TO HIS FOLLOWERS, Seeger is an institution-a preacher with a banjo in place of a psalm book. If at times his songs ring flat or his music strikes a strident chord, well, the audience comes for the presence, not the show. “I go to a Pete Seeger concert for a hit of him,” song writer, Country Joe McDonald says, “He could stand up there and play the chair for all I care.”
If Wayne Newton is at home in the casinos of Las Vegas, Seeger’s abode is the impromptu political benefit. Over the years, he has worked with so many social movements that journalists have paid more attention to his politics than to his music. Most everywhere he sang, controversy followed. “Khrushchev’s songbird,” the John Birch Society called him; “a saint” was Bob Dylan’s word. Writers argue over whether he is a revolutionary or a victim of red-hunting: a subversive or a patriot.
The listeners understand Seeger has been blacklisted; it adds a touch of danger to his performance, like books read under the covers. Yet for all his notoriety, despite being one of the most picketed, boycotted performers in American history, his private life remains a closely held secret.