{"id":89148,"date":"2014-02-05T08:49:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T13:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=89148"},"modified":"2014-02-11T11:55:42","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T16:55:42","slug":"the-immortal-pete-seeger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/02\/the-immortal-pete-seeger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Immortal Pete Seeger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeremy<\/a>
Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of CLAS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeremy Teitelbaum<\/i><\/a>, dean of the <\/em>College of Liberal Arts and Sciences<\/i><\/a>, is a guest contributor to UConn Today. Read his <\/em>previous posts<\/i><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I heard Pete Seeger live about 25 years ago in Ann Arbor at a benefit concert. His voice had already gotten quavery, so he didn\u2019t sing much. Instead, he taught the audience the songs so we could do the singing while he played along on the banjo and the guitar. I think he liked it that way; I\u2019ve listened to his \u201cWe Shall Overcome<\/a>\u201d album, recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1963, hundreds of times, and those people lucky enough to be at that concert did a lot of singing, too. Seeger had a gift for overcoming people\u2019s reticence and getting them to sing, joyfully, loudly, in harmony, and in a crowd of strangers. What better way to bring people together?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The CD cover for one volume in a set of recordings of Pete Seeger performing selections from America’s folk song heritage. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was growing up in Denver, my father used to listen to \u201cDown to Earth,\u201d a folk music program on the classical station KVOD, every weekend. The songs on Tom Paxton<\/a>\u2019s \u201cRamblin\u2019 Boy<\/a>\u201d and Judy Collins<\/a>\u2019s \u201cFifth Album<\/a>\u201d still run through my head. We had a whole library of Smithsonian Folkways<\/a> albums of Seeger singing ballads, kids\u2019 songs, and protest songs. And I think I heard the music of The Weavers<\/a> \u2013 \u201cThe Rock Island Line,\u201d \u201cGoodnight Irene,\u201d and their medley of Hebrew folk songs<\/a>, all with Seeger\u2019s banjo and his tenor voice \u2013 basically from birth. The orange \u201cWeavers’ Songbook\u201d was always prominent in our family room.<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/a>
Pete Seeger performs at a 1965 peace rally in New York City. (Photo by Diana Davies\/Smithsonian Folkways)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, when I became aware of Seeger and his music in the \u201960s, he\u2019d already had a long and complicated career. He was, for a time, a member of the Communist Party. He and his group The Almanac Singers<\/a> were tangled up in the politics surrounding the relationship between the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the United States in the early days of World War II. Ultimately, Seeger and The Almanac Singers got behind the war effort and Seeger served in the Army in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

After the war, Seeger became a target of McCarthy\u2019s anti-communist committee. The Weavers were blacklisted, and their promising career as a \u201cmainstream\u201d music group \u2013 they had a number-one hit with \u201cGoodnight, Irene<\/a>\u201d \u2013 was cut short. Seeger was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. While many people named names, and many others took the Fifth Amendment, Seeger cited the First Amendment and simply refused to answer questions. He said:<\/p>\n

I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political 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, especially under such compulsion as this.<\/i><\/p>\n

Questioned about where he had performed subversive songs like \u201cIf I Had a Hammer<\/a>\u201d and \u201cWasn\u2019t That a Time,\u201d he refused to identify the locations \u2013 but he did offer to sing to the committee<\/a>. They weren\u2019t interested. He was ultimately convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to jail, though the conviction was overturned on appeal, and his political activity continued through the Vietnam era.<\/p>\n

\"CD<\/a>
The CD cover for a collection of 24 tracks selected from hundreds released on Folkways Records in the late 1950s and 1960s. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earnest political convictions, explicitly stated, often aren\u2019t the best thing for good songs. Tom Lehrer\u2019s song \u201cThe Folk Song Army<\/a>\u201d parodies the idea that you can make social change through song. Every time I sing \u201cIf I Had a Hammer,\u201d a little voice inside my head quotes the line \u201cReady, Aim, Sing\u201d from Lehrer\u2019s song. The greatest songwriters of the Folk Revival, Bob Dylan in particular, moved away from the protest genre. Those who didn\u2019t, like Phil Ochs, produced some great songs, but only a few of them can transcend their time and place.<\/p>\n

Pete Seeger, though, will live on forever in American culture. The renaissance of the banjo as an instrument in American popular music rests not only on the great Earl Scruggs, but on Seeger\u2019s book \u201cHow To Play The 5-String Banjo<\/a>\u201d and on his distinctive banjo technique heard on so many recordings. \u201cWaist Deep in the Big Muddy\u201d may be tied to Vietnam, but it tells a timeless and tragic story. And people will still be singing \u201cIf I Had a Hammer\u201d when only musicologists know the names of Pete Seeger and Lee Hays.<\/p>\n

In his autobiography<\/a>, Dave Van Ronk talks about the contempt that he and his fellow musicians of the early folk revival period in Greenwich Village held for the earlier generation of \u201cfolk music\u201d groups. He is pretty tough on the Kingston Trio<\/a> for taking authentic music and packaging it for the mass market. As for Seeger \u2013 well, van Ronk admits that Seeger was different. He was the real deal, both musically and politically.<\/p>\n

For me, Pete Seeger is a hero. His testimony before the McCarthy\u2019s committee was a great moment in American history. His recordings brighten my day. And best of all is singing the songs that he wrote, or that I learned from him. Farewell, Pete \u2013 your memory will be a blessing for us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The folk singer and activist died last week but his memory will live on forever, says CLAS dean Jeremy Teitelbaum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":89157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[66],"class_list":["post-89148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 17:38:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89148"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89185,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89148\/revisions\/89185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/89157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89148"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=89148"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}