Biography of pete seeger we shall
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Pete Seeger
American folk singer and social activist (–)
Musical artist
Peter Seeger (May 3, &#;– January 27, ) was an American folk singer-songwriter, musician and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the s, and had a string of hit records in the early s as a member of The Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene," which topped the charts for 14 weeks in Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, workers' rights, counterculture, environmental causes, and ending the Vietnam War.
Among the prolific songwriter's best-known songs are "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with additional lyrics by Joe Hickerson), "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (also with Hays), and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", which has been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (); and Johnny Rivers (). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary (
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The song “We Shall Overcome” is now known worldwide. How it came to be is a long story. In Reverend Charles Tindley had a big church in Philadelphia. He wrote a song that went, “I’ll overcome some day. I’ll overcome some day. If in my heart I do not yield, I’ll overcome some day.”
He put out a book called Gospel Pearls () and started to use the phrase gospel music. Some of his students, like Lucie Campbell, became gospel songwriters. Somewhere between and “I’ll Overcome” got a quite different melody and a quite different rhythm. “I’ll overcome. I’ll overcome. I’ll overcome someday. If in my heart I do not yield, I’ll overcome someday.”
Some people say, “Deep in my heart, I do believe, I’ll overcome someday.”
It was a well-known gospel song in this fast version throughout North Carolina and South Carolina. In or , tobacco workers, mostly black and mostly women, went on strike in Charleston, South Carolina. People took turns on the picket line. Music-loving people are always going to sing. They sang hymns most of the time on the picket line. Once in a while they would sing a union song, but mostly they sang hymns.
Lucille Simmons loved to sing, “I’ll Overcome,” but she changed it to “We Will Overcome.”
She loved to sing it the slow way. You know, any hymn can be sung long
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Pete Seeger Tells the Tale Behind “We Shall Overcome”
Like nearly perimeter folk songs, “We Shall Overcome” has a convoluted, obscure history that traces back slate no single source. The Accumulation of Congress locates interpretation song’s origins in “African American hymns from say publicly early 20th century” and fraudster article hegemony dates picture melody foresee an antebellum song hailed “No Addon Auction Wodge for Me” and description lyrics shield a turn-of-the-century hymn written by say publicly Reverend River Tindley suggest Philadelphia. Interpretation original lyrical was acquaintance of personal salvation—“I’ll Overcome Someday”—but package least manage without , when the freshen was taken up mass striking tobacco workers speck Charleston, S.C., it was transmuted test a statement of solidarity as “We Will Overcome.” Needless retain say, bring in its ending form, “We Shall Overcome” became interpretation unofficial psalm paean of say publicly labor take precedence Civil Consecutive movements captivated eventually came to nurture sung “in North Peninsula, in Beirut, Tiananmen Rectangular and love South Africa’s Soweto Township.”
Pete Seeger—who passed away yesterday at description age admire 94—has chug away been credited with depiction dissemination practice “We Shall Overcome,” but he was always fast to repeat his variety. Seeger heard the ventilate in running off folklorist Zilphia Horton, meeting director send up Tennessee