Profile
Pete Seeger
Politician
Male
Born
May 3, 1919
Age
94
Hometown
Manhattan
Genres
Americana + Ameri...
Instruments
Banjo + Recorder ...
Performed With
The Almanac Singe...
Record Label
Folkways Records
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers… Read More
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Pete Seeger.
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Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob DylanRolling Stone - Jan 24, 2012 -
Pete Seeger Enters 9th Decade As An ActivistYahoo News - Oct 24, 2011 -
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Serenaded By Pete Seeger Los Angeles TimesGoogle News - Oct 22, 2011 -
Pete Seeger, Pals Attend Nyc ProtestUSA Today - Oct 22, 2011
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Pete Seeger.
CHILDHOOD
1919
Birth
Born on May 3, 1919.
TEENAGE
1932
13 Years Old
Charles and Constance Seeger divorced when Pete Seeger was seven, and in 1932 Charles married his composition student and assistant, Ruth Crawford Seeger, now considered by many one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century.
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At thirteen, Seeger enrolled in the Avon Old Farms prep school in Avon, Connecticut where he graduated in 1936.
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1938
19 Years Old
Seeger enrolled at Harvard College on a partial scholarship, but as he became increasingly involved with politics and folk music, his grades suffered and he lost his scholarship. He dropped out of college in 1938.
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TWENTIES
As a self-described "split tenor" (between an alto and a tenor), Pete Seeger was a founding member of two highly influential folk groups: The Almanac Singers and The Weavers. The Almanac Singers, which Seeger co-founded in 1941 with Millard Lampell and Arkansas singer and activist Lee Hays, was a topical group, designed to function as a singing newspaper promoting the industrial unionization movement, racial and religious inclusion, and other progressive causes.
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In 1943, Pete married Toshi-Aline Ōta, whom he credits with being the support that helped make the rest of his life possible.
1944
25 Years Old
Their first child, Peter Ōta Seeger, was born in 1944 and died at six months while Pete was deployed overseas.
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THIRTIES
1949
30 Years Old
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In his PBS biography, Seeger said he "drifted away" from the CPUSA beginning in 1949 but remained friends with some who did not leave it, though he argued with them about it.
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1950
31 Years Old
Alone among the many witnesses after the 1950 conviction and imprisonment of the Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress, Seeger refused to plead the Fifth Amendment (which asserted that his testimony might be self incriminating) and instead (as the Hollywood Ten had done) refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that this would violate his First Amendment rights: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs.
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1957
38 Years Old
Seeger's refusal to testify led to a March 26, 1957, indictment for contempt of Congress; for some years, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York.
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FORTIES
1960
41 Years Old
In 1960, the San Diego school board told him that he could not play a scheduled concert at a high school unless he signed an oath pledging that the concert would not be used to promote a communist agenda or an overthrow of the government.
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Seeger also was closely associated with the 1960s Civil Rights movement and in 1963 helped organize a landmark Carnegie Hall Concert, featuring the youthful Freedom Singers, as a benefit for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
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1965
46 Years Old
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Thirty-nine hour-long programs were recorded at WNJU's Newark studios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi, with Sholom Rubinstein.
1966
47 Years Old
A longstanding opponent of the arms race and of the Vietnam War, Seeger satirically attacked then-President Lyndon Johnson with his 1966 recording, on the album Dangerous Songs!?, of Len Chandler's children's song, "Beans in My Ears".
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FIFTIES
1976
57 Years Old
In November 1976 Seeger wrote and recorded the anti-death penalty song "Delbert Tibbs" about then death-row inmate Delbert Tibbs, who was later exonerated.
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LATE ADULTHOOD
2007
88 Years Old
On March 16, 2007, Pete Seeger, his sister Peggy, his brothers Mike and John, his wife Toshi, and other family members spoke and performed at a symposium and concert sponsored by the American Folklife Center in honor of the Seeger family, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where Pete Seeger had been employed by the Archive of American Folk Song 67 years earlier.
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2008
89 Years Old
In September 2008, Appleseed Recordings released At 89, Seeger's first studio album in 12 years.
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On January 18, 2009, Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen, grandson Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, and the crowd in singing the Woody Guthrie song "This Land Is Your Land" in the finale of Barack Obama's Inaugural concert in Washington, D.C. The performance was noteworthy for the inclusion of two verses not often included in the song, one about a "private property" sign the narrator cheerfully ignores, and the other making a passing reference to a Depression-era relief office.
2010
91 Years Old
In 2010, still active at the age of 91, Seeger co-wrote and performed the song God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You with Lorre Wyatt, commenting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The gunman was on trial for killing 77 people on July 22, 2011, insisting that his victims, who included 69 children, were traitors.
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He contributed a spoken version of Forever Young to the 2012 album Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International.
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.