Pete Seeger Biography Thread

Subject: Pete Seeger Biography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 01 - 01:05 PM

Somebody posted a message in the Help Forum, suggesting a correction to our Pete Seeger Biography. I pasted the message below. Can anybody verify this, and is there any other information that should be corrected? I checked Incompleat Folksinger and Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and couldn't find full information about his family. -Joe Offer-

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Subject: Wrong bio info on Pete Seeger From: [e-mail] Date: 15-Oct-01 - 03:25 PM

In your bio about Pete Seeger, there is an error in the sex of his reported half-siblings. The bio states "He is the youngest of three boys and also has three additional half- brothers and one half- sister." In fact, he has "three additional half-sisters (Penny (deceased), Peggy and Barbara, and one half-brother (Mike.)" His two older brothers are Charles and John.

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 16 Oct 01 - 11:38 PM

Joe, I know of two of his half-sisters mentioned, Penny, who( I think) was married to John Cohen of the NLCR's, and Peggy, who was married to Ewan MacColl. There's a picture of Penny posing for a family portrait photo with the other NLCR's and their wives and kids on the Rambler's album "String Band Instrumentals."

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography
From: kendall
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 06:26 AM

Why not write and ask him? He answeres all letters. His address is real simple, Pete Seeger, Beacon N.Y.

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 09:40 AM

Joe,

Your e-mail correspondant is correct. The bio is, indeed, in error.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Mar 14 - 04:51 PM

The error discussed above was corrected in the Mudcat Biography of Pete Seeger. I suppose the biography should now be updated to show that Pete's wife Toshi died in July, 2013; and that Pete died in New York City on January 27, 2014.

I thought it would be a good idea to use this thread for biographical questions, answers, and information about Pete Seeger. I wrote up a long piece and submitted it, and my post disappeared. So, I'll try a shorter post.

I've often wondered what influence Pete's stepmother, Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953), had on him. The Wikipedia biography of Pete Seeger says that Pete's mother, Constance de Clyver (née Edson), was raised in Tunisia and trained at the Paris Conservatory of Music, was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School. Charles and Constance divorced when Pete was seven, and in 1932 Charles married his composition student and assistant, Ruth Crawford Seeger - Pete was about 13 when his father married Ruth, and his father had custody of the three boys born of the marriage of Charles and Constance. So, apparently, Pete lived with Ruth for his teenage years.

We folkies know Ruth Crawford Seeger primarily for her three wonderful songbooks for children:

• American Folk Songs for Children, 1948
• Animal Folk Songs for Children, 1950
• American Folk Songs for Christmas, 1953

Apparently, Ruth was a composer who worked in a wide spectrum of music, not only folk music.

So, I'm wondering about the relationship between Pete and Ruth Crawford Seeger. Did he live with his father and stepmother for most of his teenage years? Did he have significant contact with Ruth up to her death in 1953? Did they make music together?

Before I submit this message, I'm going to be smart and highlight [CTRL-A] and copy [CTRL-C] it, and then double-check to be sure it didn't get lost.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: GUEST,Ed.
Date: 16 May 23 - 05:47 AM

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a Pete Seeger biography. I currently have three possibilities in mind:

How Can I Keep from Singing - David King Dunaway

The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger - Alec Wilkinson

Pete Seeger in His Own Words - ed. Rob & Sam Rosenthal

I'd be grateful for opinions on any of the above, or any further recommendations?

Many thanks,

Ed

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 17 May 23 - 08:34 PM

related:

PRESTIGE PR 7375                         2-LP 1965
Folk Songs With The Seegers
Pete Seeger/ Peggy Seeger/ Mike Seeger

Side A
1. HERE’S TO CHESHIRE, HERE’S TO CHEESE    (Pete Seeger)
2. GREEN VALLEY    (Peggy Seeger)
3. I’M TROUBLED    (Peggy Seeger)
4. IT’S A LIE    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
5. FISHERMAN’S LUCK    (Mike Seeger)
6. MY GOOD OLD MAN    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
Side B
1. BILLY BARLOW    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
2. NEWLYN TOWN    (Peggy Seeger)
3. PEOPLE GO MIND YOUR BUSINESS    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
4. MY DEAREST DEAR    (Peggy Seeger)
5. MEDLEY OF PLAY PARTY SONGS    (Peggy Seeger)
Side C
1. I DON’T WANT YOUR MILLIONS, MISTER    (Pete Seeger)
2. RUE AND THYME    (Peggy Seeger)
3. KEOKEOKOLO    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
4. FIVE NIGHTS DRUNK
    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
5. THE DARK-EYED SAILOR    (Peggy Seeger)
6. JOHN HARDY    (Mike Seeger)
Side D
1. LITTLE BLACK TRAIN    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
2. LITTLE HENRY LEE    (Peggy Seeger)
3. THE OLD WOMAN AND HER LITTLE PIG    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
4. I TRULY UNDERSTAND    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)
5. SALLY ANNE    (Sonny Miller, Accompanied by Mike Seeger)
6. PRETTY FAIR MAID    (Peggy Seeger)
7. RISSOLTY ROSSOLTY    (Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger)

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 17 May 23 - 09:09 PM

also:
Prestige International 13029         LP 1962
The Three Sisters -Peggy Seeger With Barbara And Penny Seeger

A1                Keokeokolo
A2                I'm Troubled
A3                I Truely Understand
A4                It's A Lie
A5                Newlyn Town
A6                Billy Barlow
A7                My Good Old Man
Medley Of Lullabies        
A8a                Baby Dear, Baby Dear
A8b                Pretty Little Horses
A8c                Go To Sleepy, Baby, Bye
A8d                Great Big Dog
-        
B1                Little Black Train
B2                Henry Lee
B3                People Go Mind Your Business
B4                The Old Woman And Her Little Pig
B5                Green Valley
B6                Rissolty Rossolty
B7                Five Nights Drunk
Medley Of Play-Party Songs        
B8a                Shoe Round
B8b                Old Pompey
B8c                This Lady
B8d                Hop Up, My Ladies

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 May 23 - 07:31 PM

Seeger family of musicians [wiki]

Not listed: Anthony 'Tony' Seeger (son of Chas III.) Curator and Director Emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. His one vocal credit on Discogs:

Camp Songs, Ella Jenkins & Friends, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 45082 (Anthony Seeger, Judy Seeger, Kate Seeger)

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: GUEST,Felipa
Date: 03 May 25 - 04:50 PM

HAPPY (HEAVENLY) BIRTHDAY - PETE SEEGER was born 3 May 1919

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 May 25 - 07:19 PM

Joe Offer's post of March 5, 2014, poses the question:
did stepmother Ruth Crawford Seeger have any influence/effect
on young Pete Seeger?

I'm looking at the lengthy interview that Pete Seeger granted to the Banjo Newsletter,
to which I provided a link in the thread,
Pete Seeger's Banjo Virtuosity.
There are some quotes pertinent to that question. For instance:

"Up to [the age of about 7 or 8] I had banged on a piano, I'd tootled on a whistle, squeezed on a marimba, but mainly it was piano and organ 'cause that was what was in the house. I learned what an octave was, and a fifth and a third, and what made a major into a minor ...
"Then [at about the age of 16] I started transcribing recordings in the Library of Congress ... That's when I really learned to read music, because I already knew the principles of reading and writing music. Then my step-mother Ruth taught me about sharps and flats, and within a year I was transcribing hundreds of songs."

Here's another from the same interview:
query: How did you learn about harmony?
"I guess you could say it was all around me when I was growing up. My father and mother -- and my step-mother too -- were all very skilled at reading and writing music ... this is how [my father] met my step-mother Ruth Crawford. She came to New York from Chicago to study with him. Soon they were getting along quite well, and I remember them playing Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps -- this incredibly complicated symphonic piece of music -- with four hands on one piano, with someone else turning the pages for them: what would take a hundred symphonic musicians to do."

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 03 May 25 - 08:16 PM

For those who don't know, Ruth Crawford Seeger was one of the most noteworthy composers of classical music using dissonant harmonies. It takes a lot of getting used to (to my ears, it's just awful; Peggy Seeger herself called it "very, very strange modern music." As an example, she put one piece in 21/8 time with occasional measures in 15/8 and 18/8). She started composing by age twenty. She was awarded her Masters in music, summa cum laude, in 1927. She became the first woman to earn a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

She began playing piano at six, and was giving lessons before she finished high school -- and practiced so much in college that she actually hurt herself.

It might be noted that she got pregnant by Charles Seeger before he had even gotten out of his previous marriage. The Seegers were thoroughly unconventional. :-)

There is a book about Ruth Crawford Seeger, Judith Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music, Oxford University Press, 1997. There is also a lot about her in Ann M. Pescatello, Charles Seeger: A Life in American Music, University of Pittsburg Press, 1992.

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 25 - 12:27 AM

Pete & Toshi came to Australia in 1963, tho our earliest contact was in 1957 when the Club sent money for Pete's defence against the House Un-American Activities Committee. Latest known contact was in 1966 when he wrote to Janet Wakefield when the club sent him the newly published book of Stan's songs. There might have been later correspondence, but it hasn't survived - there are a lot of gaps in the early archives.

Pete Seeger & the Bush Music Club 1963

Subject: RE: Pete Seeger Biography Thread
From: Jack Horntip
Date: 04 May 25 - 04:39 PM

In 1945, Pete Seeger sent several mimeographed letters about songs and
singing in the military. Titled "Report from the Marianas: Notes of an
Innocent Bystander", these are available online here:

https://archive.org/details/1945reportfromthemarianas