Peggy Seeger - Tumblr Posts
Truly one of THE songs of all time. Instant serotonin boost
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” originally written for Peggy Seeger by Ewan MacColl in 1957, is considered one of the greatest love ballads of the twentieth century.
In 1962, Peggy released a recording of the song on her and Ewan’s Folkways LP The New Briton Gazette, Vol. 2. It has been recorded by a number of artists over the years including Roberta Flack, whose version became a breakout international hit in 1972, winning Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Peggy has recorded the song multiple times throughout her career, with a 1983 version appearing on her album Folkways Years: 1955-1992: Songs of Love and Politics. Her most recent rendition was released last year, prompting her to reflect:
“I’ve had two life partners, one male and one female, and I have three children and nine grandchildren. I’ve come to realise that the lyrics can be interpreted in so many ways. Ewan wrote the tune to mimic the heartbeat of someone wildly in love and I used to feel like a soaring bird when I sang this song. Now I’m grounded within it and that makes me happy.”
Learn more: s.si.edu/3UCFMiP
Photo of Peggy Seeger courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Mike, Peggy and Pete Seeger, 2005
Peggy Seeger – Peggy Alone
Peggy Seeger – Peggy Alone
USA, 1968, American folk Whether a cappella, accompanied by her banjo, or strumming her acoustic guitar, Seeger is brilliant here, regaling the listener not only with Child Ballads but with other American folk tunes alternating between the somber and the playful. These renditions show not only the songstress’ respect for the source material but her creativity in combining a couple of the stories…
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Seeger, Peggy – Correspondence, Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Peggy seeger correspondence letters
Song of the day
"Talking Wheelchair Blues" written by Fred Small 1983, performed by Peggy Seeger 1992
Orinally written and performed by Fred Small, "Talking Wheelchair Blues" is incredibly important as a song for the emerging disability rights movement. I'ts funny, charming, clever, and well written. this song is very special to me as it is one of the shockingly few songs that advocate for disability rights, and it's covered by one of my favorite artists of all time, Peggy Seeger, who does a wonderful rendition of it.
"See, we're all the same, this human race.
Some of us are called disabled. And the rest--
Well, the rest of you are just temporarily able-bodied"
Peggy Seeger 2023 interview talking about Elizabeth Cotten and "Freight Train"
I had no idea that Peggy Seeger is queer! 🙉 I have read more about her
Yea! Its under talked about for sure. Peggy Seeger actually identifies as bisexual and her current partner is Irene Scott. She also contributed to the 2005 book "Getting Bi: voices of bisexuals around the world"
iconic! I love her!
here's a whole album of love poems dedicated to Irene made by Peggy Seeger and released in 2020
AND, the most fucking sapphic thing I have ever heard of or witnessed, peggy seeger and Irene Scott performing "Garden of Flowers" together in her compilation album "Songs of Love and Politics"
this song details the story of two young lovers, and something vaguely terrible happening? It's an incredibly haunting and spooky song and idk guys there is something fundamentally sapphic about it. an underlying yearning and pining perhaps, a feeling of death that rests heavily on the chest. Maybe it's just because it's a tragic heterosexual love story being performed by a sapphic couple. I think about this song often and will probably make a song of the day post about it.
god, I love her so much. Peggy Seeger is the age of my grandmother right now and is the only queer woman I know (beyond speculation I mean) from the folk scene. She is also just super cool in general! I'm a butch lesbian, and it soooo important to me to know that sapphic people, throughout history both recent and old, have always existed. We have always been here. God bless Peggy Seeger, I hope someday she is recognized as a sapphic icon in the same way as Chappell Roan or Tracy Chapman.
Hi! Can I ask you about the history of the Wagoner's Lad? I'm a fan of Peter & Gordon their song Pretty Mary, but only today, while listening to some Peggy Seeger, I realised that it's a different pov adaptation of that ballad!
Suggested Songs
"Pretty Mary" Peter & Gordon, 1964
Like you said, "Pretty Mary" is a gender-bent version of the Traditional song "The Wagoner's Lad", which was first documented in 1907 by Cecil Sharp. Here's the fun part- if you are familiar with folk song collector Cecil Sharp and American folk songs, you might expect that it was first collected somewhere in the UK or perhaps Ireland if it was spicy. However, the song was first collected in Appalachia! Despite focusing on English folk songs, Cecil Sharp also collected and recorded folk songs in the Appalachia.
It was first published in "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians" in 1917. and was first recorded in 1926 by Kelly Harrell as "My horses ain't Hungry".
Another Interesting part of this song is that many of its verses have ended up in the song "On Top of Old Smokey", another song collected by Cecil Sharp in Appalachia in 1916.
This makes it hard to tell the two songs apart, as they've become tangled up with each other. Both songs even contain the same Roud folk song number: 414. "On Top of Old Smokey" was first recorded in 1925 by George Reneau. Old Smokey probably refers to the Great Smoky Mountain range that exists between Tenessee and North Carolina.
This Song, throughout its history, has been adapted and recorded over and over again, here's just a few examples.
Pretty Nancy by Jean Ritchie 1970s (?) The Wagoner's Lad by the Kossoy Sisters 1956 My Horses Ain't Hungry by Mike Seeger 1977 On Top of Old Smokey by Gene Autry 1952 Fare You Well Polly by Pete Seeger, 1954 Rye Whiskey by Woody Guthrie 1940 Goodbye Old Paint by Colter Wall 2021
and there are many many many more.
Thanks for the recommendation! I hope this was helpful
Song of the Day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll do a full rundown)
"Dirty old Town" Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, 1956 this song was originally written by Ewan MacColl in 1949, for his play "Landscape with Chimneys". The song is based off of his childhood city, Salford, Lancashire, England, where he grew up.
In an interview with the BBC, Peggy Seeger said
"it remains a perfect song" "It's a beautiful melody, just four economical verses, and it has been covered by hundreds of singers each in their own way"
she continues with regards to the covers,
"I don’t like what The Dubliners did to it, I don’t like what The Pogues did to it – I think they have lost the loneliness," "I think they have lost the confusion of a young person walking through it." "To me, Ewan was reliving his 20s and his late teens so I think it is harder to change."
she adds,
"It speaks to everybody from a dirty old broken down industrial city," "But Salford was in Ewan MacColl’s bones." "He took me to his dirty old town within a week of our three-decade partnership."
This relates to one of my favorite things about the song, it's equally relatable for everyone in a burnt-out industrial city. hell, I really relate to the song and my hometown is a railroad town in Wyoming. I grew up listening to this song because my mom loved it and her hometown is a rustbelt city that was crumbling factorial ruins when she was growing up.
Even though Peggy Seeger doesn't like the covers, I still want to mention the version by The Pogues as it's one of my favorites. I do agree with her that both of the translations lost some of the charm that the original had.
The original captured the spirit of traditional Irish and English folk music, so much so that I assumed it was a traditional ballad. little new compositions of folk music succeed in doing this, which makes the song impressive.
Song of The Day
"Lady, What Do You Do All Day?" Peggy Seeger, 1984
This song was written and recorded by Peggy Seeger, with accompanying vocals from Ewan MacColl (her husband) and Calum MacColl (her son)
"It always distresses me to hear the housewife put down. A good housewife is a genius, an artist, an organizer par excellence. It is a high calling and a woman should not be made to feel an escapist if she wishes to undertake it. Nor, if she happens to be inefficient at it, should it reflect upon her as a woman. Unfortunately, in our society, women enter motherhood and domesticity with a head full of pre-conceived notions, often romantic, notions and by then it is too late."
Peggy Seeger about "Lady, What Do You Do All Day?"
Smithsonian Institute
Peggy Seeger 1950s