I can't make it to Madison Square Gardens but I will be there in spirit paying my tribute to this remarkable man. Artists who will be there with Pete include Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper and many others. The concert will take place May 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

There will also be stars of folk music such as Warren Haynes, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson. This concert will benefit the Clearwater Organization which Seeger founded in 1969 to keep the waters of the Hudson river clean.

Pete Seeger was born on 3 May 1919 in New York and for nearly 70 years his music has infiltrated all of our lives. The first Seeger song that I heard was "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" . I was fortunate enough to have a teacher around about 1966 who decided that songs such as "Kukaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" was a bit childish for us 9 year olds and introduced us to other, more meaningful, music at the same time planting in our souls the notion that music can have a message as well as telling a story. We also learned "If I Had a Hammer" and 'Little Boxes" which was written by Malvina Reynolds but which I always associated with Pete Seeger. We lived on a safe, nondescript housing estate in Manchester UK at the time. There was nothing wrong with it apart from the lack of inspiration. This was the song that made me want to stretch my wings one day. The song that made me know that I could and that I would ....

Pete Seeger notoriously dislikes huge venues and big concerts - but he was encouraged by Bruce Springstein to play at the inauguration of Obama.

Pete Seeger, along with Woody Guthrie was a pioneer of folk music - for 50 years they participated in weekly "Hootenanny" in New York City which featured many notable folksingers of the time. Joan Baez commented that a hootenanny is to folk singing what a jam session is to jazz.

During the early 1960s at the height of the folk music revival the hootenannies took place every Tuesday night. They featured an open mike and welcomed performers known and unknown, young and old.

Pete Seeger was born into a family full of talented musicians - a talent which has passed into the younger generation of the family. He started to train as a journalist but interrupted his studies at age 20 to pursue his passion for music and folk song. In 1940, through a colleague at the Library of Congress, Alan Lomax a folklorist and musicologist (1915 - 2002), Seeger met the great poet and singer Woody Guthrie (1912 – 1967) a true icon of the protest song. They met at Will Geer's "Grapes of Wrath" benefit concert for migrant workers on March 3, 1940 and together, they founded the "Almanac Singers" a group with a variety of members who sang militant trade union songs, pacifist songs, then after the invasion of the Soviet Union, anti-war songs.

In 1950, with Lee Hayes, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, he founded the group "The Weavers", which played a decisive role in the growth of folk protest songs. Their collaboration with Gordon Jenkins produced Number 1 hit in the United States which held that position for 13 weeks in the autumn of 1950 : "Goodnight Irene".

Pete Seeger left the group and travelled with his banjo across country. He recorded hundreds of titles - the most impressive set of folk songs and protest songs ever recorded in the US during those early days of the folk and protest movment which grew to its height in the 60's. he was an insipiration to the emerging young artists of the time such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

The House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 on July 26, 1956 to cite Pete Seeger for contempt. The charge was that he and 7 others, Arthur Miller the playwright among them, had "failed to cooperate" with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists.

Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955. Questioned about his involvement in the American Communist Party, which he joined in 1940, he refused to testify stating that his freedom of expression and opinion was guaranteed by the First Amendment. He was sentenced to ten cumulative sentences each of one year's imprisonment for contempt. But the sentence was quashed on appeal.

There are a few slightly differing stories about the genesis of this song - but all link to this dark time in Seeger's life when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were all in danger. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quite Flows the Don" which Seeger had jotted down in a notebook.

The song quickly spread around the world was perfomed in both German and French by Marlene Dietrich at the 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany. The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics had a profound effect on those people at that time. It is still one of the most moving anti-war songs almost 50 years later.

Seeger's involvement in militant civil rights earned him the friendship of Martin Luther King Jr. He was also active in protests against the Vietnam War and has waged a life-long crusade for the environment.

His most famous protest songs were "If I had a Hammer", co-written with Lee Hayes and popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary and Trini Lopez and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" based on words from Ecclesiastes and popularized by The Byrds.

He sang songs that sometimes appeared very simple, sing-a-long and happy-clappy - but actually they issued a challenge such as my favourite, already mentioned, "Little Boxes" which attacks the U.S. education system as a perpetrator of conformity.

What Did You Learn in School Today?

Words and Music by Tom Paxton

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie.
I learned that soldiers seldom die.
I learned that everybody's free.
And that's what the teacher said to me.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our government must be strong.
It's always right and never wrong.
Our leaders are the finest men.
And we elect them again and again.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad.
I learned of the great ones we have had.
We fought in Germany and in France.
And some day I might get my chance.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

Seeger recorded a most moving version of this song in support of the civil rights movement. The lyrics are derived from Charles Tindley's gospel song "I'll Overcome Some Day" (1900) and the opening and closing melody from the 19th-century spiritual "No More Auction Block for Me" a song that dates from before the Civil War.

En 1966 he popularized the José Marti song "Guantanamera" at the Newport Folk Festival.

Guantanamera

Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmín encendido
Mi verso es un ciervo herido
Que busca en el monte amparo
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Cultivo una rosa blanca
En julio como en enero
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra
Quiero yo mi suerte echar
El arroyo de la sierra
Me complace más que el mar
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

English Translation :

I am a truthful man
From where the palm tree grows
And before dying I want
To let out the verses of my soul

My verse is light green
And it is flaming red
My verse is a wounded stag
Who seeks refuge on the mountain

I grow a white rose
In July just as in January
For the honest friend
Who gives me his open hand

With the poor people of the earth
I want to cast my lot
The brook of the mountains
Gives me more pleasure than the sea

From Wikipedia : José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853–May 19, 1895) is a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol for Cuba's bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". He also fought against the threat of United States expansionism into Cuba. From adolescence, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans.

Pete Seeger is the archetypal folk musician and protest singer - his intellectual and artistic achievements have established a cultural heritage and tradition that will extend into posterity. To our grandchildren and to theirs.

The proof is in one of the most consistently successful tribute albums ever : "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger" 1998 - a multi-artist two-CD celebration of Seeger's songs, which is "just the beginning of at least four volumes." Producer Jim Musselman calls the package a "labor of love," and he has done a terrific job of choosing the songs from Seeger's vast repertoire, and of matching each tune with an artist "based on either the philosophical fit between the artist and the message of the song and/or their unique musical style." The material is wonderful. Whether you think of Seeger primarily as an interpreter or a crusader for social justice, you'll be impressed by this reminder of just how many classic tunes he has written or cowritten and how many topics he's covered.

Then in 2006 came the Bruce Springsteen album "We Shall Overcome : the Seeger Sessions" on which the champion of blue-collar rock rediscovers his taste for folk orchestras and places himself firmly in the same traditon as Seeger.

I have thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing this homage to Pete Seeger. I knew that his birthday was approaching and have had this hub in mind for a while. I knew that I would love revisiting some songs from my past - but i did have a mercenary intent. It seemed to me that this hub would do well in terms of Adsense and Amazon.

However, as I wrote and listened to Seeger's work I realised that an homage would be better dedicated to what Pete himself would like. So rather than hope to earn a few cents I disabled all ads on this hub (I don't know if the HubPages 40%'s worth will still appear ...) and provided 2 links - one to the ClearWater site so dear to Pete Seeger and one to Bruce Springstein's chosen charities which are in the spirit of Seeger ! Maybe we'll generate a few contributions from visitors - so tell your friends to pop over here for a read and a sing-song!

Also - why not visit Pete on his MySpace : Water Not Weapons - it's fun !

Now 'google' - "For Pete's Sake - Sing !" - to find out if you are lucky enough to be close to an organised birthday event for him. they seem to be everywhere except my back yard.

There were so many videos - see more at the bottom of the page - but before the Comments Box here is a superb video of Pete with another favourite of mine :