Pete Seeger at 90
By
Peter Rothberg
Taken
from The Nation
In
January, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Pete Seeger was the
oldest person to perform as part of Barack Obama’s inauguration
festivities.
Singing
the "greatest song about America ever written" (Bruce
Springsteen’s words) before 500,000 people live and tens of millions
more on television, the then-89-year old legend crooned two
little-known verses of his friend Woody Guthrie’s 1940 patriotic
standard, “This Land is Your Land” — both about Depression-era
poverty — restoring the song to its former glory over the sanitized
version that ruled for too many years.
Over
the course of a remarkable lifetime, Seeger has been an ambassador
for peace, social justice and the best kind of patriotism. A uniquely
American mix of blueblood and bluegrass — a product of Harvard
University and the son of a violinist mother and musicologist father
— Seeger has lived the story of the American left in the 20th
century. The celebrations of his 90th birthday on Sunday offer a good
opportunity to showcase and celebrate the causes to which he’s
devoted his great life.
Defiantly
leftist, pacifist — and for a decade or so, Communist — Seeger has
embraced and supported virtually every major progressive advance of
the 20th century. He’s sung and spoken out for organized labor,
against McCarthyism, in support of racial justice, on behalf of
nuclear abolition and against the Vietnam War; his voice put early
wind into the sails of the environmental movement.
The
right to dissent in a democracy has been a cornerstone of Seeger’s
activism. In the fourth episode of the video series This
Brave Nation
Seeger talked about the infamous 1949 riot in Peekskill, NY, and the
impact it made on his political development and commitment to free
speech.
Seeger’s
songs have engaged people, particularly the youth, to question the
value of war, to ban nuclear weapons, to work for international
solidarity and against racism wherever it is practiced, and to assume
ecological responsibility.
A
particular hero to the civil rights movement on whose behalf he’s
worked so tirelessly, Seeger made his first trip south at the
invitation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1956, and returned in
’65, again at King’s personal invitation, to join the march from
Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Amid the tension and heat, Seeger went
from campfire to campfire when the marchers stopped for the night,
raising morale with rollicking sing-alongs of new freedom songs.
Seeger
also vigorously joined protests against the Vietnam war, playing
countless benefits and protests and recording “Waist Deep in the
Big Muddy”, the lyrics of which have renewed relevance today: "But
every time I read the papers/That old feeling comes on/We’re waist
deep in the Big Muddy/And the big fool says push on."
Sometime
soon after King’s assassination in 1968, Seeger began to focus his
energies locally around the town of Beacon, New York and the
notoriously polluted Hudson River. Gathering together friends and
colleagues, he picked up a literal hammer, this time to build the
sort of sailing ship that hadn’t been seen on the river in decades to
raise consciousness of environmental issues. They named it the
Clearwater. Seeger also established Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a
group which sponsors annual eco-festivals and acts as a bulwark
against polluters in the area. Today, people can swim in the Hudson
again.
Seeger
birthed a folk revival that remains strong and relevant, and the
music he championed is still sung on marches and picket lines coast
to coast. As he moves into his tenth decade, it’s worth celebrating
the music he has made — and the changes he has helped to bring
about.
