He was 94 years old, so we should be grateful that we had him with us for so long. He was a man whose presence was timeless and inspiring, and the truth is, we needed him. We need him still.
He was jailed, blacklisted, and was sentenced to 10 years for contempt of Congress. (That last one was overturned, but he was able to retain the bragging rights.)
During the communist witch-hunts of the early Fifties, however, the Weavers were blacklisted, resulting in canceled concert dates and the loss of their recording contract with Decca Records. Under congressional subpoena to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Seeger asserted his First Amendment rights, scolding the committee, “I am not going to answer any questions as to my associations, my philosophical or my religious beliefs, or how I voted in any election or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked.” - See more at: http://rockhall.com/inductees/pete-seeger/bio/#sthash.Tltp8l5j.dpuf
In 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He was famously uncooperative, citing the First Amendment (freedom of speech and association) instead of the Fifth (freedom from self-incrimination) when he refused to answer, because he believed there was nothing "incriminating" about knowing communists or being one. Clubs and TV shows canceled the Weavers' bookings, their recording company voided their contract, and their records vanished from stores and radio airplay. Seeger was indicted for contempt of Congress, and sentenced to ten concurrent one-year terms in prison (a sentence he didn't serve, as it was overturned on appeal). Seeger and his band were blacklisted, and for years worked only in tiny clubs willing to take the risk of hiring them.
Pete never failed to let us know he was one of us. His concerts became one big sing-along, where everyone joined in and became his back-up singers. (That could be because Pete himself said as a singer he made a pretty good song-writer, but his audiences loved it.)
We knew the words to his songs by heart and understood where the words came from. He cared about the least of us. He was a union man. He was a man of peace who would not submit.
Solidarity forever, Mr. Seeger. It was a privilege to be on this planet with you. You will live on. We'll make sure of that.
Comments
Well, Ole Pete finally crossed that river; but my guess is that he did not find himself in shackles.
ha
by Richard Day on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 12:08pm
He's with friends and they're singing. Don't you just know it?
by Ramona on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 8:27pm
Martin Peretz called Seeger "the banjo Bolshevik". Peretz is a dink.
by Aaron Carine on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 7:05pm
Actually, it was Hendrik Hertzberg who first called him that. (I had to look it up and found this article. Interesting how some "liberals" saw him.)
by Ramona on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 8:25pm
Somewhat off-topic, but Hertzberg wrote a piece on Vietnam which was supposed to
be antiwar, but would have exasperated many veterans of the antiwar movement. He said that the means were evil, but the ends were fine.
by Aaron Carine on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 8:49pm
Since he has changed his mind about his feelings about Seeger's commie background, it's possible he's changed his mind about his feelings about the Vietnam war. I've been reading Hertzberg for years now and generally find whatever he has to say pretty compelling. I don't remember his piece about the war so I can't say, but it seems to me he works hard to keep it honest. I like that about him, even when I don't totally agree.
by Ramona on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 9:03pm
He was just terrific.
by Doctor Cleveland on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 7:37pm
Wasn't he just that, though?
by Ramona on Tue, 01/28/2014 - 8:26pm
The first record I ever bought was "The Weavers At Home". The last record I bought, just a few days before his death, was "The Weavers Greatest Hits".
Seeger was a pillar of strength, a lighthouse.
My politics changed over the years; his never did. You always knew where Seeger stood: wherever the Russians did.
When Israel was seen as a plucky little socialist state driving out the capitalist British and the British-trained Arab Legion, he supported it, and included Israeli songs in all his concerts and albums; the Weavers even had a top-ten Hit Parade hit with "Tzena Tzena" in the late '40s.
When Israel began defeating Soviet-armed-and-trained Arab armies, resulting in billions of lost arms sales and the loss of Arab allegiance, Russia turned on Israel, with Seeger and the Left following accordingly.
He sang songs of protest and rebellion (provided they were not protesting against the Soviet Union.) I don't recall ever hearing him sing songs of the Hungarian Uprising or the Prague Spring or Solidarity.
He was not above changing a word or a line in someone else's song, ensuring his share of royalties, but that was standard among folk and blues recording artists in the '20s and '30s.
Pete Seeger shone with sincerity, and stood tall for the truth as he saw it, often paying a heavy personal price. Taking the bad with the good, there was a lot more good. Seeger enriched our lives, filling the world with inspiring music and great songs.
May his memory be a blessing.
by Lurker on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 5:09am
Hmmm, that was some "tribute". On the contrary, he did change his mind about communism--at least Soviet-style communism. He never changed his mind about labor issues. He stood behind workers every time.
Did he sing about worker uprisings in other countries? If not, shame on him! Were they singing protest songs in the Prague about our labor struggles? I doubt it.
You never heard him sing songs about solidarity? Then you never heard him sing "Solidarity Forever" or "Which Side Are You On". Your loss.
by Ramona on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 8:07am
Amen to that sister.
by Bruce Levine on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 8:38am
"Were they singing protest songs in the Prague about our labor struggles? I doubt it." - that's a bit snippy, don't you think? For a people who couldn't even get news about our labor struggles, and were making about $20/month at the time, living under a grey repressive government for the previous 20 years & then inheriting the Soviet tanks as they thought they were opening up?
Re: Seeger, he apparently did come out for Solidarity - good for him.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 9:53am
Thank you for this link. I'm glad to read that he supported Solidarity. It means he was even greater than I had thought.
by Lurker on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 10:02am
Snippy? Sure. What was the point of that comment? Does anyone really think Pete Seeger didn't care about the labor struggles in those communist countries? Of course he did. We ALL did. Anyone who follows labor struggles cares deeply about every laborer having to try to live under those conditions. Watching what was happening in those countries without being able to do anything about it was pure agony--even for a former communist.
Oppression is oppression wherever it rears its ugly head. Thanks for sharing that article. Yes. Good for him.
by Ramona on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 10:59am
I think Lurker's concern was yes, Seeger didn't care about labor or freedom struggles against Communist governments (such as when supporting Stalin & opposing US involvement in Hitler & Stalin dividing up East Europe, including splitting Poland and Hitler taking Czechoslovakia, & then Hitler taking the rest of Europe - only opposing things when Hitler attacked Russia - even withdrawing an anti-Roosevelt album he was so mad).
And hey, Seeger still supported Stalin in Czechoslovakia 1947-48 when Stalin put Gottwald & the Communists in power by coup (chucking the founder of the country's son out the window in his pajamas in a notable defenestration).
So yeah, those 1968 Praguers probably hadn't heard of our labor issues because they were too busy dealing with the likes of Stalin's Beria and later Brezhnev's tanks, and the only thing they could get from the west were Radio Free Eruope broadcasts.
Fortunately it seems to be the low point of Seeger's politics, and Lurker's concern seems disproved, that Seeger did come around by the mid-50's as the Russians were rolling through Budapest (and he was trying to avoid discussing his pro-Stalin attitudes in Congress - the right of which I support, even though he was on the wrong side of history re: Stalin) - and was on the right side early with Solidarnosc (PL sp)
The link above is pyjamas media, but hard to ignore a point that:
Indeed - the passing of people is time to reconcile the good & bad of their lives.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 11:38am
Really? I don't know, just me I suppose, but whenever I see this kind of ragging on about the newly deceased, especially in a post praising that person, I equate it to rushing into a funeral to shout out all the bad things the dead one did. For what purpose?
There is a time for everything, including a look back at the complex life of one admittedly unsaintly Pete Seeger. It just seems odd to me that we aren't allowed to mourn or celebrate a person's life without some downer always feeling the need to remind us that the person we're admiring at the moment wasn't really all that worthy.
It must give them some kind of perverse pleasure, but honestly, I can't imagine why.
by Ramona on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 2:32pm
Well, some people like their photos all Photoshopped with unlikely postures and slimmed down paunches - I kinda like photos that look like the subject.
When Reagan died, there was no saying bad about him - we ended up with the venerable St. Ronnie with the false promise of his tax cuts now enshrined as an 11th commandment.
With Mandela, we supposedly can't take noticing that his career was based on some flirting with violence - not even to give him credit that he embraced it much less than his contemporary counterparts, and this mostly peaceful attitude made his exit from prison to the presidency much simpler. At the same time, if we don't see the violence, we might think that non-violence works well against thugs like the Afrikaans government up through much of the 80's - that's a bad wrong lesson to learn for the next wronged group going up against brutal criminals that have no problem disappearing or torturing a few thousand protesters.
With Seeger, he's a poster-child for the naïve left that fell for the Soviet Union as paradise - and part of why the right had such an easy time destroying the left as a bunch of fellow travellers and dangerous romantics. Sorry, being a propagandist for Stalin is more than just a tiny mistake, whatever you think of Seeger's songs. The man wiped out millions, but hey, we can sing about "organize organize" and feel good? Yes, I like my artists & musicians with romantic flaws, but I keep those flaws in the picture. Lennon was a true jackass for embracing & preaching Chairman Mao unquestionably, even as Mao pulled his 2nd round of atrocities in the Cultural Revolution. Yeah, Lennon looked great in a Mao jacket, but sometimes fashion statements are a bit too painful.
Anyway, Seeger did some great stuff, both in terms of union advocacy and simply his music and carrying the flame for folk music for decades. So carry on, I just brought up a footnote that I thought needed expressing (and your snippy comment about Prague not sympathizing with us kinda set that off - not enough Seeger sympathy for those Slavs to the east).
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 2:55pm
The photoshopped idea is a lame and lazy comparison. Giving someone a respectful mourning period is not the same as putting them up on a permanent pedestal or pretending not to notice their faults.
You're not getting it about the timing, are you? I hated it when we had to hear about Mandela's feet of clay within hours of his death. As much as I despised Reagan, I didn't feel the need to go on the attack to people who were mourning his death. That doesn't mean I could never talk against him ever again. Showing respect for the dead is a virtue, not a weakness.
But if you keep feeling the need to dig deeper into Seeger's transgressions here on the page where I posted a tribute, well, you know--free speech and all. Dig away.
by Ramona on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 3:14pm
Think I already said it. "Lame & lazy", eh? chuckle.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 3:19pm
I'm done.
by Ramona on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 4:46pm
It's bad that Communists supported Stalin, but even the Communist left may have been better than the right. Western Communists tended to be on the right side of things as far as their own countries were concerned--for the working class, for gender equality, against racism, against colonialism. Give them credit for that, even though they also supported one of the worst tyrannies ever.
by Aaron Carine on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 3:59pm
By "Solidarity", as I think you know, I meant the Polish liberation movement of that name. Seeger sang many songs of uprisings in other countries. I can remember his songs of the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, the uprisings in Chile, the ANC in South Africa,,,,
by Lurker on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 9:56am
Lurker,
I'm not one to shy away from controversy on matters concerning the sudden abandonment of the State of Israel by the Soviet Union and its satellites, as well as by France which had been Israel's largest arms supplier until 1967. Most people don't even know that the Soviet Union was committed to absorbing Israel into its bloc and that Czechoslovakia was Israel's largest supplier of arms when the country was born in the later 1940s.
Still, I think it's unfair to tar Seeger with the claim that he abandoned Israel only at the direction of the Soviets. I think it had more to do with the ongoing occupation of the West Bank that ultimately caused Seeger in the end to endorse the boycott by various musical artists against the Jewish State.
Did that sting? Yes, but not so bad, and why not? Because in my world, and maybe yours too, one often runs into allies and friends who are committed to social justice and who cannot even say the word "Israel" with a hint of understanding. We do with what we are given and we takes things as we finds them, no?
As to Seeger, I wouldn't put him in that category. I .don't believe he ever wanted to cast Israel off as a pariah state; I think he just felt that this was his way of promoting peaceful change. But I don't think he dabbled in the stinky stuff. And I bet you he would still express his love for the Israeli people by singing Tzena, Tzena -- such a beautiful song.
For you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5v651bQ1o
by Bruce Levine on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 10:02am
Thank you.
by Lurker on Wed, 01/29/2014 - 5:34pm
Death is a reflection and when somebody like Pete Seeger dies, every facet gets examined. Whether it be too soon, not enough, good, bad, what have you, really isn't the proper focus.
I can only dream that when I die, there is somebody left to say something warm about me like Arlo said about Pete.
After something like that, all the "was he - wasn't he, did he - didn't he" stuff all sounds kinda ...stupid. Unless one was in Pete Seeger's back pocket his whole life, one's opinion of the man's actions and deeds don't mean a whole lot. Everyone can have their opinion, of course, and that is mine.
by wabby on Thu, 01/30/2014 - 6:43am
Lovely. Thanks, Flower.
"Well, of course he passed away, but that doesn't mean he's gone."
by Ramona on Thu, 01/30/2014 - 6:47am
by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/02/2014 - 6:48am