While continuing to perform benefits for all the usual causes, his focus as an activist gradually shifted to environmentalism, and in his latter decades he worked to draw attention to water pollution. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Seeger became even more involved in activism, but within a few years he seemed to grow weary of the hopelessness of it all. Seeger's "We Shall Overcome" became an anthem of the civil rights movement, and is still heard wherever people march for social justice. The Smothers Brothers show was soon canceled despite high ratings, and replaced with Hee Haw. After a minor uproar, Seeger returned for another performance of the song, which was aired. He was booked to appear on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967, and performed his anti-Vietnam war song "Waist Deep In the Big Muddy", but when the show aired, Seeger's performance was nowhere to be seen. Seeger's biggest hit was a recording of "Little Boxes" in 1964, and he performed in larger venues through the 1960s. Seeger and his band were blacklisted, and for years worked only in tiny clubs willing to take the risk of hiring them. Seeger was indicted for contempt of Congress, and sentenced to ten concurrent one-year terms in prison (a sentence he didn't serve, as it was overturned on appeal). Clubs and TV shows canceled the Weavers' bookings, their recording company voided their contract, and their records vanished from stores and radio airplay. He was famously uncooperative, citing the First Amendment (freedom of speech and association) instead of the Fifth (freedom from self-incrimination) when he refused to answer, because he believed there was nothing "incriminating" about knowing communists or being one. In 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. (See below for more about the "Wimoweh" controversy). They also hit the charts with "Wimoweh", better known now as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". They had minor hits with recordings of a Jewish folksong "Tzena Tzena Tzena", and Huddie Ledbetter (aka Leadbelly)'s "Goodnight Irene". In 1947, Seeger formed a new band called the Weavers, with Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman. After his discharge as a corporal, Seeger co-founded Sing Out! Magazine, still considered the bible of folk music. He spent his tour of duty singing folk songs for soldiers on the front, often playing songs that included anti-war sentiments. The Almanac Singers recorded songs about politically touchy topics like workers' rights, social justice, and peace as preferable to war, but the group faded away when Seeger was drafted in 1942. Guthrie became famous for the slogan scripted on his guitar - this machine kills fascists - but Seeger was always a pacifist, and on his banjo was written, "this machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender". They performed for the denizens of shantytowns, earning little or no money singing anti-authoritarian folk songs. Finding that they shared similar musical and philosophical tastes, they formed a folk group called the Almanac Singers. Seeger met Woody Guthrie in 1940, when they both performed at a "Grapes of Wrath" benefit for migrant farm workers. He went to work at the Archives of American Folk Music at the Library of Congress, cataloging old recordings and interviewing old performers. He went to Harvard University, expecting to become a reporter, but dropped out after two years. In his teens, young Seeger discovered folk music, and began playing banjo, ukulele, and guitar. Both his parents were later on the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music, but they taught classical music, which never interested their son. Pete Seeger's father had taught music at Berkeley, but quit during World War I when the family's pacifism made him extremely unpopular.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |