Recording Academy Issues Statement on Passing of Folk Singer Pete Seeger

As BWW reported earlier today, legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, whose career spanned eight decades, has died at the age of 94. His grandson Kitama Cahill Jackson told CNN that the singer died of natural causes at New York Presbyterian Hospital Monday evening after six days in the hospital.

Today, The Recording Academy issued the following statement on the passing of the iconic singer:

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014

Three-time GRAMMY winner and Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Pete Seeger was a living history of America's music and conscience. A singer, songwriter, and social activist, he played a major role in the revival of folk music in the late 1950s. His iconic songs - such as "We Shall Overcome, "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," "If I Had A Hammer," and "This Land Is Your Land" - became the soundtrack of '60s protest movement, helping to build a sense of community and capturing the heart and soul of our nation.

For eight decades, he actively confronted injustice in the United States, and used the transformative power of his songs to inspire action. Our music community and our country have lost a National Treasure, and we will continue to honor his memory every time we sing one of his many anthemic songs. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, his friends, and all of the musicians who pay tribute to and continue his legacy every day.

Neil Portnow
President/CEO
The Recording Academy

About Pete Seeger:

As a song writer, he was the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with Joe Hickerson), "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (composed with Lee Hays of The Weavers), and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) andTrini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s, as did Judy Collins in 1964 and The Seekers in 1966.

Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS American Masters episode "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song", Seeger stated it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome".