Growing up in the 1960s, I had heard a few songs of his in school, sung “Where Have all the Flowers Gone” in summer camp and saw him as a distant dot on a stage at anti-war rallies. With his passing, as I try to take the long view of his life, I am tainted not by what I know from books, recordings and word-of-mouth legacy, but by the small personal experiences I had of him. To do justice to the legacy of Pete Seeger, indeed, one would have to write about every significant movement for social justice in the United States, if not the world, within the last 80 years. His connection to the labor rebellions of the Great Depression and the post-War years, battles with HUAC and the anti-communist witch-hunts, participation in the Civil Rights movement in the South, agitation against the wars in Vietnam, Central America, and the Middle East, building a community effort to clean industrial waterways, acting against global warming-these are all rich areas where Pete Seeger would have to be included.

It is not possible to sum up the contributions of Pete Seeger in this commentary, nor in any article, anthology or book. But I will return to this seemingly absurd point later. Country music. Nashville, I believe, owes Pete a statue in the center of town. Not folk music, mind you, as that has been around for some time.

Part of the thesis of the film, called Open Country, is that Pete Seeger should be considered a founder of country music. In the course of working on an excruciatingly long-term film project on the politics of country music, the influence of Pete Seeger arises quite often. I was even thinking of him the night news of his death flashed on my screen. I spend a lot of time thinking about Pete Seeger.

Carry it On! by Pete Seeger