WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY JANUARY 27, 2014 IN REMEMBRANCE OF PETE SEEGER WHO WE LOST TODAY! On this day, we lost a great American folk singer and activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, and he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Bellys Goodnight, Irene, which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture and environmental causes. A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (with Joe Hickerson), If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song) (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), and Turn! Turn! Turn! (lyrics adapted from Ecclesiastes), which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are sung throughout the world. Flowers was a hit recording for the Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). If I Had a Hammer was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while the Byrds had a number one hit with Turn! Turn! Turn! in 1965. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual We Shall Overcome (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS American Masters episode Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, Seeger stated it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional We will overcome to the more singable We shall overcome A FEW FACTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO YOU! Pete Seeger met Woody Guthrie at a Grapes of Wrath migrant worker benefit concert. Folklorist, Alan Lomax, said that March 3, 1940 can be celebrated as the beginning of modern folk music when the duo first met and formed the Almanac Singers (1940). The group also included Sis Cunningham, Sonny Terry, Lee Hays, Brownie McGhee, and Millard Lampell. PETE SEEGER/BOB DYLAN: JOINT PERFORMANCES LINK: bobdylanroots/pseeg.html Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger - Playboys and Playgirls https://youtube/watch?v=dFbnzs-S4Ho
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:01:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015