Pete Seeger, 1919-2014: Folk Singer, Activist, Environmentalist

Not to mention songwriter, author, musicologist, champion of unions and organized labor, Army veteran, publisher, “Red Scare” target, composer of the modern version of “We Shall Overcome”, and Occupy protester:

Pete Seeger, the American troubadour, folk music singer and activist, has died at a hospital in New York. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, who said that the singer died on Monday night after six days in hospital.

Born in New York City into an artistic family, his mother, Constance, played violin and his father, Charles, a musicologist, was a consultant to the Resettlement Administration, which gave artists work during the Depression.

He first gained fame as a member of the Weavers in 1948, and the quartet went on to have hits with their versions of songs including Goodnight Irene. Later in the 1960s folk revival he performed with Bob Dylan and, more recently, with Bruce Springsteen. He performed and recorded for six decades and was still an activist: as recently as October 2011, he marched in New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street protests; and he wrote to Russian president Vladimir Putin requesting the release of Captain Peter Willcox and the Arctic 30 in November 2013.

Lengthy obituaries have been posted to the NY Times and NY Daily News.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.