Music

Remembering Pete Seeger, in his own words and songs

If you want to remember Pete Seeger, you can become an environmental activist, like he was. Or you can battle racism and bigotry, as he did. Or show support for the poor and the working class, as he always did.

But if you really want to do him a favor, sing a song.

I had the great fortune to interview Seeger a few times before his death Monday, at age 94. And that was what I learned.

When he talked to me about his new album, “At 89,” five years or so ago, he wondered whether people should even buy it. “As long as they buy the record to learn a song to sing,” he said in that patrician voice of his, it’s OK. “But if they’re only buying it to listen to it and not trying to learn one of the songs, I’d say don’t buy it.”

Pete Seeger performs on “Camera Three” on Nov. 30, 1965.CBS/Getty Images

He spent much of his last few years singing with and to children in his longtime hometown of Beacon, NY. When my own two sons were little, we listened to the Seeger album “Stories & Songs for Little Children,” which included catchy classics like “Frog Went A-Courting” and the wonderful yarn “Abiyoyo.” They enjoyed it no matter how many times they heard it, and their mom and I sang along.

Seeger was a Harvard dropout and WWII Army veteran. He stood his ground in the face of the powerful House Un-American Activities Committee — and that certainly hurt his career.

But, as he once told me, he never was interested in “a career.” Although he was a recording artist, scoring on the Billboard charts meant nothing to him.

Looking back, he said, “People used to sing around the dinner table. Men used to sing in bars. Women used to sing all sorts of songs to their kids. Now, they say, ‘Put the kid in front of the tube — he’ll fall asleep.’

“Getting people to sing is my main aim.”

Pete Seeger performs at the Beacon Theatre on Dec. 14, 2012.WireImage

Talking to Seeger — or more accurately, listening to Seeger — was always a wonderful adventure. In the course of one conversation, he’d take me from the philosopher Hegel to his classmates of many decades ago to learning to sing harmony with his brother in the back seat of the family’s Model A Ford and onto a surefire recipe for codfish cake (which he liked for his birthday). It was like listening to a history book — one with a great sense of humor.

He certainly wasn’t driven by ego. He freely admitted when he was wrong, as when he recalled to me the first time he heard his pal Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” Seeger told Guthrie the tune was too repetitive, and he sang to me to prove his point: “Da da da da da, da da da da da . . .,” then laughing at how wrong he was.

When he was just 89, I asked Pete how he’d like to be remembered.

“It’s not important that I be remembered,” was his first response. After a little more thought, he said, “If I went down, I’d like to be remembered as somebody who got people to sing.”