Never could stand the man.
He was a Founding Father of the “WHY DON”T YOU SHUT UP AND SING” generation of lefty/liberal/progressive performers who cannot keep their music separate from their simplistic political views.
I think I remember reading that Seeger had off shore bank accounts. Had a bunch of money stashed away. He was a phony praying on the useful idiots.
Also I had never heard Burl Ives was a commie.
Now he can pick his banjo for Uncle Joe and Mao and Ho. Never liked him and despised the way the MSM portrayed him as an American minstrel.
So he ran around singing his red-diaper ditties for seven decades. At the end of the day, did he actually change anything in this world for the better?
You may not like his politics, But Pete Seeger sums up my feelings about our POTUS in his song Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
Seems like some folks are still following that Big Fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnJVkEX8O4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here are the final verses of the Pete Seeger song:
Now Im not going to point any moral
Ill leave that for yourself.
Maybe youre still walking, youre still talking,
Youd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers, that old feeling comes on,
Were waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy,
The big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy,
The big fool says to push on.
Waist deep, neck deep,
Soon even a tall man will be over his head.
Were waist deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool says to push on.
Hope this is just the first of several Pete Seeger lookbacks by Mr. Kengor.
The next one should start with Hitler invading the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and how Seeger & his fellow commies tied themselves in flipflopping pretzels to support an `antifascist’ war effort that they had despised only the day before.
It should be titled, “This Machine Kills Fascists”.
Check this list out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist
(Sean Penn’s Daddy is one the list as is “Grampa Walton(Will Geer)).
...at least it's a start...
And what timing. Seeger goes to the collective farm in the sky and Salon is in full “communism is great” mode.
Was on a ski trip last week. One of our party was a former hippie-chick of the ‘60’s. She & her Vietnam-Vet husband were avid folk music fans. When I passed the News that Pete Seeger died, I couldn’t help but add, “The old Stalinist is finally dead.” She was none to pleased, but didn’t argue the point.
bkmk
Founded in 1940, the objective of the American Peace Mobilization was to keep America out of the war against Hitler. This also meant no Lend-Lease money to Britain.
Why did the American Peace Mobilization take such a position? It did so because Hitler signed an alliance with Stalin. For American communists, any friend of Stalin was a friend of theirs. They literally swore an oath, formally pledging to a Soviet America and to the triumph of Soviet power in the United States. They were unflinchingly devout Soviet patriots.
What the author neglects to mention is that when Hitler broke his alliance with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, Pete Seeger and his comrades suddenly reversed position and not only lobbied for United States military intervention, but actually joined the war effort. In other words Seeger wanted nothing to do with the war in Europe as long as Hitler was only killing Jews and invading capitalist countries, but as soon as Hitler threw Stalin under the bus and started killing commies, Seeger and his peeps demanded that FDR go all in.
I grew up in the Hudson Valley where Seeger lived for the last 40 years or so and I still have roots in the area. Like a lot of Marxists, Seeger used the environmental movement to push his communist agenda, particularly to young children through various programs that he would peddle through the local school districts, girl scouts, Hudson River Clearwater, etc. I resigned from the local Chamber of Commerce about 15 years ago when it co-sponsored a school program with Seeger and refused to allow my children to attend Seeger events.
Interestingly enough, he might have been the very first red diaper baby!