Pete S. was truly free to pursue the life he wanted to live. if he needed a few bucks he took out his banjo and someone would give him enough money to live on for awhile. He was surprised and pleased when some of his recordings got airplay and the Weavers and he started making some decent money, but the blacklisting didn't even phase him. he just wanted people to have a voice and the power that they deserved from their labors- nothing more complicated than that. luckily he had a great talent and a good heart and was able to live up to his convictions unlike so many of us who make good money but put up with incredible disrespect and lack of recognition. anyway, his music reflects an America and a life that looks at what really matters and leaves us (IMO) with a legacy of what togetherness and the music that evokes that feeling of humanity and world peace can give us the hope to bugger on.
Goodbye Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger died tonight at age 94. A music and political visionary. He used to come to sing and teach at my upstate New York summer camp. He influenced and touched more people in one day of his life than I've been able in sixty years of mine. Where have all the flowers gone? Farewell.