-- Pete Seeger
Trailer for the 2007 documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
"I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known. I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American. I will tell you about my songs, but I am not interested in telling you who wrote them, and I will tell you about my songs, and I am not interested in who listened to them. . . ."
[Many questions later, in response to: "There are various peace groups in the country which have utilized your services, are there not?"]
"I have sung for pacifists and I have sung for soldiers."
-- Pete Seeger, testifying before a subcommittee of the House
Committee on Un-American Activities in NYC, Aug. 18, 1955
Committee on Un-American Activities in NYC, Aug. 18, 1955
by Ken
Is it possible to cram more into a life than Pete Seeger did in his 94 years? Or to brighten more lives than he did, insisting -- so harmoniously -- on an image of a world that respects and nurtures humanity and decency? It's a life and legacy so enormous that, just as I know I can't begin to take its measure here, I know it's all just as much a part of us as it was while he was among us.
Whether he was singing his own songs, like"If I Had a Hammer" (with Lee Hays), "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with Joe Hickerson), "Turn! Turn! Turn!," or other people's, like "We Shall Overcome" or so many others, with the legendary folk group the Weavers or on his own, or his songs were being sung by singers all over the world his music-making is part of the tapestry of half a century or more of American life, and American activism, since he remained steadfast in his vision of a more just and humane country and world.
The interrogator in the above-excerpted House subcommittee inquisition was a worm named Frank S. Tavenner Jr., HUAC's chief counsel, doing his darnedest to slime Pete as an anti-American tool of godless communism. It's one of those things that make you hope there's a Hell, because if so, that's where this miserable excuse for a human being is rotting for eternity rather than merely in the ground. (Tavenner died in 1964, and is buried in -- of all places -- Woodstock.) Howie passed along the link for the transcript of Pete's committee testimony, and I was deeply moved by his unfailing courteousness along with his steadfast refusal to be drawn into the squalid game of "naming names" to save his own hide.
And amid his testimony, when Tavenner tried to embarrass Pete with his association with (gasp!) pacifists, my eye lit on that line: "I have sung for pacifists and I have sung for soldiers." Isn't it amazing how much he packed into that simple sentence?
You have to remember that in the HUAC mentality, and the J. Edgar Hoover mentality, being against war was a crime against Americanism. I'm not sure it's all that different in the age of Rush Limbaugh and Fox Noise. And in the McCarthyite Red Scare of the '50s, views like these bumped up constantly against the vigilance of American mainstream fascism. At that 1955 hearing Pete stuck to his refusal to name names, and was subsequently indicted for contempt of Congress, which stands now as a mark of distinction. (Years later he was finally tried and convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the indictment was thrown out on appeal.)
You can read about Pete, well, pretty much everywhere today. An obvious place to start is Jon Pareles' New York Times obit, but all over the Web you'll find remembrances. A group close to my heart, the Working Harbor Committee, which covers the New York-New Jersey harbor, remembered Pete this morning with a post called "Fair Winds and Following Seas," honoring "the legendary singer and activist who founded the Hudson River Clearwater Organization and spent his life championing environmental awareness of pollution in the Hudson River" (links onsite), with this clip:
And of course you can find lots of other clips on YouTube.
Like I said, Pete's spirit and presence are all around us, and aren't likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. Thanks, Pete.
"At age 94, I don't have much voice left," Pete says after being introduced by John Mellencamp to sing "If I Had a Hammer" at the Farm Aid concert in Saratoga Springs, NY, on Sept. 21, 2013.
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