Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger
Happy Birthday to Pete Seeger, the legendary folk singer, union activist, environmental champion and jolly hell-raiser who turns 90 years old today.
If you get a chance, take a few minutes and hum or sing a few lines from “This Land Is Your Land,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “If I had a Hammer,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” or any other Seeger tune and give a birthday wish to a man who has walked the walk, talked the talk and sung the songs for 90 years.
Seeger has been closely connected to the progressive movement from the 1930s through today. He was there during the 1940s and 1950s “red scare,” with black lists and Joe McCarthy, the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, the environmental movement and today’s continuing struggle for justice.
Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac calls Seeger one of the most significant artist-activists in 20th-century American music.
This week, Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, told the Newark Star Ledger: There is no person who has more influenced the world of folk music than Pete Seeger. He has forged a path that has connected social activism for greater equity, fairness, and human rights that has become deeply imbedded in the heart and history of our country. With complete humility and respect for the grassroots folks, his is a legacy of the true spirit of what America is in its finest hour.
Last week, Seeger, his grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger and members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Brett Anderson of the Times-Picayune wrote: There was no denying the power of the legend’s presence. “Turn! Turn! Turn (to Everything There is a Season)” had the Fair Grounds feeling a lot like Woodstock, and the group’s version of “I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister” provided a sound perfectly suited to these economic times: Thousands of people singing “Give me back my job again” in unison, over and over.
“That one goes out to Wall Street,” Rodriguez Seeger said when it was over.
Today, Seeger is being honored at a special concert in Madison Square Garden—Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson and some 40 artists will perform, with the proceeds going to Clearwater, the environmental foundation Seeger founded in 1966 to clean up the Hudson River.
If you get a chance, take a few minutes and hum or sing a few lines from “This Land Is Your Land,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “If I had a Hammer,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” or any other Seeger tune and give a birthday wish to a man who has walked the walk, talked the talk and sung the songs for 90 years.
Seeger has been closely connected to the progressive movement from the 1930s through today. He was there during the 1940s and 1950s “red scare,” with black lists and Joe McCarthy, the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, the environmental movement and today’s continuing struggle for justice.
Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac calls Seeger one of the most significant artist-activists in 20th-century American music.
This week, Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, told the Newark Star Ledger: There is no person who has more influenced the world of folk music than Pete Seeger. He has forged a path that has connected social activism for greater equity, fairness, and human rights that has become deeply imbedded in the heart and history of our country. With complete humility and respect for the grassroots folks, his is a legacy of the true spirit of what America is in its finest hour.
Last week, Seeger, his grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger and members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Brett Anderson of the Times-Picayune wrote: There was no denying the power of the legend’s presence. “Turn! Turn! Turn (to Everything There is a Season)” had the Fair Grounds feeling a lot like Woodstock, and the group’s version of “I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister” provided a sound perfectly suited to these economic times: Thousands of people singing “Give me back my job again” in unison, over and over.
“That one goes out to Wall Street,” Rodriguez Seeger said when it was over.
Today, Seeger is being honored at a special concert in Madison Square Garden—Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson and some 40 artists will perform, with the proceeds going to Clearwater, the environmental foundation Seeger founded in 1966 to clean up the Hudson River.
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