Pete Seeger: Folkie, Communist, Millionaire

Pete Seeger, who passed away yesterday, has been described as the “father” of American folk music. Like the Coen Brothers’ fictional portrayal of ne’er-do-well folk singer Lleywn Davis, Seeger looked the part of the progressive troubadour, oblivious to the worldly business of making money. With his tattered work shirts and his left-wing politics, Seeger looked the part of the man of the people, a card-carrying member of the 99 percent.

This wasn’t an act. But it’s worth noting that Seeger was, in spite of his best efforts to eschew worldly success, a remarkably successful musical entrepreneur who made millions. His first group, the Weavers, had a string of hits, including a recording of Leadbelly’s “Good Night, Irene” that sold a staggering 2 million copies in 1950. Other hits soon followed....

...[F]inancial success would dog him far more tenaciously than McCarthy ever could. By the mid-1960s, when Seeger’s music had become the soundtrack of the civil rights movement, money was pouring into his bank account, earning him a six-figure income. In an amusing profile published in the New York Times in 1966, the paper of record described a man “who is most at home when working at hammering out songs of love between his brothers and sisters, and who never expected the hammer to turn to gold in his hands.”...