The Incompleat Folksinger

by Pete Seeger, Jo Metcalf Schwartz (Editor)

Pete Seeger has sung as courageously as anyone has ever spoken, always in defense of the poor, the oppressed, and the exploited. His songs have enriched his life and his life has filled his songs with every emotion dear to the soul. But his deep understanding of sorrow and injustice have not spoiled a single note. He sings to enliven and encourage, to delight and tell tales. He snatches the riches of folksinging from as many sources as he can find and gives them freely and gladly to any audience that cares to listen. Decades of work and travel have made him famous but he remains forever in tune with the folk. He describes his friends and inspirations, his conflicts with the bosses and the government, his favorite songs, stories, and instruments, and the kind of learning that comes from listening carefully. "Any fool can get complicated," he writes. "We are born in simplicity but die of complications."

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Politics

596 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

About the author

Peter Seeger, better known as Pete Seeger, was a folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. As a member of the Weavers, he had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. However, his career as a mainstream performer was seriously curtailed by the Second Red Scare: he came under severe attack as a former member of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Later, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in the late 1950s and the 1960s.

He was perhaps best known as the author or co-author of the songs "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s. Seeger was also widely credited with popularizing the traditional song "We Shall Overcome", which was recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists, and became the publicly perceived anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement soon after musicologist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halfway through this book, I ran downtown and bought a banjo.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read all or most of this book about 30 years ago, after I finished high school. Seeger contributed to my education in ways that high school and later education never did. I obtained through the inter-library loans program many of the books to which he referred, and I learned much through reading what he had read. His work, and what he had read, impacted much of my thinking, but also helped me to learn to question what I was told by my parents, teachers, and other adults who were around as I grew up, and help me to to learn to critically examine what I had been taught, and what I would be taught.

The high quality of the writing in his work, and in the works to which he referred also positively effected my own writing. One of my teachers asked me how I got (a very high mark) in his class, after I badly failed the English grammar unit. At first I thought he was suggesting that I had cheated, and responded "I don't know, you marked my work!". Once I understood what he was asking, I asked if he had noticed my bibliographies. When he acknowledged the breadth of my reading, I suggested that as we learn to speak what we hear (the way others speak), so perhaps we learn to write what we read.

In university, I gave reading lists to some fellow students who were having a serious problem meeting the mandatory minimum English standards to graduate. (Think of an honours math student, all courses except English over 95% as of his fourth year, who was not going to graduate because he was failing English.) Those reading lists were almost entirely comprised of works referenced by Seeger. All of the students who made an effort to get through the list were able to exceed the standard, and so were able to graduate with their class.

I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are interested in life-long learning, and who are willing to chase down and read the other books to which he has referred.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's my new handbook for life. I don't think I could say enough, or eloquently enough, to describe my love for it.

[Denis Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pete's great. He advises you right off not to get bogged down in a linear front to back reading, rather to treat it as companion, available for consultation when & where needed . . . like a dictionary or guide book, a map. How cool is that!!?? Unfortunately I had to return it to the San Diego library. But I'm on the lookout for one of my own now.

[Adam Carrico · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you consider yourself a fan of folk music, this is a must read. It’s like a textbook introduction to the field and genre. The content covered is expansive, but unpretentious. On top of Seeger’s knowledge of the music, reading through his thoughts on humanity and life is heartwarming. It’s broad enough to remain applicable to modern times. I can’t recommend this enough to anyone with more than a slight interest in folkmusic.

[John Barclay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterpiece. It's like stepping into Pete's mind, or a long performance and conversation with the man. So many different aspects of that exceptional person captured in words and a few pictures. It's only incomplete in that there is clearly so much more there than we could have in a book three times the size.

Read and reread this book throughout my life, always came away happier.