Just when I thought
All was lost, you changed my mind.
You gave me hope, (not just the old soft soap)
You showed that we could learn to share in time.
(You and me and Rockefeller)
I’ll keep pluggin’ on,
Your face will shine through all our tears.
And when we sing another little victory song,
Precious friend, you will be there,
Singing in harmony,
Precious friend, you will be there.
Pete’s passing was not a surprise, and yet to have someone gone after being around for almost 100 years is still unbelievable. Yes, he lives on in his songs and in the lives of the millions of people he has encouraged, prodded and cajoled into singing (loudly) and working by example (hard, every day — he was chopping wood just 10 days ago!) for a more equitable, peaceful and sustainable future.
It was somewhat amazing how chipper Pete seemed to be after his partner Toshi left us this summer. Now it feels somehow comforting that he follows her so closely. They say that after so many years entwined it is impossible for some of us to continue alone. Now it’s up to us, Pete’s “children,” to keep on keepin’ on.
It is intimidating to write among the sea of millions who claim Pete’s memory and who are more eloquent than I am. But I am reminded of when I crewed on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and I was compelled (encouraged? lovingly directed?) to stop grumbling about all the men up on stage and pick up a guitar myself. Cardinal life rule number one: Ya gotta own it.
By the time Pete was my age, he had accomplished more than many of us can even dream of completing. These accomplishments were in no small way due to his gifts of song, compassion, courage, discernment, storytelling, perseverance, truth seeking (and finding), not to mention good timing, serendipity, privilege and Toshi, his phenomenal partner. Those are traits and gifts that everyone will write about.
But it was another contribution of Pete’s that I thought of this morning as I spoke with a young woman of color about the challenge of infusing a collective liberation framework into a longstanding white organization. We spoke about how a truly revolutionary approach comes from what we now call intersectionality — the practice of understanding the interwoven threads that connect our lives, our economies and each other. And this is perhaps where Pete and his life’s work were most inspired and inspiring.
His pragmatic yet transformational leadership example helped build community across divides both great and small. As friend and activist singer-songwriter Reggie Harris writes, “He helped us to realize that it’s not about us and how pretty we can sing. It’s about how much more beautiful the world is when we all sing together.”
Of course, talk doesn’t cook rice and song doesn’t raise the sails. But these words sure can help — and become the thread that encourages us to participate and weave a beautiful fabric together.
Today, I am struck by the number of stories about Pete piling up on the Facebook pages of the many of us who were somehow in his orbit: Those whose childhoods were full of his songs, those who worked on the Clearwater, those who marched in the Civil Rights and Vietnam marches and even those who bought the Weaver’s first hit record. All these stories are so heartfelt and personal that I was inspired to add my own memory.
As crew on the Clearwater in the 1980s, I was fortunate to be able to spend some of my free days in Beacon, New York, where Pete and Toshi lived. These weren’t your average days off; Pete was up early chopping wood and Toshi was bustling around completing another house chore or organizing the next sloop club festival. So much for sleeping in!
Pete didn’t stop at chopping wood either. He was the quintessential Energizer Bunny, with multiple ideas constantly popping out of his mouth that he would always write on scraps of paper and give to people. Somewhere I have one that he sent to me with the words and notes for a song he thought would be useful as we organized against the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle in 1999, along with the suggestion that we set up multiple soap box locations for the public to use on street corners. He also pointed out that we should do some advance work in order to have access to electric outlets and cautioned me about the “black shirts.” Finally, on another scrap I just found, he wrote: “To people who say that the ruling class will never give in without a fight, I point that there were 300 slave revolts that failed. Even the Civil War did not get rid of Jim Crow. M.L.K. succeeded.”
Thank you Pete, Toshi and the surrounding community for standing for a vision of an equitable, humane and healthy world even when the rocks were being thrown straight at you. And may your passion for peace and justice be sung loud enough to sustain and empower those who follow in your footsteps.
Old devil pain, you often pinned me down,
You thought I’d cry, and beg you for the end
But at that very time, my lovers gather ’round
And help me rise to fight you one more time!
Old devil hate, I knew you long ago,
Then I found out the poison in your breath.
Now when we hear your lies, my lovers gather ’round
And help me rise to fight you one more time!
No storm nor fire can ever beat us down,
No wind that blows but carries us further on.
And you who fear, oh lovers, gather ’round
And we can rise and sing it one more time!
Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1969)
So long Pete and Toshi,
it’s been good to know you !
I had the privilege of seeing Pete and Arlo perform in Massachusetts at a concert in the Berkshires during Deval Patrick’s election campaign in 2006. It was a small outdoor event during a gentle rain. My brother was working under contract in Lee, Mass. at the time and when I heard about this concert I had to be there. I met and spoke with Toshi and it was so obvious that Pete, Toshi, Arlo and his family were as she put it “one big family”. I have photos from this lovely time framed on my wall. I admire them all so very much and am so sad of the loss of Jackie, Arlo’s wife, then Toshi and now finally Pete. The world is a much sadder place but the music and the movement to change for the better by non-violent means will continue in his name as it did for Gandhi, MLK, and Mandela.
Thanks Patricia for sharing your story. It seems that everyone has some kind of story around contact with Pete– which is so unusual for someone who had a song at the top of the charts for 3 months! (How many ‘ordinary’ people have a personal anecdote involving Beyoncé? Springsteen?!) Some of this is due to the fact that Pete was so approachable personally and in how he lived his life — and some of it was the direct outcome of being Black Listed by HUAC, as it led to Pete playing concerts at every school, summer camp, community gathering he could. Playing night clubs would have brought in more money, but the personal connection to the audience is not at all the same.
And thank you also for highlighting his commitment to nonviolence and action. As the eulogies pour in, I think its incredibly important not to let mainstream media sanitize Pete as simply a folk singer! Song was his weapon of choice, and as a cultural worker he wielded music to build people power and show folks the strength of their own collective agency. Not only that, he recognized the potential for appreciation across cultures that would open doors for meaningful dialogue. Way before cultural diversity and and multiculturalism became hot he was singing songs from across a global cultural spectrum, most famously Wimoweh and Tzena Tzena.
Yes, there are other famous people who take on causes– but Pete was involved in more campaigns and issues than almost anyone else I know, and certainly anyone of his stature. He personified Audre Lorde’s quote, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single- issue lives.” He was incredibly disciplined, creative and courageous in that regard, a phenomenal role model for all of us.
I AM LUCKY, PETE’S C0ntemporary, Giles M. Kelly, (he’s my Dad, the artist, sailor, merchant marine, Navy Captain, & former Diplomat and Spy, is still on the living side of “with us”, his next birthday is 94.
The men and women, now in their nineties, have had, what may appear to be the most extraordinary span of living, ever lived. [Perhaps in nineteen fourteen there were those who might have said or thought the same thing. But there were fewer Nineteneans then, and a lot less information available.]
These humans have had the most fantastic lifespans, and I am truly grateful for knowing some of them, as Nadine apprears, for having had the privilege and experience of sailing with Captain Pete and knowing Toshi.
To hear the history of the 20th century spoken from birth in London while daddy was “fighting the cold war”, and sung from the time of our return from his Economic Duty in Khartoum in 1964, (I was ten), to being a sailor of sloops and schooners, to my marches on Washington (while growing up in Cleveland Park) fighting the Domino Theory (sorry no sugar, honey), but yielding for a decade to serve in the Coast Guard, all the while, the bright beat of the heart for peace and love, was Pete’s message singing along with MLK and the great litany of usual suspects…..all who work for peace, love and happiness.
I AM LUCKY, PETE’S C0ntemporary, Giles M. Kelly, (he’s my Dad, the artist, sailor, merchant marine, Navy Captain, & former Diplomat and Spy, is still on the living side of “with us”, his next birthday is 94.
The men and women, now in their nineties, have had, what may appear to be the most extraordinary span of living, ever lived. [Perhaps in nineteen fourteen there were those who might have said or thought the same thing. But there were fewer Nineteneans then, and a lot less information available.]
These humans have had the most fantastic lifespans, and I am truly grateful for knowing some of them, as Nadine apprears, for having had the privilege and experience of sailing with Captain Pete and knowing Toshi.
To hear the history of the 20th century spoken from birth in London while daddy was “fighting the cold war”, and sung from the time of our return from his Economic Duty in Khartoum in 1964, (I was ten), to being a sailor of sloops and schooners, to my marches on Washington (while growing up in Cleveland Park) fighting the Domino Theory (sorry no sugar, honey), but yielding for a decade to serve in the Coast Guard, all the while, the bright beat of the heart for, justice peace and love, was Pete’s message singing along with MLK and the great litany of usual suspects…..all who work for peace, love and happiness.
Just in case readers land here who have not heard this story about Pete when he was invited to sing in the 1970s in Barcelona, Spain:
“Francisco Franco’s fascist government, the last of the dictatorships that started World War II, was still in power but declining. A pro-democracy movement was gaining strength and to prove it, they invited America’s best-known freedom singer to Spain. More that a hundred thousand people were in the stadium, where rock bands had played all day. But the crowd had come for Seeger.
As Pete prepared to go on, government officials handed him a list of songs that he was not allowed to sing. Pete studied it mournfully, saying it looked an awful lot like his set list. But they insisted: he must not sing any of these songs.
Pete took the government’s list of banned songs and strolled on stage. He held up the paper and said, ‘I’ve been told that I’m not allowed to sing these songs.’ He grinned at the crowd and said, ‘So I’ll just play the chords; maybe you know the words. They didn’t say anything about *you* singing them.’
He strummed his banjo to one song after another, and they all sang. A hundred thousand defiant freedom singers breaking the law with Pete Seeger, filling the stadium with words their government did not want them to hear, words they all knew and had sung together, in secret circles, for years. What could the government do? Arrest a hundred thousand singers? It had been beaten by a few banjo chords and the fame of a man whose songs were on the lips of the whole world.” (reposted from http://www.Clearwater.org )
Absolutely beautiful tale that so personifies Pete the “singly none” world-shifter! Thank you for sharing it.