Pete Seeger, an Appreciation
I woke up yesterday morning, flipped on WBUR (one of the local NPR news stations) as I normally do, and the first story was that Pete Seeger had died. His music has been with me for as long as I can remember. This evening I got lost on YouTube for a while roaming through clips of his performances.
I don't throw around terms like 'role model' and 'hero' lightly, but Pete falls into both of those categories. I see his influence in a lot of what I do. Fight for what you think is right, even when the chances of succeeding look small. Keep music in your life. Music is for making, not just for listening.
I grew up in a home where there was almost always music playing. The sound track to my childhood was classical music, the folk revival, and Broadway show tunes. The first time I saw Pete Seeger perform in person I was about 7. He gave a concert in the community center of the housing complex we lived in. My memories that far back are pretty spotty. I don't remember much about the music, but I remember the space and I remember being completely amazed.
Around the same time Seeger was doing a show on the local public television station, WNET, where he, along with some other performers, taught how to read music and how to play the recorder, banjo, guitar, and autoharp. I couldn't convince my parents to buy me an autoharp, but I did convince them to get me the music book that went with the show and learn the recorder. Learning the recorder had been in the cards anyway, my Dad plays the recorder, but up to that point my parents had been saying wait until you are a little older. A few years ago, Seeger talked about the show during an interview and mentioned that he had paid most of the production costs himself.
Skip forward many years, in 1992 I was doing pre-registration for the first Conterpoint filk convention and my home address was the mailing address for the convention. The day after the deadline for the songbook, I come home and find, in the day's mail, a large flat envelope addressed to Conterpoint with Pete Seeger on the return address label. I looked at it again to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, then I opened it. In the envelope was a submission for the songbook, a political song, "The Ross Perot Guide to Answering Embarrassing Questions" with words by Calvin Trillin and music by Pete Seeger. The reaction when I called the songbook editor to ask him if he could make room for a late submission from Pete Seeger was priceless. I knew Pete was aware of filk, because there were places where he mentioned it, but I never expected him to send us a song.
Over the years, I saw Pete perform in person a number of times, both alone and with others (he always seem to be at his best when making music with others), and spent a lot of time listening to his recordings. I'm particularly fond of Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall, Carry in On (Songs of America's Working People (with Si Kahn and Jane Sapp), and Precious Friend (with Arlo Guthrie). They are still what I often turn to when I'm looking for something to help me relax when life is getting stressful.
His voice will be missed, but it will also carry on.
I don't throw around terms like 'role model' and 'hero' lightly, but Pete falls into both of those categories. I see his influence in a lot of what I do. Fight for what you think is right, even when the chances of succeeding look small. Keep music in your life. Music is for making, not just for listening.
I grew up in a home where there was almost always music playing. The sound track to my childhood was classical music, the folk revival, and Broadway show tunes. The first time I saw Pete Seeger perform in person I was about 7. He gave a concert in the community center of the housing complex we lived in. My memories that far back are pretty spotty. I don't remember much about the music, but I remember the space and I remember being completely amazed.
Around the same time Seeger was doing a show on the local public television station, WNET, where he, along with some other performers, taught how to read music and how to play the recorder, banjo, guitar, and autoharp. I couldn't convince my parents to buy me an autoharp, but I did convince them to get me the music book that went with the show and learn the recorder. Learning the recorder had been in the cards anyway, my Dad plays the recorder, but up to that point my parents had been saying wait until you are a little older. A few years ago, Seeger talked about the show during an interview and mentioned that he had paid most of the production costs himself.
Skip forward many years, in 1992 I was doing pre-registration for the first Conterpoint filk convention and my home address was the mailing address for the convention. The day after the deadline for the songbook, I come home and find, in the day's mail, a large flat envelope addressed to Conterpoint with Pete Seeger on the return address label. I looked at it again to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, then I opened it. In the envelope was a submission for the songbook, a political song, "The Ross Perot Guide to Answering Embarrassing Questions" with words by Calvin Trillin and music by Pete Seeger. The reaction when I called the songbook editor to ask him if he could make room for a late submission from Pete Seeger was priceless. I knew Pete was aware of filk, because there were places where he mentioned it, but I never expected him to send us a song.
Over the years, I saw Pete perform in person a number of times, both alone and with others (he always seem to be at his best when making music with others), and spent a lot of time listening to his recordings. I'm particularly fond of Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall, Carry in On (Songs of America's Working People (with Si Kahn and Jane Sapp), and Precious Friend (with Arlo Guthrie). They are still what I often turn to when I'm looking for something to help me relax when life is getting stressful.
His voice will be missed, but it will also carry on.