The Music of Pete Seeger

Five and a half years ago I wrote about Pete Seeger, and after his death last month at the age of 94 I didn't know if there was anything to add. But I did buy a recording of his, since I really didn't have much of him on CD, and I can think of a few more things to say. I was heartened to see that many of his recordings were completely sold out on Amazon.

For this post I'll focus not so much on the man, but on his music. Of course the two are intertwined, as he used his music to fight for his causes, from unions to civil rights to the war to cleaning up the Hudson River. To start with, he must have known thousands of songs. He worked with the Lomaxes, chronicling the folk songs of America, and for many of them he made new arrangements that exist today, such as for "John Henry," "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore," and "Barbara Allen." The most famous of these is "We Shall Overcome," which he introduced to Martin Luther King Jr., and later became the anthem of the civil rights movement. Seeger's subtle touch was to change the world "will" to "shall."

Seeger, like a Johnny Appleseed of music, with his ever present banjo, also popularized the songs of his friend Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly (his song "Goodnight, Irene" was a smash hit in the '50s for Seeger's group The Weavers) and Phil Ochs.

But Seeger as a songwriter is not to be sniffed at. Some of them were reworked, such as "Guantanemara," a poem by Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti. It's almost impossible to listen to that song and not sing along. His other indelible hits are "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn, Turn, Turn" (with lyrics from Ecclesiastes, and made even more famous by The Byrds) and "If I Had a Hammer," another one that you can't help but singing to.

One of the few negative comments I saw in the wake of Seeger's passing was that his songs were so simple that sixth-graders could learn them. Well, duh, that makes a good folk song--the ability to learn in and pass it along, and make up new verses. Seeger, during his days on the blacklist, played at many schools, signing to very young children, and by doing so generated the folk revival. I know I sang "If I Had a Hammer" in school, along with "This Land Is Your Land," a Guthrie song that Seeger recorded. If only my school board knew that these songs were written by reds.

There are some great emotions stirred up by listening to Seeger. His song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," a parable about Vietnam, was the song he sang on his return to TV on The Smothers Brothers Show, and still has resonance. But the guy could really sing. "Wimoweh," an old African song, was transformed by Seeger into a hit (it would later be covered by The Tokens as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"). When Seeger, in his Tarzan-like tenor, lets loose, it's magic. When, during "We Shall Overcome," he hits the high note on the words "some day," I get chills and tears.

Seeger lived an extraordinarily good life. If we had more like him it would be a better world. But, as "Turn, Turn, Turn" states, "there is a time to be born, a time to die." We got Pete for 94 years, and he has inspired many others along the way.