their brand of Communism sucked and he got out. Don't forget, he also served with honor in the US Army!

No greater American ever lived.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 08:01 PM

It's interesting that the McCarthy era is still with us, those, who self-righteous, slavishly sport a doctrinaire attitude about anti-communism prevail with misinformation and disinformation about one of the most intelligent and compassionate folk singers who ever lived, starting a huge folk music movement. In the early days of the Popular Front and the Second World War when Franklin Roosevelt called Stalin "Uncle Joe", it was clear that nobody really understood what Stalin was doing, later, when it was found out that he was a monster, people turned away from the Communist Party and Pete gave up Stalin a long time ago. Pete had criticized the apparatchiks of the USSR, to the extent that he didn't even honor Gorbachev. Still, the calumny prevails where misinformed slanderous individuals on this website insist on tarnishing his reputation by right-wing propaganda and smear tactics as if they really knew what Pete believed.

I know how he felt about this because he recently told me about it on the phone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 07:18 PM

As I wrote above, I cherish the hand-written form letter he sent me.

I sent him 90th birthday greetings from one of the folk organisations he visited in 1963 on the Australian leg of his world trip. As a reminder of his visit I included in the letter scans of our coverage of his visit which my predecessors had sent him after he went home. The letter is in the club's archives, but I kept the envelope cos he addressed it to me!

He also sent us (me!!) a copy of his latest book (huge amount of postage!) which we reviewed in our magazine & on the national Folk List & lots of us bought our own copies.

sandra

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: bobad
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 06:48 PM

Not all the remembrances of ol' Pete are hagiographic:

"Seeger never really did abandon the dream of communism, despite the inconvenient fact that it had long since (starting around 1918) transformed into a pitiful nightmare. So it was unsurprising that in 1995 he would provide an effusive blurb for a book of poetry written by Tomas Borge, the brutal secret police chief and interior minister of Sandinista Nicaragua ("An extraordinary collection of poems and prose"). When it was reported in 2007 that he had, at long last, written a piece of anti-Stalin doggerel, the New York Times leapt to his defense, noting that Seeger--who was not only quiet on the crimes of Stalin, but the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the various gulags dotting the Soviet empire--had previously distanced himself from the Kremlin mountaineer:

"Mr. Seeger, 87, made such statements years ago, at least as early as his 1993 book, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? In the book, he said in a 1995 interview with the New York Times Magazine, he had apologized "for following the party line so slavishly, for not seeing that Stalin was a supremely cruel misleader."

As I noted at the time, this is an astonishingly lazy defense: at least as early as 1993, a mere forty years after Stalin's death? And perhaps I am expecting a bit too much, but it seems slightly understated to describe a man responsible for tens of millions of deaths as a "cruel misleader."

The Death of 'Stalin's Songbird'

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 05:51 PM

That comment about the rest of us still singing has me crying over again.

The outpouring isn't limited to us intense folkie types. I've been asked many times by members of my congregation how we would honor Pete in our service this week, and I've been fielding calls and e-mails from lots of ministerial colleagues on what Pete Seeger songs might fit in with whatever their service topics are for the week. Since Pete was a Unitarian Universalist, at our congregation we decided to get everyone singing "Turn, Turn, Turn" (we'll line it out, just like he did), and in March we'll do a whole service dedicated to him.

Silver, one of the things that made Pete special was that he always answered letters. Sometimes not for months or a year, but he always answered them.

Dan

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: Nancy King
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 05:05 PM

Last night, on the ABC news program, there was a short but very nice piece (which I can't seem to find on line) about Pete's passing. It opened with film and commentary about how Pete would often stop singing in the middle of a chorus, and listen to the audience, who of course kept on singing. At the end of the piece, the commentator (whose name I can't recall) showed the same film again, and said something to the effect that now Pete really had stopped singing, but it was all right, since the rest of us would keep on singing. I thought that was one of the best thoughts I've heard about Pete's legacy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 04:41 PM

I know that there was talk a while ago about nominating Pete for the Nobel Peace Prize. I can't think of a more worthy recipient. Can he be awarded it posthumously?

Subject: RE: Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
From: KT
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 04:31 PM

Last night I had a conversation with someone about Pete. Among other things I found myself saying, "Yes, I know he was 94.   Yes, I know he had a good long life. Yes, I KNOW we knew he wouldn't be with us forever. ---But still---There was just something so nice, so comforting, somehow, to know that he still walked among us."


Later, at a large gathering for a birthday celebration, I was asked to sing a song in remembrance of Pete. I knew that this was not a crowd of musicians, but since the song was to honor Pete, I told the group that it was important that everyone sing along. And they all did. Long may you live, Pete, in your music and in our hearts.