I’ve written before about Pete Seeger. In a previous article I called him “My
greatest teacher” and he was that as well as an endless source of inspiration
and ideas. Yesterday I watched the
concert at Lincoln Center as a part of Seeger Fest laughing, crying and singing
along and just immersing myself in the amazing “Pete-ness” of the whole
event. I was particularly struck by the
words from Harry Belafonte when he asked who would be the next Pete Seeger. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about
this idea. In the worlds of music, art,
dance, or any creative venture there’s always a thought about what or who will
be the next big thing. I believe there
will never be another Pete Seeger.
That’s partly due to the amazing range of his accomplishments but also
due to a realization that the world has changed. Pete began his musical seed sowing when the
recording industry and radio were still relatively new. When the Weavers sold a couple of million
records that accounted for a huge percentage of the record buying public, when
they appeared on radio or TV with the small number of networks available, a
large portion of the country listened.
While most of us hold in our hands devices that can literally broadcast
around the world via social media the sheer number of people doing exactly the
same thing means that the chances of any one voice, idea or song being heard by
most of the population is decreased. The
media landscape that Pete walked through most of his life was such that when he
spoke it often carried more weight. What would be the modern day equivalent of
his performance of “Big Muddy” on The Smothers Brothers show? A You Tube clip?
Today’s version might reach several million but would it have the same impact?
I don’t think so. Pete’s regular column
in Sing Out! magazine might not have reached the same number that see one of
today’s popular bloggers but the audience that was reading was really paying
attention. In the grand scheme of
things, the readership of the “Appleseeds” column might not have been large,
but the percentage of readers who started writing their own songs, became
activists or joined political movements was huge.
There may be others who will work as tirelessly as Pete
Seeger at cleaning up rivers, opposing wars and violence and pushing for civil
rights and they may be every bit as good a musician as Pete (although that
would be quite a challenge!) but it will be different. As much as he would try to deny it, he was a
star, a major star, a super star, coming from a time in the world of commercial
music making where stars were made. That
star power is something we’re not likely to see again.
Of course if Pete was anything it was optimistic. I often heard him talk about the boundless
opportunities that existed for reaching out and sharing with others. Will there be another single individual who
will be connected to most, if not all of the major figures in American folk
music, introduce audiences to songs from all over the world, record multi-million
selling records, write songs that are covered hundreds if not thousands of
times in every language, invent essential language for music notation, write
the first important book on playing the banjo, influence millions of young
songwriters, musicians and activists through his endless travels? No, most
likely not. But, there are thousands and
maybe millions of people doing amazing and creative work that speaks to the
essential beauty of human dignity and they are sharing that work around the
word right now. Rather than wonder who
might be the next Pete Seeger I would suggest that we all have a part to play
in carrying on his work. The next Pete Seeger would not be recognizable if we’re
looking for anything like what we’ve seen before. We are all Pete Seeger now, and have been for
some time, perhaps the fact that Pete was still here might have blinded us to
that fact. We are all the seeds he planted
and we are the gardeners tending the fields for the future generations.
Here's a couple of photos I took of Pete over the years at People's Music Network gatherings.
