All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] Pete Seeger. The Power of Song (2007) by PBS American Masters (full versi

[Music]

We

Are

Climbing

Jacob lad I don't hear you we

are

clim Pete Seager he had this amazing

ability to to look at a group of people

and to make him all sing uh parts of the

song and and he you know make a uh

orchestration out of a simple little

song with everybody in the audience

singing whether you want to do or not

you find yourself singing aart it be

[Music]

beautiful he's a Living testament to the

First Amendment and you know you can't

just say you have rights you have to use

them to prove that you have them

[Music]

he stood for justice he had powerful

enemies who wanted that voice of Justice

to go away but he stayed and kept

singing

[Music]

Pete was one of those guys that saw

himself as a citizen Artist as activist

he had a very full idea about those

things how it connected to music and

what music could do the power that music

had to influence to inspire and that's

the power of Folk Music and that was the

power of Pete

[Music]

Seager why

we are

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

to everything turn turn turn there is a

season turn turn turn and a time for

every purpose under heaven

a time to be born a time to die a time

to plant a time to reap A Time to Kill a

time to heal a Time To Laugh A Time To

we do everything turn turn turn there is

a season turn turn turn and a time for

every purpose under

[Music]

Heaven a time to build up a time to

break down a time to dance a time to

mourn a time to Cast Away Stones a time

together Stones

together do everything turn turn turn

there is a season turn turn turn

and a time for every purpose under

Heaven didn't old

John Cross the

water on his

knees didn't all

John Cross the

water onest

me and in a sense my father was a very

iconoclastic American total Patriot

absolutely unrecognized for this by many

people and it's his patriotism that was

terribly misunderstood he built this

house right behind me with his own

hands we had no running water through my

early grade school years no electricity

he pioneered this place just like he was

out on the Prairie and uh he devoted

himself to uh what he believed in which

was not only the American people but the

people of the

[Music]

world his father was a scholar and uh he

invented the uh study of musicology and

uh his mother was a concert violinist so

I would say he grew up with a definite

sense of bringing music to the people

and that's what he's always been trying

to do my father spent a year or two in

his grandparents Barn Building one of

America's first automobile trailers it

looked more like a covered

wagon my parents plan was to take uh

great classical music Bach and bethoven

out to the small towns in the

[Music]

countryside but the trip was a disaster

they ended up camping out in North

Carolina mother played an excellent

violin and father a piano and they

played all kinds of music and then of

course the local people said wouldn't

you like to hear our

music The Experience changed him forever

uh he'd always been open to folk songs

but he'd never been immersed in them as

he was that winter Charlie put it to me

this way he said for the first time I

realized the people had a lot of good

music themselves they didn't need my

good music as much as I thought my

parents marriage broke up in the

1920s his uh mother was a frustrated

musician and uh finally just said I you

know I didn't want couldn't take it

anymore and she left my older brothers

and I somehow managed to get

scholarships to schools in Connecticut

we spent our summers in our grandparents

Barn what I remember here best was

having fun drawing pictures playing

games I was a complete fan of American

Indians uh between age 8 and 13 when I

read the books of Ernest Thompson

Sean we had the three greatest Summers

we ever had every meal we sang our

hearts out and we learned to harmonize

in every way you can

imagine and my father then got a job in

Washington and uh hardly ever saw this

place

[Music]

again I was given a ukulele at age 8 and

I can tell you all the pop songs of 1927

28 29 silly words but fun songs i' I'd

get the kids in school singing with me

I'm just a Sentimental gentleman from

Georgia Georgia he was a show off from

the beginning and he delighted people

with playing his ukulele and singing to

them well pretty soon that wasn't good

enough and he got into

panjo i c it

the live long

night I C it pretty the live long

night and left her next morning before

it was light I was a teenager my father

took me down to an annual Festival of

mountain song and dance in North

Carolina my father wanted me to hear

this music played by people who knew how

to make it

both my father and I realized that here

was were very skilled musicians when

they played they were thinking of the

sound and when they played together they

were thinking of each other's sounds

they just as closely as any string

quartet ever

did and this was a great

discovery ground get started

I suddenly realized what an

extraordinary thing the five string Bano

was Pete got very close to father

because of his Delight in folk music and

Father's Delight in folk music and uh

Pete I think father saw Pete as a person

to develop that whole

area it was my brother Charles and I

decided that Pete should go to college

and so that he got into Harvard and it

was a matter of who's going to pay for

it but Charles and I were earning weekly

salaries you chipped in too to make it

possible and I thought it was ELC and

father and mother and maybe a little bit

from it was chiefly chiefly Charles and

I we got a little bit from other people

no IDE occasion you know occasional

gifts it's a scholarship and a job and a

little my family put together uh paid

for

Harvard and I got involved in the

American Student Union which was a

temporary uh Coalition between pacifists

and socialists and

Communists and we were arguing what to

do about

Hitler some said don't have anything to

do with war just be a complete

pacifist but the Communist said the

whole world uh should uh should

quarantine the aggressor and I thought

they were right I ended up joining the

young communist

league and let my mark slipped and I

lost my scholarship to

Harvard a couple years later just before

World War II I think I actually joined

and became a card carrying member I was

against race discrimination Communists

were against race discrimination I was

in favor of unions and Communists were

in favor of unions the Communists for

having a March down Fifth Avenue he'd

take his banjo and play it and uh

everybody would sing and say as they

March and it was the kind of music that

uh people could sing because it was folk

songs bring the honey AC from

you in the 20th century all around the

world middle class people discovered the

beauties of folk songs and when

recordings were invented they put the

recordings in their libraries

but in

USA a man named John LX did something

that nobody else thought of doing he

took these folk songs that he wrote down

with his pencil and paper and he put

them in a book he wanted Americans to

learn these songs they're great songs

this is part of America

in the late 1930s Pete Seager had the

privileged position of working in the

Library of Congress with John LX and his

son Alan LX and he's there he's doing

some recordings he's meeting people like

Woody Guthrie

he's having all these encounters with

American folk

music down on his man's

knee picked up a hammer in his little

right

hand be of

me be the death of

me be the of me Lord Lord will be the

death of me

Alan LX the folklorist who says Woody

you've got to come down to Washington

and let me record your life

story and I was working for Alan LX down

there and Woody found that I could

accompany him in any song he sang I knew

exactly what cord he was going to hit

for and I didn't try anything too fancy

for him just give him straight

backing so he let me tag along after him

he taught me how to ride freight trains

the Allure of Woody Guthrie led him on

the road and they hopped freight trains

and I think it was a romantic ideal that

he stumbled onto I don't think he was

searching for

[Music]

it to

the the

[Music]

dayy ragedy are

we just as raggedy as

can be buy and I were trying to put out

a book of Labor songs called

hard-hitting songs for hard hit people

and I hear about a man named Lee Hayes

who's trying to put out a book of Labor

songs Lee was living with a journalist

named Mard lampel and somehow my banjo

just fitted them and pretty soon the

three of us were singing around here and

so we became the almanac singers in the

winter of 1941

[Music]

training

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

train I wrote to Woody said Woody we've

been singing for unions here we sang in

Madison Square Garden for the Striking

transport workers 20,000 people you to

come east and join

us and a month later he came to New York

and joined the

almanacs it was a commune of the period

we mostly ate together we if anybody

earned any money outside we kicked it

into the general living CA the goal of

the Alman acts if anybody asks us we

want to build a singing labor movement

but we' barely got started on that job

before World War II broke

out all the idea of of strik and

everything was we said after the war SW

then we can think about

that now I wish I had a bush wish I had

a PE wish I had Hitler with a rope

around his neck

[Music]

hey our version of round and round

Hitler's way was the first folk song I

think that was ever used on Nationwide

radio during the war we had a nice

collection of songs but they needed to

be uh put in some kind of alphabetical

order and one of the square dancers that

I'd been square dancing with volunteered

to

help after a few days or a few

weeks we were in love when I was drafted

into the army of July about 6 months

later uh she said she'd wait for me and

we had letters back and forth between us

and

finally a year later

later I realized I was going to get a

Furlow and I could go back to New York

and said let's get married he was

walking me home right on the east side

of Washington Square and he proposed to

me he said will you marry me but he

didn't get down on one knee did you oh

we were just walking uh we did get

married in July of

1943 Toshi has been a tower of strength

putting up with my enthusiasms for this

and my enthusiasms for that her running

joke has been if only Peter would chase

women instead of chasing causes I'd have

an excuse to leave

him when I was a young man and never

been kissed I got to thinking over what

I had

missed I got me a girl I kissed her

again oh Lord I kissed her

again

[Music]

kiss Pete was not home enough to really

to really be more than a visiting

father and Toshi was the home and held

it together beautifully Toshi enabled

Pete to be Pete of twins and to play all

over the United States while she brought

up

children the

[Music]

women

[Music]

kiss just

[Music]

the you know what it takes to live with

a saint a

martyr not to she's not a mariss

[Music]

Pete Seager was Private first class his

first job in the US Army was repairing

aircraft uh engines but uh in the end

Seager ended up at leading workshops in

and leading song concerts in saan in the

middle of the South Pacific and it was

there that he hats the idea of creating

a National Organization of people who

wanted to sing labor songs I dreamed I

saw Jo Hill last night alive as you and

me says I but Joe you're 10 years dead I

never died says

he I never died says he the idea behind

people's songs was to get groups of of

socially conscious people musicians and

singers

together to do concerts which we called

hoot nannies in those days and it was

the source of talent that they could use

for their

meetings he always wanted to do that

turn turn these unions into singing

unions but almost as soon as the war was

over Roosevelt was dead Truman took over

we hadn't foreseen the Cold War the FBI

was in Hot Pursuit and when they weren't

going through his trash or sticking bugs

in the typewriter at the People songs

office they were going to the

conventions and even planting informance

in his uh organization there is no room

in the government of the United States

for any who prefer the communistic

system or any other form of absolutism

to our American system one of the ideas

of the government was to stop what they

call the Communist influence in in the

labor movement in the

country and to do that it needed to find

a way to make the Communist Party appear

as a foreign as a foreign agent they

passed the Taft heartley bill which said

uh you uh can have all the unions you

want as long as you fire all the

lefties well they fired the best

organizers and the union movement

gradually slid down and down and down

and down along comes the Henry Wallace

1948 political presidential campaign I

am committed to Peaceful

negotiations with the Soviet government

DOI and Truman were not into folk music

that's for sure Henry Wallace was that's

for sure and so Pete and Henry hooked up

and they traveled all over the country

Yankee Russian white t Lord a man is

just a man we're all brothers and we're

only passing through I and numerous

others tried our best to help get Henry

Wallace elected president Wallace was a

peace candidate he was not a communist

the Wallace campaign really put Pete and

folk singing on the national scene

[Music]

[Applause]

I used to come out here at 5:00 every

morning cuz you got in from the Village

Vanguard at 4 and the children babies

would wake you up so I took them out in

the park all by myself at 5: in the

morning never thought of that I have to

thank you I have to thank you for

everything for your life my life for my

children's life thank you you have been

absolutely extraordinary and I thank you

so so

much we lived in the middle of the house

we used to live here 60 years ago in

this building here yeah right here the

whole house we didn't have the plate

glass window then and where do you live

now 60 mil North

when

1949 Toshi and I were as broke as any

young people could be but we scraped up

a few hundred here and a few hundred

there and got some land real cheap I

think you understand from his background

that he was kind of a loner

in prep school as a kid and he slept out

in the woods and I think rol in the wood

Woods that's the correct name of the

book was a favorite book of his and I

think as an adult he copied it right

here with a wife and kids I remember

there being a little Corral right out

there where they put me that was my play

pen it seemed huge to me but I hated it

anyway and uh I remember when that wall

was being built I remember my mother

mixing cement and my father up on the on

the wall the kitchen was if you've been

in the house was right behind me here

and there was a wood Stone

and there was like a wash basin because

they haul the water from the

brook and that's where they cooked and

washed the dishes

kids my sister was 2 years younger

except for the winter time we were

outside all the time I slept in that

corner right there my parents slept

split level right there to the right of

the door and everyone was in this one

place and I think when they wanted more

privacy as a young married couple they

kicked us out to that porch outside

where we slept in the snow for 2 or 3

years until the roof went over that my

mother should get an award for having

given up all the things that she might

like to have done in her life in order

to um make sure her husband was

successful Toshi never stopped working

she did it out of love and she did it

for a vision that I don't know if it was

hers I think it may have been Pete's

vision

[Music]

oh

[Music]

I dreamed I saw Jo H last night alive as

you and me says I but Joe you're 10

years dead I never died says

he I never die

in

1949 the famous concert artist Paul

Robson had given some concerts in Peak

Skill and now for the third year the

people sponsoring him said let's get a

bigger

place and they got a big field and

thought they'd get maybe a couple

thousand people there and Robeson asked

me to sing a few songs at the beginning

of the concert and P New York a sign of

the times the pro Soviet singer Paul

Robson was scheduled to perform and a

surge of anti-communist feeling burst

into violence and

Riot it had been advertised that the

concert was going to be there and there

were vets from all over the country that

came here to protest that concert and of

course even as teenagers were brought up

not to like communism and therefore we

were going to protest as well and the

concert took place

I sang a few songs and then Robson sang

for an hour and we all congratulated

ourselves when the time came to leave

the people against the the concert were

lined up on the side of the road and the

police played very little role in

preventing them and they they threw

rocks around the corner was a pile of

stones waist high each Stone about as

big as a

baseball Wham and then around the next

Corner was another pile of stones Wham

from the other side all I can remember

is tekashi my Japanese grandfather he

shoved my head right down to the floor

and just got me out of the line of fire

violently and quickly cabash my head was

jammed and all I remember just glass

flying everywhere and just a burst an

explosion of glass and I GA every window

was broken in the car and it was over in

a in a second it was a very very

difficult time and and the FBI was all

over the place asking questions and uh

uh generally trying to scare people into

inactivity basically to try to scare

people so that they they wouldn't be

active doing the things that they felt

were the right things to do it was

around 1949 when I drifted out of the

Communist party I still have communist

friends and I argue with them uh and

occasionally look at their

newspaper some good stories occasionally

but then I also get the Wall Street

Journal they're occasionally good

stories there I'd really like it if I

get them both in the same room talking

with each

[Music]

other all ours

us join a cration there'll be people

from every nation

find us laughing in the sunlight Dancing

In The City

Square

come Lee Hayes and I who' sung in

almanacs we found a wonderful Alto

singer and a very good uh guitar player

and baritone singer and pretty soon we

had a quartet and we sounded darn good

together we it was amazing

and the Weavers got started and the

Weavers hit the big time my

God never occurred to us we'd have a hit

record it was totally

[Music]

unexpected well tenna was going to be

the hit side DEA put its money behind it

sure enough it rose right away to number

one then disc Roes just out of curiosity

played the other side and it was the

phenomena of the year

1950 I ring good

night good night I ring good night I

I'll see you in my

dreams we learned this song Irene from a

friend of ours his name was hudy lead

better he called himself Lead Belly King

of the 12 string guitar some people

thought he was the greatest folk singer

that ever lived in America we know him

best as a rememberer of folk songs and

he taught us dozens of them good

night good

night I'll see you in my

dream last Saturday night I got within

one month good Night Irene shot up the

charts and took over number one

[Music]

all of a sudden we were now Hot

commercial properties and we got a new

manager and he got us jobs at the

biggest nightclubs he could siros in

Hollywood and the Thunderbird Hotel in

Las Vegas the Palmer House in Chicago

the waldof aoria in New

York he didn't like the fancy hotels

that we stayed and I loved them but he

did not like them and he usually managed

to find

usually a friend that he could stay with

and if not a friend then some flea bag

somewhere that he could stay in well I

never wanted to do commercial work I

don't drink I don't smoke I don't like

nightclubs the Weavers were at the top

of the charts as they say our music

being played all over covered by people

the Weavers were offered a weekly

television show Coast to Coast sponsored

by Van Camp's pork and beans however

that very week a little group of

blacklisters came out with a blast

against us and Van Camp's being did not

sign the contract and as we were then

called evil commies our records were not

no longer played because the disc

jockies were scared the Weavers were the

only group that became blacklisted and

when I went around to people in the

music industry everyone was scared head

to talk up against The Black List and

just wanted to hide we lost our um

livelihood we lost our careers we lost

our but we lost much more than that we

lost the sense that we were living in a

Democratic Society the censorship that

he incurred at a particular point is

never as far away as you think it is

what happened to him and a lot of those

artists at that time it could happen

again it won't happen the same way it's

it's more subtle it's different anytime

when you have an Administration that

punishes its

enemies you know uh in a very personal

fashion particularly that's never as far

away as you think it

is well now some folks say a man is made

out of mud Poor Man's made out of muscle

and blood muscle and 1952 and 1953 when

he was to come up in front of um yak and

our whole family turned upside down some

of my mother's pupils quit because they

didn't want to be associated with the

family uh my father resigned before he

could be fired oh Mr Sega you said you

never engaged in any conspiracy before

in your entire life do you consider the

Communist Party a

conspiracy uh the same thing I told Mr

Weller in my own opinions how I voted in

election my own Affair I I just I don't

like to get arguments about politics or

religion for that matter no but do you

consider the Communist Party a

conspiracy I just giving you my answer

haven't I no he didn't even admit that

he was a communist he said I believe in

doing what I believe in and other people

believe that and I have a perfect right

to say that it's private and so he

wouldn't tell them uh Mr Seager you

specifically declin the protection of

the Fifth Amendment and refusing to

answer the committee's questions can you

tell us why well uh I told the committee

that in all my life

I've never committed any kind of act

conspiratorial or even

conducive and uh I resented the

implication that uh by being called

before the committee that because my

opinions might be different than Mr wers

he has a right to his opinion I have to

mine judge Murphy said uh I have

determined that Mr Seager should have

answered these questions so I was

declared guilty however after 7 years

the appeals court acquitted me and

nobody's asked you if you were fearful

that you would go to

jail I'm probably very stupid but I'm

not fearful but

I I really believed and I think I was

right that in the long run this country

doesn't go in for things like

that well I wasn one morning when the

sun didn't shine I grab my shov and I

went we got a new manager Harold

lenthal who 3 years later

rented Carnegie Hall as a

gamble for Weaver's reunion and to

everybody surprise he got standing room

only he filled it it changed our lives

made a whole new life for us there was

an audience of people who were defying

The Blacklist to come to hear the

Weavers from Carnegie

Hine drizzle and Rain fighting and

trouble been my middle name you see me

com you better step aside a lot of men

didn't and a lot of men died to

[Music]

t uh however the Weavers did a

commercial for a cigarette company and I

was very much against this they said

well we need the money I said we don't

need the money this

much and I resigned from the Weavers

[Music]

[Laughter]

[Music]

late 40s and 50s people was the only

banjo player around up north at the very

least Pete was decided that he was going

to write a banjo instruction manual and

then he realized that he never taught

anybody how to play the banjo so he

figured he should get some people

together and teach them how to play the

banjos so he could know how to what to

write what was working and I I was lucky

enough to be one of the people

he was teaching us everything how to

play rumbas and uh frailing and picking

of course I was desperate to learn

everything and play like Pete because

who else was there the banjo was the

tool it was his weapon it was his

instrument that got the music out there

and for many of us he was the

[Music]

banjo is

my from

from the

red to

[Music]

the the FBI basically pursued Pete

Seager to the point where he couldn't

get a job the only people that he could

sing for were kids because they never

thought there'd be a problem with Pete

Seer singing for six-year-olds little

did they know out of that came not a

subversive movement but instead an

American folk music Revival that I think

we have to give the FBI credit for

helping to

[Music]

establish I was a uh counselor and a

camper for many years Camp would land

for children in Phoenicia New York an

interracial leftwing camp and Pete came

up regularly they buil-in section of

people who already knew and like folk

music who had learned it in the camps or

like in my case taking lessons from Pete

and played around Washington Square and

New York and Greenwich Village and we

went out to college and we wanted to

keep up the same music so we formed folk

music clubs we got together with other

kids who played before know you have 200

people a week just coming out to sing

folk songs with you so when we brought

the king of folk singers when we brought

Pete Seager out it wouldn't be 200 it'

be 500 a th000 I went from college to

college to college to college to college

from 1953 right into the 60s and the

college students believed in freedom of

speech so if you want to pick it you can

pick it but they weren't going to cancel

my

concerts

and uh

in a funny upside down way know the

picketing all I did was sell more

tickets to BU

[Applause]

concerts This Little Light of

Mine I'm going to let it

[Music]

shine let It

sh I'm going to let it shine Let It

Shine Let It sh let it

sh the viest time for him was the 1950s

when he was blacklisted During the

period of fuak it was like The Blacklist

turned over to a a populance who had

just been so fed this anti-communist

hysteria I must have been

around I don't know

10 11 12 years old and our

school took a trip to go to see a Pete

Seager concert Somewhere in Brooklyn and

the school bus pulls up and the little

kids got out and out in front of the

theater all these guys marching around

with signs saying don't go he's a Kami

and I'm saying oh wow I went up to the

guy I said you know what is he really a

Kami I said oh yeah here's a com I said

give me those pamphlets kids let's all

get pamphlets so we got all the

pamphlets and then we walked inside and

they didn't have any more pamphlets and

that was our first political action that

was sort of based on a Pete event in

1962 when I was acquitted of the charge

of contempt of congress my wife and I

decided to take a trip around the world

the World trip was my father's

brainstorm to take his whole family on

the road for a year yank him out of

school and going to his many countries

as it could possibly be fit

[Applause]

[Music]

in we took a cheap newsreel camera with

us and we filmed some of the most

extraordinary music and dancing all

around the

world the films were scholarly attempts

at

documenting music my mother was the

camera person and I did the sound and uh

we saw a piece of the world that no

longer exists to pay for the airline

tickets which wasn't cheap I think he

performed in every country his idea was

to get the world singing not to be the

[Music]

[Applause]

singer you can help out if you want

[Music]

[Music]

Pete's Spirit was everywhere the seed

the Johnny apple seed of Pete seagar was

planted and grew and grew and grew

a ham

in ham

in all over this land and around Danger

a

warning a love dream brothers and

[Music]

sisters he really was the Genesis of the

folk Revival it was his spirit and his

um way of embracing folk

music as a a tool for justice and

Consciousness and ing that became the

model for all of us pet Seeker is

probably

singularly the most responsible person

for making

this a national identity he more than

anybody reintroduced America to its

musical Heritage the Newport Folk

Festival was set up to present rural

folk music to an urban environment

and it was incredibly successful at

taking performers of Folk Music some

traditional some City billies and

presenting it to a new audience of young

people starting in

63 through

69 was some of the greatest musical

experiences that this country has ever

seen the world has ever

seen the point is nobody could have

gotten that kind of of support from the

entire

I'll use the word folk world but it

wasn't all a folk world because there

were b a lot of commercial artists that

would give up days of their lives where

they could have made big money to come

up and play on The Folk Festival with

Pete was the

[Music]

leader and the first Folk Festival was

mainly

wellknown

performers so we sat down and wrote a

long letter to George he said George do

you realize you could have a festival

that would be a real Folk Festival next

summer because you'd have oldtimers from

the country contrasting with the

youngtimers from the

[Music]

colleges you know your

mama was is Born to

Die the Newport Folk Festival was kind

of the official birth of Folk

Music going from

countercultural to being a part of the

culture I thought folk music was yeah

delivering me something you know uh

which was uh which the way I always felt

about life you know and people and uh

[Music]

[Applause]

ideology how many SE must the white

[Music]

those before she sleeps in the

[Music]

S I look upon myself as a planter of

seeds

and uh some of

them like in the Bible says some of them

land in the stones they don't

Sprout some land in the pathway and they

get stomped on but some land on good

ground and grow and multiply a

thousandfold the meeting between the

folk Revival and pop culture got immense

and there was television show called The

Hoot NY show so it was reaching a very

very big audience you're just in time

for a hoot nny with The Travelers

threee my experience of Folk Music when

I was a kid was probably the hoot and

Annie TV show which if I if I'm correct

he he he couldn't he didn't appear on

because he was blacklisted they wanted

me on their show

and to this day it's one of the things

I'm really very very proud of I said oh

I'd be lighted to come on your show as

soon as you put Pete on cuz he had been

not allowed on TV or radio I believe

what 17 years the fact that they didn't

want to have me on it unless I would

sign a non-communist oath uh was kind of

trivial but a man in New York says Peter

I think uh if you would run a TV show on

your own I could get at least some of

the uh educational stations to carry it

so every two weeks for 39 weeks uh Toshi

and I went down to Newark New Jersey and

tape recorded two shows little boxes on

the hillside little boxes made of ticky

tacky Little Boxes Little Boxes Little

Boxes all the same there's a green one

and a pink one and a blue one and a

yellow one and they're all made out of

ticky tacky and they all look just the

same people we asked to be guests uh

were paid all of

$50

and uh we helped to fund it and when we

ran out of cash it was discontinued but

we did have some wonderful guests on it

you to see my cind she lives way down

south she's so sweet the honey bees SW

around her mouth get along c c get home

cind Cindy get home cind Cindy I'll

marry you somay

my father never promoted folk music as a

commercial entity his promotion was

solely around the uh social importance

of it the way it could gather people

together but uh commerciality was not in

his game his commerciality was an

accident of people promoting him I think

many times throughout his career he

wished it did not happen but in order to

spread the message I think he put up

with it

we shall

[Music]

overcome we shall

[Music]

over we owe a lot to Pete for we shall

overcome to begin with I mean that's

where I first heard it and it was sort

of was like a

[Music]

symbol I only met Martin Luther King

twice tce very briefly in 1957 at the

Highlander Folk School I was invited

down to sing a few songs and I sang a

song called We Shall

Overcome afterwards a friend of mine

drove Dr King up to a speaking

engagement in Kentucky and she remembers

him sitting in the back seat saying we

shall overcome that song really sticks

with you doesn't it I get too much

credit for this song I added a few

verses but everybody adds verses I did

add verses which a lot of others sing

we'll walk hand in hand I also got

people singing shall instead of will one

of the things that he brought to all

movements was the idea of unity and

people being together that if if you can

be together you can fight almost

anything we really saw Pete as a radical

and he actually brought a very deep

knowledge base about the relationship

between music and struggle that he just

shared

unendingly Pete you know played a a

constant role in the movement long

before I was involved in anything having

to do with civil rights Pete Seager was

was doing that he uh would appear at

benefits for us he would introduce us to

others who would do benefits for us um

he was just always there

I H in morning

ham

[Music]

in I don't think there was any political

movement in

history that had as much singing as the

Civil Rights Movement had we shall

We Shall Not Be Moved just like a tree

that's pled by the wall and I think

these pictures refute the people who say

that

uh music is just an attempt to make life

livable it's true to a certain extent

that's one of the purposes of Music help

you survive your

troubles help distract you from your

troubles but some music helps you

understand your

troubles and as you see here some music

can help you do something about your

troubles where have all the flowers

[Music]

gone long time

passing where have all the flowers

gone long time

ago where have all the flow

[Music]

gone girls have picked them

everyone when will we ever

learn when will we ever

learn I think Pete Seager was one of

those that he wrote songs because he

needed to you know at that time music

was about something and it was about

speaking out I was looking at a

newspaper

and see American troops trying to Wade

waste deep across the mikong river and a

phrase sprang to my mind waste deep in

the Big Muddy and the big fool says to

push on Pete Seager had been kept off

broadcast television for something like

17 years somewhere around

1967 Pete Seager has another chance the

Smothers Brothers stuck there their

necks all the way out and invited Seager

on to sing I said I want Pete Seager on

the show and CBS said sure they thought

about it for a second but they said okay

fine well by the time we get on and we

were getting pretty heated about the war

and and being becoming socially

conscious and of course he he was the

biggest conscious in the world and I

sang several songs including the Big

Muddy but when the show was put on the

air they'd scissored out that song song

so I ran to the Press right away I said

oh we're being censored they're stopping

Pete Seager from singing and so they put

a big deal about it finally

after 3 months I said okay okay and in

January they allowed me to sing

it all at once the moon clouded over we

heard a gurgling cry a few seconds later

the captain's helmet was all that

floated by the sergeant said turn around

men I'm in charge from now on

and we just made it out of the Big Muddy

with the captain dead and gone we

stripped and dive and found his body

stuck in the old quick sand I guess he

didn't know that the water was deeper

than the place he'd once before been

another stream had joined the Big Muddy

about a half mile from where he'd gone

we were lucky to escape from the Big

Muddy when the bigol to push on there

were Millions watching and that time had

a chance sing the whole

song well I'm not going to point any

moral I'll leave that for yourself maybe

you're still walking you're still

talking you'd like to keep your health

but every time I read the paper them old

feelings come on we're waste deep in the

Big Muddy the big fool says to push

on waste people in the Big Muddy the big

fool says to push on

waist deep in the Big Muddy the big fool

says to push

on Waist Deep Neck Deep soon even a tall

man will be over his head where waist

deep in the Big Muddy the big says to

push

on in

1972 my wife and I were invited to visit

North

Vietnam we talked it over with our

lawyer we talked it over with others and

decided Now's the Time he they wanted to

stop the war of course and we had a

group of people who really wanted to

show

us that Vietnam was a beautiful country

and a friendly country and full of very

smart and talented people I first heard

of Pete Seager when I was a in Vietnam

and found that he uh visited our enemy

in Hanoi at that point I became uh quite

upset quite angry and ashamed the fact

that Pete Seager was from my hometown

well now that I announced last week that

you're on my

show I don't want you to I don't want it

to hurt you or bother you because it

doesn't bother me it's just I want these

people to understand some way the

crackpot letters that have been coming

in and there quite a few not not a great

percentage of the male but quite a few

letters saying how dare you supposedly

such a good American have a communist

like Pete Seager on your TV show if I

hated USA I would have left it long ago

yeah Pete um I've known you for quite a

while many years actually and the peach

Seager I

know and the peach Seager that June and

I come to love

is I say one of the best Americans and

Patriots I've ever known world and

ignorance bring them home home home you

can't beat that with BS and guns bring

them home bring them home so if you love

your

un support our boys in

Vietnam bring them

home the Vietnam War was a lie we all

know now Gul of ton Ken was a lie and to

sing for peace was to sing for a return

to uh sanity and Justice show these

generals

[Music]

their they don't have the right

Weaponry bring them home bring them home

the world needs housing food and schools

bring them home home home and learning a

few Universal rules

[Music]

bring I remember remember this story

that you used to tell me like every year

or so this like be in the repertoire of

stories you would tell me and it would

be after this concert this man came up

to you and he introduced himself shook

your hand and said Mr Seager I came to

kill you tonight interesting enough that

guy came from a small small town in

upstate uh and uh he went into the army

with all his friends and some of his

friends had gotten killed over there and

here I was singing

songs

uh about pulling out of Vietnam and he

was simply outraged and everyone was

startled that knew that he was saying

these things that's when I said that

when you you know was going to give him

just the normal after concert Shake I

said you have to talk to him you have to

sit down and talk to him we sat down and

mainly we sang where of all the flowers

gone together and I remember him saying

he says I feel clean yeah because he had

been filled with such such hate he was

crying he thanked him for changing his

mind he came there to kill him that

night and he listened to the concert and

he was so moved that he couldn't do

[Music]

it he really was the bridge that allowed

the rest of us to become um activists in

male political music so I think that's

his greatest gift was shepherding songs

of peace and Justice and celebrating

what's really important about humans

being um loving and caring for each

[Music]

other the time of Vietnam U when you see

how long that went on and there were um

so many people against it and what

changed the government's mind and what

they did about that was the people um

and music started

that the pets of the

world and the hundreds of thousands of

people who protested and sang and

marched and sat in got arrested that's

why that war finally ended had nothing

to do with the president he didn't want

it to end

[Music]

I really love this country but if

somebody says well you are against the

vetnam war you're

anti-American I say was Lincoln against

America when he voted against the

Mexican war was Mark Twain against

America when he made speeches against

the Spanish American war in 1898

no if you love your country you'll find

ways somehow to speak out to do what you

think is right sailing up my dirty

stream still I love it

and 40 years ago the Hudson River was

like Dodge City uh you could do pretty

much anything you wanted sewage

contamination oil contamination the

federal government declared the Hudson

industrialized River and so um

government not only made pollution

possible and didn't try and stop it they

they virtually declared the Hudson River

as a place where it should take place

about that time A friend of mine said

Pete you know they used to have

sailboats on the Hudson with a boom 70

ft long and I said to my friend why

don't we get some people together and

build a replica of one of these boats he

loved to gather people

together and to find a boat that he

could actually have an audience on you

know big enough to sing with these

people on the boat I think he like that

idea 3 years later the Sloop Clearwater

was launched

[Music]

give me a give me

[Music]

a it was also about this time that I met

a biologist R dubos he worked at The

rockella

Institute and he said if anybody asks

you where in the world is the most

important Place tell them right where

you are you can think globally but act

locally Pete wants to clean up the river

everybody says Pete you can't clean up

the river the river is too big it's not

enough people nobody's going to help you

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah that didn't stop Pete simply

thought well I think we need to build a

Sloop and we'll sail It Up and Down the

River and people will come to the river

to see the Sloop and they'll look down

and say look

in the river we have to do something and

everybody said Pete not really a great

idea it's not going to work but you know

what of course it

worked one more time sail it up sail it

up sailing down sa down up down down up

and down the river

sa stoping all along the

way the be dirty now she

getan he made a promise to me when I was

about 12 years old and he said when you

grow up you're going to be able to swim

in the

river and he did I was sort of surprised

we were the first uh organization in the

Hudson Valley that actually went out and

Hands-On investigated polluters it took

a while but the obvious thing that

happened was we cleaned up the river and

began uh a whole era where the people

who live here

began to really see what it was and

appreciate it for what it is no it

wasn't just legislation and it wasn't

just writing laws it was fun stuff like

being down on the river and dancing and

music and food and festivals the great

Hudson River Revival the Clearwood puts

on every year Grew From an annual event

that attracted a couple of thousand

people to an annual event that attracts

tens of thousands of people

[Music]

and give it one more try I'll give it

one more

try to show my rainbow race to show my

rainbow race it's too soon to die it's

too soon to

die go tell go tell all the little

children tell all the mothers and

fathers

too now's our last chance to learn Le to

share what's been given to me and

you

blue people like me want to keep the

rivers clean the air safe to breathe and

the waters safe to drink and we found a

way to take school kids out now for 36

years the kids go back to school 3 hours

later and some of them have had their

lives

changed we've all got to be involved in

trying to put this world

together I think if the world is put

together it's not going to be done by

big organizations it's going to be done

by millions upon millions of little

organizations often local Pete was a

controversial figure and I don't know

that Pete and I shared similar politics

40 years ago uh but uh Pete was a master

uh at finding common cause with people

he did it with his music he did it with

his songs and he did it with the Hudson

River the cause that uh he has

championed for these past decades is one

that uh I believe in tremendously and

it's like his his uh his little banjo

slogan this m machine surrounds hate and

forces it to surrender uh that's what

his music did his music surrounded you

know all that uh that political hate in

the Hudson River Valley and forced it to

surrender you got to

walk that Lonesome

Valley you got to walk walk you got to

walk it by yourself by yourself ain't

nobody here no can walk it for

you you got to walk it by yourself now

even if you never heard the song before

you could sing it with me could you just

repeat after me try it oh you got to

walk you got to walk that Lonesome

Valley that lome Val you got to walk you

got to walk get by yourself by yourself

no no here nobody here can walk it for

you can walk it for you you got to walk

you got walk it byself now some people

are singing real good but there's still

some people I can see them out

there they've been living in Washington

too

[Applause]

[Music]

long you got you got the that onome

Valley onome you got the walk you got

[Music]

he grew up with a definite sense of

bringing music to the people and that's

what he's always been trying to do his

thing has always been to get people to

sing at his concerts he doesn't want to

hear himself sing he wants to hear the

people sing and in many of his

recordings he always wants the the voice

of the audience boosted so uh it can be

heard on the record that's very

important the best music I've ever been

ever made in my life life has been when

I can get the folks all of them young

old conservative liberal radical get

them all singing on the

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

course in my

it

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

by he was an inconvenient artist who

dared to sing things as he saw them he

was attacked for his beliefs he was

banned from television some artists make

musical

history Pete Seager made history with

his music

the the government which so cruy tried

to silence him in the 50s ended up

giving you the uh highest

inward oh how times

[Applause]

change he thank you for your courage

your inspiration and giving the world

this wonderful song to

sing to everything turn turn turn there

is a season

turn turn turn and a time to every

purpose under

heav a time to be born a time to die a

time to PL a time to reap A Time to Kill

the time to heal the time to laugh the

time do we everybody sing it to

everything

turn is a

season and time

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

to the fact that we got the Kennedy

Center Honor it's not just ironic it

proves proves something it proves the

metaphor of turn turn turn that there's

a time for everything there's a time for

hate and there's a time for love he he

went through all this time of hate uh

and finally at a certain point in in his

life it was recognized that it was all

done out of

love and Pete walks

out Carney Hall and that crowd

just SP taneously

arises it's not just cuz he's showing up

it's because he means something

[Applause]

[Music]

we played Carnegie Hall about once a

year he doesn't think he can do it

anymore but the last time it was great

he he was pretty on fire that

night fore

[Music]

the word say

[Music]

with oh don't tell me at age 84 I can't

remember the

translation I am a truthful man from

this land of palm trees before dying I

share these poems of my soul

my verses are light green but they are

also flaming red and the last verse says

with the poor people of this

world I want to cast my

[Music]

lot for the last several years Pete's

been telling me that he's losing his

voice but when I saw him at Carnegie

Hall I was like everybody else I just

wanted

to be up there he gave his voice

to the things in which he believed and

all he has to do for me is stand up

there and hit that instrument tell us

what the song is and play along with us

[Music]

gu

[Music]

I've never sung anywhere without giving

the people listening to me a chance to

join in as a kid as a lefty as a man

touring USA in the world as an olster I

guess it's kind of a religion with me

participation that's what's going to

save the human

race that Freedom High nobody living can

make me turn back

nobody make me

turn

[Music]

this one more

time

[Music]

is and I still prefer to sing in schools

in almost any other single place you

can't feel completely like giving up if

you see all those little faces can't say

there's no hope got to keep trying

[Applause]

[Music]

that approach towards

song

as viewing it its potential to reach

people and touch people's lives and and

change the world in the sense that you

know was was something that he had a

deep belief in and he's pursued it his

entire

life to my

old Brown

Earth and to my whole Blue

Sky I'll now give these last few

molecules of

[Music]

I and you who sing

[Music]

and you who stand

nearby I do charge you not to

[Music]

cry guard well our human

chain watch well you keep it

strong as long as Sun

will

shine and this our

home keep pure and sweet and

green for now I'm

[Music]

yours and you are all

so mine

[Music]

to

[Music]

my my

all

my give these last

[Music]

Once Upon a Time wasn't singing a part

of everyday life as much as talking

physical exercise and religion our

distant ancestors wherever they were in

this world sang while pounding grain

paddling canoes or walking long Journeys

can we begin to make our lives once more

all of a piece finding the right songs

and singing them over and over is a way

to

[Music]

start and when one person Taps out a

beat while another leads into the melody

or when three people discover a Harmony

they never knew existed or a crowd joins

in on a chorus as though to raise the

ceiling a few feet higher then they also

know there is hope for the

world

[Music]

for and you are

[Music]

if you love this land of the free bring

home bring them home bring all troops

back from

overseas bring them home bring them home

so if you love this land of the free

bring them home bring them home bring

all troops back from

overseas bring them home bring them home