Pete Seeger's banjo head is inscribed with the singer's motto:
This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to Surrender.
The slogan on his banjo head is a tribute to American singer-songwriter Woodie Guthrie, who helped Seeger, who had just dropped out of Harvard, to discover his life's work.
"He went through WWII with a piece of cardboard pasted to the top of his guitar: 'This machine kills fascists,' " Seeger says on the recording. "He really wanted his guitar to help win the war against Hitler. When Woody went into a hospital in 1952 ... I put something similar on my banjo: 'This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.' "
— from NPR Interview, "At 93, Pete Seeger Keeps The Fire Burning Low"
The banjo is now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum.
Curatorial Director Howard Kramer shares insight on his conversation with Seeger and why he decided to put his infamous banjo head in the Museum instead of on auction.
Available for free download on the Internet Archive: Hear Your Banjo Play (1947) — Pete Seeger plays his banjo and narrates the story and presents the origin of the banjo, the development of southern folk music and its influence upon Americans.
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Available for free download on the Internet Archive: Hear Your Banjo Play (1947) — Pete Seeger plays his banjo and narrates the story and presents the origin of the banjo, the development of southern folk music and its influence upon Americans.
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“Participation! It's what my work has been about.”
For over 70 years, Pete has been leading audience sing-a-longs. Singing with young and old, rich and poor, new voices and familiar voices. He has probably done more to instill a love of community singing than any other American. At Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert, Bruce Springsteen talked about the moment when he and Pete sang “This Land Is Your Land” together at Obama's inauguration.
... At some point Pete Seeger decided he'd be a walking, singing reminder of all of America's history. He'd be a living archive of America's music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along, to push American events towards more humane and justified ends. He would have the audacity and the courage to sing in the voice of the people, and despite Pete's somewhat benign, grandfatherly appearance, he is a creature of a stubborn, defiant, and nasty optimism. Inside him he carries a steely toughness that belies that grandfatherly facade and it won't let him take a step back from the things he believes in. At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself. Pete Seeger still sings all the verses all the time, and he reminds us of our immense failures as well as shining a light toward our better angels and the horizon where the country we've imagined and hold dear we hope awaits us.
Musician Ruth Ungar, a longtime friend of the family, remembered seeing an old New Yorker cartoon that hung in the Seeger's kitchen.
"It's a woman answering the phone and she's got a baby under one arm, or maybe two. And she's doing the dishes with one hand and mopping the floor with [her] foot," Ungar explains. "And the quote on the bottom says something like, 'I'm sorry, my husband can't come to the phone right now. He's out fighting for the rights of the oppressed.' "
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...that she doesn’t sing or dance, she only does housework. A friend at the table who worked with her for decades, and Tinya, her daughter, urged her to take credit for Clearwater, both the sloop and, perhaps more importantly, the Festival (officially known as the Great Hudson River Revival) which has been filling the air with folk music since the 60s.
One talent: She was the key programmer for the Festival. Because she was friends with the people who organized the Folk Life Festival in D.C. and was close friends with George and Joyce Wein, organizers of the Newport Folk Festival where she was a member of the board, Toshi often knew about performers long before they were on most people’s radar, even before most of the members of the Festival planning committee had heard of, say, Tracy Chapman. Clearwater may have paid poorly, but performers came because of Toshi; she was the one who pulled it all together.
“She was the one who steered the boat; she had the chart; she kept us off the rocks.”
At age of 93. Pete performed his wife’s five additional verses to his well-loved song, “Turn, Turn, Turn! (There is a Season),” written in 1954 when Toshi took care of two children ages 6 & 8. Toshi made up 5 verses for them, and share them for the first time.
The audience is clearly delighted to hear the story from Toshi's perspective.
The audience is clearly delighted to hear the story from Toshi's perspective.
A time of work
A time for play
A time for night
A time for day
A time to sleep
A time to wake
A time for candles on the cake
A time to dress
A time to eat
A time to sit
and rest your feet
A time to teach
A time to learn
A time for all to take their turn
A time to cry and make a fuss
A time to leave
and catch the bus
A time for quiet
A time for talk
A time to run, a time to walk
A time to get
A time to give
A time to remember
A time to forgive
A time to hug
A time to kiss
A time to close your eyes and wish
A time for dirt
A time for soap
A time for tears
A time for hope
A time for Fall
A time for spring
A time to hear the robin sing
To every thing
Turn, turn, turn
There is a season
Turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven
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