A Sa LE ea TO A AT TDS, PI ES BR TRE BES SIE ARF DNL TRE ARTI TO

On the other hand, there’s another man I used to disapprove of

reatly. Did you ever ie of the philosopher Eric Hoffer? He worked as a longshoreman, never went into academia, but he wrote several books. He says “Crea- tivity is nice, but maintenance is the essential art of civiliza- tion,” and I’m sure every woman will agree with me.

RO: Do you read much philoso

PS: I’m afraid the nearest I got to Plato was reading the book by LF. Stone called The Death Of Socrates. Stone was a friend of mine, a socialist and a journalist, and a fighter for human rights of all sorts. He’s dead now, but he had a newsletter called IF. Stone’s Weekly which I read every week; it was wonderful. But he had a heart attack, and the doctor said you better quit it, but he couldn’t quit everything and he ended up studying ancient Greek so that he could read Plato in the original. He then came out with a book telling in contemporary English what the trial of Socrates was all about. Socrates was quite the elitist as you know, and he had been lecturing to a group of young men on how the government should be carried on, and one of these young men made himself the dictator of Athens, and it was a horrifying few years. - Some people were executed, some people fled for their lives. Socrates stayed living in Athens the whole time

while his former stu- dent was mismanaging things. Finally the people of Athens rose up and kicked out the dictator and took over Athens again, but Socrates kept on with his little study circle of young men, and finally a jury of five hundred

eople — they drew e — and five hun- dred were selected to be on the jury, and he was accused of offending the oe He did

is best to antagonize them. The foreman of the jury was a tanner of hides,

and he said

PS: Oh, he would rather go down in history as a martyr than as somebody who fled.

RO: Would you agree with the parallel with yourself and the House of Unamerican Activi- ties, where you stuck to your principles...

PS: Of course, I wasn’t

theories which I have, I’ma strong believer in independent activity, whether it’s small business, or small this or small that, and I call it cultural guerilla tactics. I’d come into a college town and knock on the door of the local radio station, saying “Tm giving a concert at the local college to-

ATT TT ee Hp CC a LU Ct

This CD centains twenty-three sengs se- lected frem Felkways archives ef 3,000

unreleased Seeger tracks. sengs en themes such as civil rights, unien erganizing and the anti-war meve- ment, it features well knewn Seeger

Made up ef

like this,” and I'd sing a few lines on the air o some song appropriate to the occasion, and then five minutes later I'd be off the air before the disc jockey would

et a telephone call Font the American Legion or the John Birch Society [saying] “what do you mean having that commie traitor on this station?” “Oh I didn’t know he was a commie traitor, I’m so sorry, I won't have him on again.” But I’d be long gone. So, I call it cultural guerilla tactics.

things like “Shepherds should herd sheep, tanners should tan

eriginals as "My Get Up And Ge," "English Is Cuh-Ray-Zee” and "Waist Deep In The

Big Muddy." It alse includes tracks such as "Little Bexes,” "Wimeweh,” "Held The

RO: Were you thinking het you were on trial that you wouldn’t have

hides, philoso- phers should govern.” And when the declared him

uilty he was entitled by law to suggest what his sentence should be. He said “My sentence should be to live in the temple of Diana, given free food for the rest of my life.”

RO: He definitely didn’t try to get out of it.

PS: That’s right. And when his a arranged to bribe a uard and arrange for im to escape, he refused to escape. He said “No, I have been sentenced and I will take my sentence.”

RO: Do you believe that he said that be-

cause of the principle?

Line” and "Wasn't That A Time." a Seeger cellectien as I've ever seen, it's seventy-three minutes ef timeless music.

threatened with death. I think if I had been I would have gone off to Canada long before the committee questioned me.

RO: How important was it to stick to your

rinciples there, the Paniie of expression?

PS: Well, I was in a much stronger position than the average per- son. I did not have a job to be fired from, and all that committee did was give me free secre 6 so I got more ookings when I went out singing for colleges! It was humourous, for me the fifties were a vindication of a lot of

night, do you have a disc jockey program I could mention it on?” They’d say “Who are you?” and I said “Well, I was in the Weavers,” “Oh yeah, I remember the Weavers, “Goodnight Irene’, come on, we'll talk for amoment.” Five minutes later I was on the air and he’d [be] saying “What have you been doing since the Weavers quit?” I'd say “Well, the blacklist meant they didn’t get any jobs in nightclubs — I 80 from college to colleg,

lege.” “What do you sing?” “Well, I sing old folks songs, and some modern union songs, and a song

ae

As great

trouble getting onto campuses, and that you were getting

free publicity? PS: Well of

course I didn’t

know for sure if I’d be _ jail act it

appened, I had a ve son lawyer and he “ worked for me for nothing. I did have to

ay eventually some, I Pa to raise $15,000. People all over the world including Canada, Britain and Australia, people raised money and sent in thousands of dollars to pay for the court ex- pene You know, you

ave to pay for the minutes, the record of the trial has to be typed = and printed, so about $15,000 in court costs I had to raise. But my lawyer stuck with me, and he arranged for postponements and

Ase 11

postponements, and every year after the Korean War ended things got a little bit more free in the United States of America.

Back in the days of Senator McCarthy was the low point, and then Eisenhower, stopping the Korean War, things started lightening up and lightening up until the sixties when I was finally able to sing in big state colleges,

a in ‘55 I was only able to sing in Oberam College and McGill and places like that. Actually, I didn’t sing at Brooklyn Col- lege until ‘67 because the president said “As long as I’m president, Pete Seeger will not sing on this campus,” and I didn’t. But he finally retired, and when he retired, then | sang on the campus.

RO: So the ‘50's actu- ally ended up working to your benefit?

PS: Well, in a crazy kind of way. Of course I was still blacklisted off of network television. I did get a few jobs ona syndicated show, The

David Suskind Show.

He interviewed me, [and] somebody from the audience said “Mr. Seeger, are you black- listed?” I replied “I have no proof of any- thing except I don’t get any jobs on network tv,” and Suskind looked me in the eye and said “Mr. Seeger, I can tell yous you ARE black- isted.” I got on Play- boy’s Penthouse Party, it was a big family joke, me being with all those young bosomy women.

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