The Day the Music Hides

On January 18, 2008, Pete Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen and grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger to honor President Barack Obama in the finale of his Inaugural concert (click here for video). With this patriotic gesture, Seeger celebrated a new chapter in American history and closed a chapter in his own. Out of the millions that watched his performance, few might have recalled that fifty years back, Seeger had been labeled anti-American and banned from public performances and radio airplay.

Sixty years before Seeger took the stage in Washington DC, he and three other musicians calling themselves The Weavers landed their first gig in the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Shortly after, the group had landed a contract with Decca Records and by 1949 had a hit song with Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene”. Over the next decade, Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman popularized traditional folk songs, inspiring the “folk boom” that followed in the 50’s and 60’s which included The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary. Hit songs included labor songs and folk classics like “On Top of Old Smoky” “The Wreck of the John B” “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Pay Me My Money Down.” Their inspirational performances were typically sing-alongs, with Seeger shouting out the lyrics before each line.

Led by the witch hunts of Senator Joe McCarthy, the Red Scare of the 1950’s included the investigation and blacklisting of many performing artists suspected of touting anti-American believes. As the Weavers had a history of singing protest songs and folk songs with a leftist and pro-Union slant, they soon came under scrutiny. When the group shied away from their more controversial material, they were criticized by the left-wing press for selling out. Meanwhile, right-wing and anti-Communist groups protested at their performances. Soon, the Weavers had found themselves under FBI surveillance and were blacklisted by the entertainment industry. No longer able to play large venues or get radio airplay, the Weavers lost fans. In 1953, Decca terminated their recording contract and deleted their songs from its catalog.

In 1955, the group reunited to perform a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. As a result, the Weavers were signed by the independent Vanguard Records and a recording of the concert was released. By this point in time, folk music was gaining popularity and the effect of McCarthy’s extremism was fading. While the Weavers found renewed success, however, Seeger left in bad terms. After the group was hired to provide the vocals for a cigarette commercial, Seeger – who was opposed to tobacco – left the group after fulfilling his commitments in 1958. Seeger went on to have a fulfilling solo career.

Given McCarthy’s history of exaggerating his accusations, it’s difficult to condemn Seeger and The Weavers. Though Seeger had become a member of the Young Communist League at the age of 17, he had drifted away from the Party after the war. While with The Almanac Singers, Seeger sang: “Now, Mr. President (Roosevelt)/We haven’t always agreed in the past, I know/But that ain’t at all important now/What is important is what we go to do/We got to lick Mr. Hitler and until we do/Other things can wait.”

Seeger spent a lifetime merging music and political activism and despite differences in opinion, he honored the American system by exercising the right to free speech. Whether or not Americans have become more or less forgiving of the uncommon viewpoint half a century later, today’s controversial artists are undeniably free from political persecution. Artists with agendas (think of recent statements by Eminem and Kayne) will continue to enjoy the freedom to strike a chord with some and discord with others. And a man who was once marked as a political enemy can play the stage at the inauguration of a president.

The Weavers were honored for their struggles during the 2006 Grammys. After receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, group member Fred Hellerman recounted the persecution for the crowd, declaring: "If you can exist, and stay the course -- not a course of blind obstinacy and faulty conception -- but one of decency and good sense, you can outlast your enemies with your honor and integrity intact.”

Eddy Arnold: May 15, 1918 - May 8, 2008

Today, the country world has lost a legend: Eddy Arnold, also known as “The Tennessee Plowboy,” died Thursday, May 8 in Franklin, Tennessee, just one week short of his 90^th birthday. Richard Edward Arnold was born in Henderson, Tennessee, May 15, 1918. As a child, he lost both his father and the family farm, plunging his childhood into poverty. Though young Eddy left school to help out on the farm, he found time to play the fiddle at local clubs and dances. His first radio appearance, at a station in Jackson, was in 1936.

At the age of 18, Arnold left home to follow a passion for music. Though he initially struggled to gain recognition, he eventually landed a job as the lead male vocalist for the Pee Wee King band. By 1943, he had become a solo star on the Grand Ole Opry and was signed by RCA Victor. Soon, in December of ’44, he had cut his first record and two years later, found stardom with the hit “That’s How Much I Love You.” Under the management of Col. Tom Parker (who later went on to control the career of Elvis Presley), Arnold dominated the country charts. In 1947-48, 13 of the top 20 songs were his.

Throughout his life, Arnold always seemed to know how to take his career in the right direction. He successfully made the transition from radio to television, and in 1955 recorded pop versions of “Cattle Call” and “The Richest Man (In The World)” with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra to expand his fanbase beyond country. Along with country crooner Jim Reeves, Arnold continued to develop pop-sounding string arrangements of country songs, a style of music that would soon be known as the Nashville Sound. He was one of country’s first crossover stars.

In 1964, manager Jerry Purcell helped Arnold begin a “second career” which found even greater success and a more diverse audience than the first. The song “Make The World Go Away” had already been recorded by several artists, but Arnold’s version became an international hit. Through the 1960s, Arnold charted 16 straight hits, performed two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and appeared before the Hollywood crowd at the Coconut Grove. Arnold eventually left the RCA label and recorded four albums for MGM in the 1970s, producing one hit (“If The Whole World Stopped Lovin’”). However, he later returned to RCA to record the final chartbreakers of his career: the album Eddy and the hit sing “Cowboy.” Arnold’s final album (After All These Years) was released in 2005; Arnold was 87.

In his career, Arnold charted 145 songs and 28 number one hits, ranking only second to George Jones. Throughout his lifetime, he sold nearly 85 million albums. His great success seems to be due to a number of factors. From early on, Arnold stood out from other singers in the country world. His outfits never were adorned with quite as much “bling” and he avoided the nasal twang of his contemporaries. He also dropped many of the honky-tonk themes and performed a repertoire of love songs. Through his associations with excellent musicians such as Charles Grean, Bob Moore, Chet Atkins and steel guitarist Roy Wiggins, Arnold’s music was richly instrumented. But truly, the greatest source of Arnold’s success was his voice; throughout his life, Arnold worked hard to perfect his natural ‘instrument,’ developing a sound that was compared to the likes of Bing Crosby and Enrico Caruso.

Arnold was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. In the following year, he was voted as the first Country Music Association’s Entertainer Of The Year, and received the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award in 1985.

Eddy performed his final concert on May 16, 1999 (the day after his 81st birthday) at the Hotel Orleans in Las Vegas. On May 8, 2008, he passed away after battling a lengthy illness. His wife, the late Sally Gayhart, preceded him in death in March of 2008 following hip replacement surgery. Arnold is survived by his children, Dickie and Jo Ann as well as two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

And there are the numerous fans – three generations of them, in fact – who have been touched by Arnold’s rich voice, gracious personality and, of course, his timeless love songs.

Eddy Arnold - "Richest Man In All The World"