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American folk singer-songwriter and political activist Pete Seeger sadly passed away on Monday (January 27) at New York–Presbyterian Hospital. He was 94.

Seeger wrote/co-wrote some of the most significant folk songs of all time, including “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, “Turn, Turn, Turn!”, and “If I Had a Hammer”.

Pete Seeger was born on May 3, 1919 in Manhattan, New York City to Charles Seeger, a musicologist, and Constance de Clyver Edson Seeger, a concert violinist. He developed an interest in folk music in his teens and a particular focus on the five-string banjo after witnessing family string bands playing at a music festival in North Carolina. He would spend the next few years trying to master the instrument.

Seeger briefly attended Harvard in the late 1930s, but was distracted by politics and folk music and dropped out. Shortly after he began touring with The Vagabond Puppeteers.

In 1939, Seeger took a job assisting Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress. The project aimed to identify the “race” and “hillbilly” music that best represented American folk music. His singing ambitions were also being realised in this period as he regularly appeared on Alan Lomax and Nicholas Ray’s weekly radio show, “Back Where I Come From,” alongside the likes of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. Seeger and other “Back Where I Come From” performers would take part in a command performance at the White House for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941 titled “An Evening of Songs For American Soldiers”.

In the same period, Seeger co-founded The Almanac Singers with Millard Lampell, Lee Hays and Woody Guthrie. The group were part of the Popular Front liberal alliance and promoted various progressive causes, including racial tolerance and workers’ rights. Their anti-war songs would be the subject of an F.B.I. investigation which concluded that the group were a threat to recruitment and morale. They disbanded in 1942/early 1943.

In 1949, Seeger formed the Weavers with Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman. The group’s biggest success was their cover of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” which sold two million copies in 1950.

“Goodnight, Irene” – The Weavers

Other Weavers hits included “On Top of Old Smoky,” “Dusty Old Dust,” “Wimoweh,” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine”. Although the group were less overtly political than The Almanac Singers had been, the “red scare” of the early 1950s led to them being blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). They made a return in 1955, and released some popular recordings, but Seeger left in 1958 over creative differences (he didn’t want to perform a jingle for a cigarette commercial).

Seeger was found guilty of contempt of Congress in 1961 for his earlier refusal to name personal and political associations before the HUAC. He was sentenced to 10 concurrent one-year prison terms, but this was overturned on a technicality.

His well established folk music credentials and steadfast commitment to his progressive political beliefs made Seeger somewhat of a hero to the new breed of folk singers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Judy Collins. When the television show “Hootenanny” refused to book Seeger because of his controversial political history, Dylan and Baez were among the artists who chose to boycott the show in protest.

Songs that Seeger had written or popularised became staples of the folk revival and several artists would record hit versions, including the Byrds with “Turn, Turn, Turn!” and Peter, Paul and Mary with “If I Had a Hammer” (co-written with Lee Hays).

“If I Had A Hammer” – Pete Seeger

“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” (co-written with Joe Hickerson) was also covered by many artists, including Marlene Dietrich, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bobby Darin, the Brothers Four, Brian Hyland, and the Searchers. Seeger’s 1964 single version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. Here’s a live version from several years later:

“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” – Pete Seeger

“We Shall Overcome,” which Seeger helped popularise, became an unofficial anthem for the civil rights movement, and has been used as a rallying cry time and time again by those fighting social injustice.

Pete Seeger talks about the history of “We Shall Overcome”

In 1963, Seeger had a hit with “Little Boxes,” penned by his friend Malvina Reynolds. The song was a satire on suburban conformity.

“Little Boxes” – Pete Seeger

Seeger continued to release new music that challenged social and political conventions, and controversial issues of the day, including “Beans in My Ears” and “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” which attacked President Johnson’s Vietnam policy. The latter song, set in World Word II, but symbolic of the Vietnam War, gained some notoriety when Seeger’s performance of it on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was censored by CBS management on political grounds.

“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” – Pete Seeger

In November 1969, Seeger took part in the Vietnam Moratorium March on Washington, DC, and led 500,000 protesters in singing John Lennon’s song “Give Peace a Chance”.

Environmental issues were also important to Pete Seeger. In 1966, he co-founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental organisation which supported work to clean-up the Hudson River. The first Great Hudson River Revival (aka Clearwater Festival) took place that year and continues to this day.

Pete Seeger remained a prolific performer in the last four decades of his long life, releasing albums all the way up to 2012’s “A More Perfect Union” and “Pete Remembers Woddy”. In January 2009, at the age of 89, he played a pre-inaugural concert for President Obama, teaming with Bruce Springsteen on “This Land Is Your Land”. Four months later, Seeger’s 90th birthday was celebrated with a star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden, featuring performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Dave Matthews, and Roger McGuinn. Proceeds went to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. In August 2009, he appeared at the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival, which he had helped found in 1959.

In a statement about Seeger’s death released yesterday, President Obama said:

Over the years, Pete used his voice – and his hammer – to strike blows for worker’s rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation.

And he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Pete’s family and all those who loved him.

On the big issues, Pete Seeger will be remembered by many as a man who was on the right side of history.

Pete Seeger is survived by his son, Daniel; his daughters, Mika and Tinya; two half-sisters, Peggy and Barbara; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His wife, Toshi, died last year.