Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94


I first heard the news when I saw The New York Times obituary Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94 posted on Facebook.

Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 94.

Of course I was a great fan of Pete Seeger.  How could you not be?  I suppose if you were a John Birch Society member you might not.

I read a biography of Pete Seeger once.  The thing that struck me was that every turn in his life’s path, if he could find the hard way to travel, that was the path he chose.  He certainly could have made life easier for himself if he had wanted to.

Pete Seeger is a prime example of a person who refused to remain silent no matter what pressure the powers that be tried to use to silence him.  What he went through to speak his piece just reminds us of how few people like him that are left.  Did the HUAC and its descendants finally win?

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