Pete Seeger

[uwe]

I'm mortified how no one from you guys has started this thread yet, you should all be ashamed of yourselves, his political views might not be shared by everyone, but without him the concept of a singer/songwriter would not be the same today. And Dylan and Springsteen might have never picked up a guitar.



http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/28/showbiz/pete-seeger-death/



He can duet with Marlene now.

[the mojo hobo]

I'm mortified how no one from you guys has started this thread yet, you should all be ashamed of yourselves,

It is because we are all in mourning

[uwe]

Sigh, folk prophets in their own land and all that ... It's big news here in Germany. I was genuinely surprised nothing was up here already.

[Dave W]

I'm sure many of us saw it on the news. But I'm not surprised at the lack of a mention here before now. People start memorial threads about artists who were important to them. We're a small forum and Pete Seeger has been out of the spotlight for a couple of generations.

[Basvarken]

Agreed Dave.

It was on the news over here too.
No CD's of Pete Seeger in my collection though (nor Dylan, nor Springsteen)... 

[westen44]

Agreed Dave.

It was on the news over here too.
No CD's of Pete Seeger in my collection though (nor Dylan, nor Springsteen)...  

I've never been able to understand how Bruce Springsteen even got famous in the first place.  So boring.  

I was never a Pete Seeger fan, either, but he was far more relevant than Springsteen. 

[uwe]

I don't have a CD of him either, but enough of other artists who have played his songs!

Byrds, Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Marlene Dietrich, Peter, Paul & Mary, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - I'm a closet folkie!

So he's not even remembered for this here?  

[westen44]

I don't have a CD of him either, but enough of other artists who have played his songs!

Byrds, Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Marlene Dietrich, Peter, Paul & Mary, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - I'm a closet folkie!

So he's not even remembered for this here?  

The song's importance is mentioned several times in this article/interview.  Like how it became the anthem for the civil rights movement and later Bruce Springsteen used it to relate to a new generation. 


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/jan-june14/seeger_01-28.html

[gweimer]

I was never a big folk fan, but I do recognize his contributions.  I always knew this song was his before The Byrds made it famous.

[Highlander]

rip...

We all know the name, but how many of us now could name anything he was responsible for without looking him up...?

Even Obama had a few words for him...

[uwe]

I was born 1960 and would have credited at least This Land is your Land to him. And Where have all the Flowers gone. I didn't know about We Shall Overcome (thought it was an age-old spiritual) and to my eternal shame would have credited Turn, Turn, Turn to Robert Zimmermann. Or Bob Dylan.

I just had him and Woody Guthrie jotted down in my memory banks as the godfathers of American folk music that is not just C&W (nothing wrong with the latter). And if it wasn't for them and the people who followed them like Bob Dylan, Elliott Murphy and James Taylor, all  rock music lyrics would still deal with boy meets girl and tutti frutti, so, yes, I think Pete Seeger is a little relevant for what this forum is about too.

[Dave W]

This Land Is Your Land was a Woody Guthrie song. Nothing to do with Seeger.

He certainly didn't write We Shall Overcome, though he did have something to do with making it popular.

I always liked Turn Turn Turn but whoever wrote the lyrics, it wasn't Pete!

[gweimer]

I always liked Turn Turn Turn but whoever wrote the lyrics, it wasn't Pete!

Good one!   

[Denis]

I posted something on my FB page and a link to an article about him the day he died.
A couple of days later a friend posted on his that he was surprised to see so many RIPs offered in honor of Seeger and wondered why there were so many more for Pete than for Lou Reed.

At first I thought "yeah, typical punk doesn't like hippie folk music" but then I thought it could be simply that many people simply fail to see the influence of something they don't care much about.

[OldManC]

According to the other thread Uwe, you're expecting me to chime in. So think of whatever cartoony, over the top comment you'd expect me to say, double it, and you'll know what went through my mind when I heard the news.  As with almost anyone else though, RIP.