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Taylor BermanTaylor Berman
1/28/14 8:29am
About "We Shall Overcome," from the New York Times obit:

Like many of Mr. Seeger’s songs, “We Shall Overcome” had convoluted traditional roots. It was based on old gospel songs, primarily “I’ll Overcome,” a hymn that striking tobacco workers had sung on a picket line in South Carolina. A slower version, “We Will Overcome,” was collected from one of the workers, Lucille Simmons, by Zilphia Horton, the musical director of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tenn., which trained union organizers.

Ms. Horton taught it to Mr. Seeger, and her version of “We Will Overcome” was published in the People’s Songs newsletter. Mr. Seeger changed “We will” to “We shall” and added verses (“We’ll walk hand in hand”). He taught it to the singers Frank Hamilton, who would join the Weavers in 1962, and Guy Carawan, who became musical director at Highlander in the ‘50s. Mr. Carawan taught the song to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at its founding convention.

The song was copyrighted by Mr. Seeger, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Carawan and Ms. Horton. “At that time we didn’t know Lucille Simmons’s name,” Mr. Seeger wrote in his 1993 autobiography, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” All of the song’s royalties go to the “We Shall Overcome” Fund, administered by what is now the Highlander Research and Education Center, which provides grants to African-Americans organizing in the South.

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  DoctorNineTaylor Berman
  1/28/14 9:01am
  Those damn backward Southerners. We oughta just saw everything off south of the Mason-Dixon line...
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  John BoehnerTaylor Berman
  1/28/14 9:40am
  It is a shame that that song is ruined for me because my awful awful Rhetoric of Social Movements professor played it every day as we were filing in and out of class.
  The documentary, Seeds of the Sixties? Was still good.
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HarryPooterTaylor Berman
1/28/14 8:26am
segeer's mentor, woody Guthrie:

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  trudibell_HarryPooter
  1/28/14 8:52am
  American heroes.
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  Brock SamsaHarryPooter
  1/28/14 9:13am
  The original punk. Damn.
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The Crushah!Taylor Berman
1/28/14 8:08am
Also, "Raising Arizona" just wouldn't have been the same if not for Pete:

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  NefertittiesThe Crushah!
  1/28/14 8:24am
  I am really quite embarrassed that I never knew that sound from Raising Arizona came out of Pete Seeger. I am a bad American.
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  The Crushah!Nefertitties
  1/28/14 8:44am
  Actually, I think I'm wrong. Pete may have been covering this:
  
  And you're a WONDERFUL American.
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Jane, you ignorant slut.Taylor Berman
1/28/14 7:46am
The amazing thing about Pete Seeger is how he always got everyone singing. Here he is at 92 at Occupy Wall Street. He was singing as late as September of last year at the Farm Aid concert. He gave his whole life to keeping old songs alive, supporting civil rights, labor rights, racial equality, environmentalism, international understanding and anti-war movements. An early supporter of communism, he repudiated the U.S.S.R. and stood with the Polish solidarity movement. He stood up for what was right since the 1930s, stayed standing for over seventy years, and tried to do it all through song. Just really, an admirable man. The world lost one of the good ones today. But a long life, worth having been lived. One less among us to keep the old songs alive. One less among us to remind us that there are things worth fighting for.

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  LarsJane, you ignorant slut.
  1/28/14 11:26am
  I saw him in Tiverton, RI in a back yard concert and he had all 100+ people there singing along the whole time.
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RussianistTaylor Berman
1/28/14 8:22am
Always ahead of his time, yet always respectful of history. Always disdainful of riches and awards, yet always showered with both. Always getting older, yet always staying young. An incredible life.
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  Yukon KizmiazRussianist
  1/28/14 10:02am
  A fitting eulogy.
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  hellaciousRussianist
  1/28/14 3:17pm
  Now dead, but deathless.
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Taylor BermanTaylor Berman
1/28/14 8:36am
Springsteen's introduction at Seeger's 90th birthday: "Pete, you outlasted the bastards."

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  XyloTaylor Berman
  1/28/14 8:56am
  "That's what Pete's done his whole life; he sings all the verses all the time, especially the ones that we like to leave out of our history as a people."
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  Pompadour1Taylor Berman
  1/28/14 9:57am
  Great article. (The pettifogging proofreader in me had to bring this up, though: "A major influence to dozens of musicians" ... You mean "A major influence on dozens of musicians" —- correct?
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ohmywordohTaylor Berman
1/28/14 8:21am
He was a force of nature, even in his 90s. I was at an event a few years ago where he brought a whole room to tears with Over the Rainbow.
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  DoctorNineohmywordoh
  1/28/14 9:27am
  
  And now I'm crying.
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  crookedEDoctorNine
  1/28/14 10:37am
  Me too. Thank you.
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Nathalie J. DyeTaylor Berman
1/28/14 7:27am
my buddy's step-aunt makes $62 every hour on the laptop . She has been out of a job for eight months but last month her payment was $12563 just working on the laptop for a few hours. why not check here

ℂash46.ℂℴℳ
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  BigSteveNathalie J. Dye
  1/28/14 8:14am
  You can thank Pete Seeger for that. A true champion of the working class. Great tribute, friend.
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  ConnieRayTittyBigSteve
  1/28/14 8:24am
  I love "If I Had Laptop." Fave Pete Seeger song, hands down.
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ARP2Taylor Berman
1/28/14 9:54am
Oh how far we've come. Republicans want to reinstate mccarthyism, hold hearings to find out who the "real Americans are," and have gone crazy over creeping sharia law.

“The portrayal of Senator Joe McCarthy as a wild-eyed demagogue destroying innocent lives is sheer liberal hobgoblinism....Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis.

” Well without McCarthy, Republicans might be congratulating themselves on their excellent behavior from the gulag right now.”
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e.nonTaylor Berman
1/28/14 7:56am
any bets on how many of the pop tarts celebrated by the grammys even know who pete seeger is... i'll low-ball it at 4.
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  kimbersayse.non
  1/28/14 8:30am
  Paul, Ringo, Bono and...?
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