'Old folkie' Pete Seeger dies at 94; we celebrate his life

No one would ever have called Pete Seeger a violent man.

That's why the story of his reaction to Bob Dylan going from acoustic to electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is so interesting, although it turned out to be apocryphal. When Dylan started playing "Maggie's Farm" and then went on to "Like A Rolling Stone," many of the more traditionalist folk fans booed.

Seeger reportedly said, "If I had an axe, I'd chop the microphone cable right now."

He later admitted he had said something of the sort, although for an entirely different reason. He said that the amplifiers had been turned up so loud for the guitars that no one could hear the words, and the words needed to be heard.

Now that sounds like Seeger, who died Monday at age 94 as one of the greatest Americans of the last 100 years. From the 1930s up to the present decade, Seeger stood for every underdog, every cause that could benefit the common man. As folk singer Harry Chapin wrote in his tribute song, "Old Folkie:"

"He's singing us the songs that tell us who we are. When you look in his eyes, you know that somebody's in there."



"The world may be tired, but Pete's still going strong ..."

Which he did into his nineties. One of his last songs was "God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You," a response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. There's a certain sweetness to the song, which rather than being anti-anything (except oil spills and trickle-down economics), is more of a positive statement about getting involved.

He co-wrote the song with Lorre Wyatt, one of 14 collaborations that make up the album, "A More Perfect Union."

The version on this video was re-recorded in 2012, with Seeger (now 92), Wyatt, Bruce Springsteen and children's choir.

The line that jumps out of the song as classic Seeger:

"What we do now, you and me, will affect eternity ..."




A few months ago I was talking with my son-in-law -- who is about 30 years younger than I am -- about Woody Guthrie. He wasn't that familiar with Guthrie, and when I explained who he was and then said he was a great man, he suggested I might be exaggerating.

How could a singer be a great man?

How? Maybe by standing tall for the underdog for his entire life, whether it was attacking those stomped on the common man, or by standing up against Charles Lindbergh and the America First crowd.

Or two dozen other causes. His guitar had a famous slogan attached to it:

"This machine kills fascists."

Woody Guthrie never got rich, but he never wanted to be rich. It was the same with Seeger, whose own instrument -- a five-string banjo, was decorated in a slightly different way than Guthrie's.

"This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."

Seeger lived most his life in Beacon, N.Y., with Toshi, his wife of 60 years who died last year. They started in a trailer, but then built a cabin using instructions they got from library books.

He was the last of an amazing generation of folk singers, and he influenced people three and four generations behind him. He stood for everything that was good in our country, and unlike some other singers, there was never an issue where he had to come back later and say he was wrong.

He was blacklisted in the 1950s for his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Acitivities Committee and answer questions about friends and acquaintances. He even showed grace in the way he did that, saying these weren't the kind of questions Americans should be asking or answering.

Like Woody, he never got rich. But he will be remembered long after most of the rich people of his time are long forgotten. And songs of his -- "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn Turn Turn" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" -- will be remembered and sung long after more trivial fare has been forgotten.

A few years back, I bought the five-CD set released by the Smithsonian Institution of Seeger singing traditional American folk songs. I'm happy to have it, and I also have several CDs of him singing his own best songs.

To me there is no question of his greatness. He never stopped fighting for those who needed his help. As Harry Chapin wrote:

"Whenever somethin's burning, or a lesson needs some learning, or a tide that needs some turning to a better world somewhere, Yeah, the Old Folkie's there."

I was going to end this post with a video of Seeger singing "Where Have all the Flowers Gone," which many people consider his greatest song. But I stumbled across something better, Pete singing a wonderful song somebody else wrote.

Vaya con Dios, Pete.

You have earned your rest, although I'll bet if the angels are mistreating anyone, Pete will find a new banjo and start one more crusade.