. . . flower. . .
(from F.A.M.E. [Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise] January 2013 Newsletter by Tom Kohlhepp)
". . Pete Seeger... Man! Where do I start? No I'm serious, where do I start? Pete will be 94 in May and his career has seen 13 U.S. presidents come and go (think about that for a minute), and he's still going strong. I'll get some of the basic information out of the way first, and then get into some of the lesser known interesting facts that I’d like to share.
Pete was born May 3, 1919 in Patterson NY. He grew up in a household filled with both music and political activism. Both his parents served on the faculty at Julliard. His mother was a violinist and his father was a musicologist and conductor who was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a conscientious objector during WWI. At the age of 17 Pete heard the 5 string banjo for the first time at a Folk song festival in North Carolina and his life was changed forever. He enrolled at Harvard University (his father’s Alma mater) and after two miserable years, he left in the spring
of 1938. He had Folk music in his blood by then and it was pounding away in head.
On March 3, 1940, a date that folklorist Alan Lomax once said could be celebrated as the beginning of modern Folk music, Pete Seeger met Woody Guthrie at a “Grapes of Wrath” migrant worker benefit concert. The duo formed “The Almanac Singers” who recorded many labor union songs among others. In 1942, Pete was drafted into the army and spent most of his time performing for the troops in the South Pacific. He married in 1943. It's said that behind every great man there's a great woman, and Toshi is that woman. They have been married now for nearly 70 years. In an interview once, she joked that she wished that Pete chased women instead of causes so she could leave him.
In 1948 Seeger helped form “The Weavers” made up of Fred Hellerman, Lee Hays, and Ronnie Gilbert. I remember the first time I saw the Weavers sing. Ronnie Gilbert would throw her head back and just belt out the song like there was an old deaf lady in the back row that she was singing too. God, she was great! In 1958 the Weavers and Pete Seeger parted ways and he started out on his solo career.
Pete was never in music for the money, but for the ability to make a statement and change people’s hearts and minds. The inscription on his banjo reads “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” Most people don't know that the reason he left the Weavers was because the other members agreed to do a cigarette commercial and Pete was against smoking. He stands for his principles. Granted, you might not agree with them, but you have to tip your hat to the man for his passion. His adherence to the sanctity of folk music came to a boiling point in 1965 when he literally tried to run over and pull the plug on a very electrified set of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.
One of Pete’s most famous songs is “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.” There's a great story about it that I'd like to share with you. He was at home reading a book called “All Quiet Flows the Don.” It's about the Don River in Russia and the Cossacks who lived along it in the 19th century. The Cossacks would gallop off to join the Czar's army, singing as they went. There were three lines from the book he liked so much he scribbled them down. “Where are the flowers? The girls plucked them. / Where are the girls? They're all married. / Where are the men? They’re all in the army.” Later, on an airplane flight, he was dozing and thought of the line “long time passing” that he had written for future use and scribbled down in his note book. He thought it would sing well with it. Then he said to himself, “When will they ever learn?” and shook his head. All of a sudden the light bulb went off and in 20 minutes he had the song. He had three verses taped to the microphone and sang it at Oberlin College in 1955. I said he had three verses. Where did the other ones we know come from? Ahh, read on Grasshopper...
One of the students in the audience at Oberlin had a summer job as a camp counselor. He took the song to the camp and sang it to the kids. It was very short and he gave it rhythm, which Pete didn't do. The kids played around with it and the counselor added two actual verses: “Where have all the soldiers gone? / Gone to grave yards everyone. / Where have all the grave yards gone? / Covered with flowers everyone.” The counselor’s name is Joe Hickerson and to this day Pete Seeger gives him 20% of the royalties from the song. How cool is that!. . ."
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Pete was born May 3, 1919 in Patterson NY. He grew up in a household filled with both music and political activism. Both his parents served on the faculty at Julliard. His mother was a violinist and his father was a musicologist and conductor who was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a conscientious objector during WWI. At the age of 17 Pete heard the 5 string banjo for the first time at a Folk song festival in North Carolina and his life was changed forever. He enrolled at Harvard University (his father’s Alma mater) and after two miserable years, he left in the spring
of 1938. He had Folk music in his blood by then and it was pounding away in head.
On March 3, 1940, a date that folklorist Alan Lomax once said could be celebrated as the beginning of modern Folk music, Pete Seeger met Woody Guthrie at a “Grapes of Wrath” migrant worker benefit concert. The duo formed “The Almanac Singers” who recorded many labor union songs among others. In 1942, Pete was drafted into the army and spent most of his time performing for the troops in the South Pacific. He married in 1943. It's said that behind every great man there's a great woman, and Toshi is that woman. They have been married now for nearly 70 years. In an interview once, she joked that she wished that Pete chased women instead of causes so she could leave him.
In 1948 Seeger helped form “The Weavers” made up of Fred Hellerman, Lee Hays, and Ronnie Gilbert. I remember the first time I saw the Weavers sing. Ronnie Gilbert would throw her head back and just belt out the song like there was an old deaf lady in the back row that she was singing too. God, she was great! In 1958 the Weavers and Pete Seeger parted ways and he started out on his solo career.
Pete was never in music for the money, but for the ability to make a statement and change people’s hearts and minds. The inscription on his banjo reads “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” Most people don't know that the reason he left the Weavers was because the other members agreed to do a cigarette commercial and Pete was against smoking. He stands for his principles. Granted, you might not agree with them, but you have to tip your hat to the man for his passion. His adherence to the sanctity of folk music came to a boiling point in 1965 when he literally tried to run over and pull the plug on a very electrified set of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.
One of Pete’s most famous songs is “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.” There's a great story about it that I'd like to share with you. He was at home reading a book called “All Quiet Flows the Don.” It's about the Don River in Russia and the Cossacks who lived along it in the 19th century. The Cossacks would gallop off to join the Czar's army, singing as they went. There were three lines from the book he liked so much he scribbled them down. “Where are the flowers? The girls plucked them. / Where are the girls? They're all married. / Where are the men? They’re all in the army.” Later, on an airplane flight, he was dozing and thought of the line “long time passing” that he had written for future use and scribbled down in his note book. He thought it would sing well with it. Then he said to himself, “When will they ever learn?” and shook his head. All of a sudden the light bulb went off and in 20 minutes he had the song. He had three verses taped to the microphone and sang it at Oberlin College in 1955. I said he had three verses. Where did the other ones we know come from? Ahh, read on Grasshopper...
One of the students in the audience at Oberlin had a summer job as a camp counselor. He took the song to the camp and sang it to the kids. It was very short and he gave it rhythm, which Pete didn't do. The kids played around with it and the counselor added two actual verses: “Where have all the soldiers gone? / Gone to grave yards everyone. / Where have all the grave yards gone? / Covered with flowers everyone.” The counselor’s name is Joe Hickerson and to this day Pete Seeger gives him 20% of the royalties from the song. How cool is that!. . ."
What do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
You can NOW download your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE
http://www.rayjozwiak.com
Tweet
