Monday, February 3, 2014

Pete Seeger: A Long Influential Life

     
With the death of Pete Seeger last week, I began thinking about my music listening experience and what influences he had on me. 


     Listening to music for me, started when radios became more common and radio formats changed . So as a kid most of what I listened to was country and western. However, I did hear Pete Seeger. I was becoming much more interested in music when folk music became popular in the fifties. I have old reel to reel tapes of the Weavers. I can't play my tapes anymore but I won't throw them away. So folk music grabbed my attention. I was aware of Woody Guthrie ,but didn't hear much of his music. Joan Baez was a biggie.

    Then rock and roll came along and grabbed my attention. I was a teenager when rock came on the scene so I fell heavily for rock and roll. I still like rock and listen to a lot of it.

    Along with these influences I was exposed to classical music and so called popular music. 

    My music listening didn't change much until I retired and had time to explore other genres. I also found a radio station, CKUA, that programmed all types of music along with much information about the music. So I was exposed to jazz  and blues of all kinds and began to listen to these two. This station also has programs that concentrate on very specific types of music. One example would be "Voices in Jazz." One type of music that I enjoy is bel canto which is choral classical. It's very beautiful. So here's a plug for my favorite station which is on the Internet.

    So Pete Seeger was one of the major influences on me. I liked his slant on social justice and how his protest songs influenced society. Pete Seeger was active and influential in the music world until just recently. In 2012 he cut his last record. Pete Seeger was on the music scene long before I was born. His influence will carry on long after I am gone.

33 comments:

  1. I also enjoy all kinds of music; a song or tune is always in my head & heart. That may sound corny but music has been a comfort to my soul & mind for as long as I can remember. Music one of God's special creations...

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    1. Music does many things for people. I think performers and musicians take things to a higher level.

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  2. Sorry to hear about the sad news. Passion in music is a very good thing which makes us to get relaxed.

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    1. That's the great thing about music...it can do many things for us.

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  3. He was one of the all time greats.

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    1. I didn't realize that he became a prominent musician so early in his life.

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  4. Oh I love Pete Seegar my Dad was a huge music fan and there was music in our house all the time so I was lucky enough to be exposed to all different kinds. Oh Red there is nothing better than the love of music in our lives. B

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    1. You were fortunate to be exposed to all kinds of music when you were young.

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  5. Yes, Pete Seeger was one of the icons of the sixties, reminds me of exciting times then.

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    1. I think Pete Seeger's commercial success was in the sixties but he was well known starting in the thirties...That's before I was born!

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  6. Pete Seeger is a legend. His influence will definitely carry on for a long time to come.

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    1. Pete Seeger was influential in a large number of causes. he always seemed to be ahead of the curve.

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  7. I believe that Pete Seeger was one of the great musical influences of the twentieth century!

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  8. isn't it neat that a man can have such a wide-ranging and long-lasting influence - for good? if we could all be so lucky - even in the smallest of ways.

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  9. I saw in the news where he had died. A music legend lost. I've always favored Country Western, but there's so much music out there to enjoy.

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    1. I like the old style country and western.

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  10. I read one story of his trying to hop a first train and when getting off he broke his banjo.

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  11. He was a velvet-voiced force to be reckoned with. Rest in peace, Mr. Seeger.

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    1. We need Pete Seegers more than ever today.

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  12. He was a music great. I loved all the songs he wrote that Peter Paul and Mary made famous:)

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    1. Peter Paul and Mary were a first class act.

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  13. Pete Seeger was very influential - and I find it great that music can do that. I've always love folk music and singer-songwriter music - it's kind of like listening to a story.

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    1. There's still lots of good folk music today but it's not played very much. I hear it on the radio station I linked to.

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  14. I was speaking with my father just last night about Pete Seeger, and how I had seen him a year or so ago on The Colbert Report in what must have been one of his final televised performances. It was an inspiration for me, someone who has always loved the Seeger and Guthrie protest folk song tradition, to see that he was still as sharp and devoted to his love of life, music, and social justice as ever. My father and I both hope to live into our nineties and beyond, and we have decided that to do so, we must do as Pete Seeger did: never stop creating and never stop finding the joy in life. The two things are inextricably linked in our minds.

    I am sorry to hear of this, but I appreciate your touching post.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by and following Hiawatha House. I hope you achieve your goal.

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  15. He will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, Pete.

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    1. We need more Pete Seegers to lead the way for us.

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  16. An amazing man. I'm glad he had a good long life.

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  17. I grew up listening to country and western while eating breakfast before going to school. Got hooked on folk music in high school and sang lots of songs at 4-H camp. This week when I heard Pete had died I couldn't help but remember good times associated with those songs.

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  18. Pete Seeger was one of those people who probably influenced a generation - whether that generation realised it or not. Never saw him live, but I remember seeing is half sister Peggy a lot when we lived in London.

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