Pete Seeger Research Paper

Every time Johnny Cash would step out in front of a crowd he would greet his millions of followers with the same line: “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”. He would be greeted with roars, hollers, and cheers whenever he was seen. Cash influenced a generation and blended music genres to bring the country together. Known as The Man in Black, for it was the only color he would wear after 1957 (Streissguth 80). Cash through his more than 50 year career had thirteen number 1 hits (Macnie). Johnny Cash evolved country music and became a quintessential American hero, admired and adored by millions.

The 1960’s was an era of revolution and social change in the United States. Painters, dancers, actors, musicians and many more artists all wanted to portray societies immoral issues through their art. Musicians played a very prominent role in providing society with an outlet on the importance of this change. Within these musicians was a folk rock singer and songwriter by the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, or as America knows him, Bob Dylan. He is known and honored around the world for his influence on popular music and culture, however, he is much more than that (Wood 313). The beginning of Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter was marked by his repetitive emphasis on social change throughout his protest songs which include “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”; with each song, Dylan exposes many issues that affected, not one, but many lives as he aimed to spread social and political consciousness to society.

Perhaps one of the strongest demonstrations of the power of music in “Sonny’s Blues” is the street revival. Everyone has seen these types of revivals before. Every song has been heard by the crowd, but when the music starts everyone stops, watches, and listens. “As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces” (57). The music from the street revival helps lifts the hopelessness from the crowd and provides a sense of relief. Music is able to bring people from all walks of life together. It gives them a sense of calm and ease, an assurance that something is there to help. Music listens.

“You’ve got to listen to the heavens, you got to try to understand. The greatness of their movement is just as small as it is grand.” Most young adults of my generation do not know who The Grateful Dead are, but they unknowingly dawn the apparels and slang created in the counterculture of the bands following the Deadheads. The band, The Grateful Dead, became popular in the 60s and carried out wide spread recognition and fame into the 80s. Their calming, peace-promoting music became popular because it ‘transported’ people, it took them away from whatever they were going through in their life and set them on a new path. Fans of the band

“Many commentators have since claimed that peace and good will arose not in spite of disaster, but because of it. The hunger, rain, mud, and unserviced toilets conspired to create an adversity against which people could unite and bond” (Cooke 178). Most of the fans present expressed how they felt about the war in riots and violence. “Woodstock Ventures retained its exclusive rights, but the memory of Woodstock Nation belongs to the world; it is irrevocably imbedded in American culture” (Cooke 179). Not only was the war an influence, but the gathering itself influenced the historical outcome. “The most common feeling among all parties-producers, musicians, audience, town, and nation-was the sense of history in the making. It was the largest group of people ever gathered, and the greatest roster of musicians ever assembled, and it became the defining moment of a generation” (Cooke 178).

Willie Nelson is know around the world as a country music superstar. He has had his run ins with depression and drug abuse. In the younger years of Willie nelson's life his mom and dad divorced his dad left forever and his mom had to raise him and his sister Bobbie Nelson.Even though he came from a rough childhood he turn out to have a pretty good life right now he is worth 25 Million dollars.

Pete Seeger was a smart man when it came to politics and being a musician, he got accepted to Harvard University, although he wasn’t your average college student; he couldn’t study which lead him into feeling his classes and dropping out. After Seeger dropped out of school he went into politics, Seeger always had a thing for music and politics; he had a lot of hobbies such as music, painting, hiking, and he loved being outdoors (Winkler 2011, 2). Pete’s father loved academics and enjoyed playing music, he was a great pianist and played harmony, his colleagues liked hearing him play, they thought he was a great musician. Seeger learned a lot from his dad. Seeger and Guthrie came from singing in the saloons, radio shows, political rallies, Guthrie wrote thousands of songs. Seeger and Guthrie both had a lot in common; they both were musicians; and both enjoyed playing music, rather it was playing with a banjo or writing music. Guthrie and Seeger appeared at a few gatherings at an American piece mobilization March in Washington DC to protest the nations drift toward war (Winkler 2011, 24-25). They were the only band who rehearsed on stage before performing. Guthrie and Seeger were known as the Almanac singers; the Almanac singers wrote their first antiwar songs, they were looking for someone to record them. Even though in a couple of their

To some the term folk music was ‘the music of peasants’. Pete Seeger, who was nicknamed the “father of American folk music,” by Bruce Springsteen, did not like that term, because he was no peasant.

This is a story of the man who owned the 60’s music generation with his guitar finesse. Hendrix is perceived as a guitar sorcerer who used his teeth to play the strings, guitar between his legs and behind his head in brand new outbursts of musicality.

Musician, song-writer, and social activist, Pete Seeger wrote the hit “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” which was popularly covered by the American rock band, The Byrds. Seeger adapted the lyrics from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Before delving deeper into the meaning of Ecclesiastes 3 in class, I would have seen little to no difference between the meaning of the Bible and the meaning of the Seeger song. For me initially, both the song and chapter expressed the notion of life’s beautiful and dark times: the time for joyously dancing about the room or the time for feeling frozen with grief. But, when reading and discussing Ecclesiastes in class, I finally read the verses in a larger context. As a whole book Ecclesiastes has a more negative tone, even expressing the uselessness or the meaninglessness

The 1960’s in America was often referred to as an age of protest because of not only the social protests that have taken place, but also for the upbringing of protest music, which became very popular during that era. The roots of protest music were largely from folk music of American musicians during 1950’. Folk musicians, such as Joe Hill, composed labor union protest songs and distributed song booklets, hoping to “fan the flames of discontent.” (Rodnitzky pg. 6) Symbolically, this meant that the songs, the fan, would reduce the uncontrollable social protests that the United States government caused with the misleading information that they did not keep their word on, or the flames of discontent. Other folk musicians, such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, traveled around the United States spreading their “message music” and becoming involved in political movements. Guthrie and Seeger were the pioneers of protest music, bringing their folk music to New York City and merging it with urban music. Woody’s songs were about the masses, often identifying problems and offering solutions. While Seeger was cautious about referring to his music as folk music, preferring the term “people’s music,” meaning that not everyone may had the same thoughts, but they all expressed it in their own unique musical sense. For both Woody and Seeger, folk music was a necessity in these protests, when the needs

Folk musicians Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash always held a high respect for each other, even before they officially met in 1964. At this point in their careers, both had a sensible understanding of what it was like to be under the stress of the spotlight and the pressure of the public’s expectations. They defended each other from critics and had a positive influence on one another that inspired them to do what they wished with their music. Dylan praised Cash for both his musical genius and the way his music had the ability to touch one’s soul, while Cash was one of Dylan’s heaviest supporters at Columbia Records. It is the effects that both Dylan and Cash left on each other and also folk, country, and popular music that made them work so well together.

Ingram’s journal focuses on songs of environmental protest. The piece discusses Pete Seeger's God Bless the Grass and how it was the first album entirely dedicated for the advocacy of the environment. During the sixties environmental protest started to change the ideologies of and corruptness of big business. They wanted advances in sewage treatment and the disposal of industrial wastes into the Hudson River. Therefore, protest songs like Seeger’s where fundamental in getting these advances and making the people of America more conscious of the environment. Finally, this source is important to my research since it discuss protest music around the environment. Most of my sources discuss how music changed the antiwar and civil rights movements

Pete Seeger is an extremely talented artist who is very well known for his contributions to folk music. Pete Seeger is an absolute inspiration to many people around the world today. Not only was Pete Seeger just a singer/songwriter, he was also an important political activist, the author of several dozen books, an environmentalist as well as a peace advocator. He plays a very significant role in terms of historical influences. As a man of many identities, Pete Seeger will always remain an influential individual in regards to American History. It is definitely worth discussing the many roles Pete Seeger acquired and how each of these roles assisted in impacting American History.

The book “Arthur Lee Alone Again Or” by Barney Hoskyns contains four lengthy chapters excluding its prologue and its epilogue. It is a non-fiction book, which tackles Arthur Lee and the band he fronted’s journey towards being recognized as one of the most influential groups during the late 60’s. Their journey towards the path of fame is summarized below.