Obit: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Dan Schatz
Date: 29 Jan 14 - 10:41 PM

Fantastic interview. Truly fantastic.

Dan

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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.