Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Pete Seeger





Pete Seeger signed the Village Gate record backstage at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD in the summer of 2008. I did not get to meet Pete in person, but his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger was nice enough to take my record backstage for him to sign. You may notice that the sharpie Pete used was a bit on the dry side -- had I been able to personally hand this cover to him, I would have asked him to use the new sharpie that I had brought with me. This LP has an attractive cover design, but the background is really too dark for the autograph to display prominently and while you can see the signature clearly on this scanned image, it just doesn't stand out that much in person.

I was able to obtain the autograph on the Abiyoyo album by mailing the cover directly to Pete. I think the signature looks perfect, but the item would have broader appeal if it didn't say "to Mike Xxxxxx" in the top left corner (note that I edited out my last name). When I first saw the personalization, I was sure that it was written by someone other than Pete because it was written with a different color sharpie than the signature. Then I compared the letters in the personalization with the letters in the xeroxed, handwritten letter he enclosed and decided that Pete also wrote the personalization, but perhaps as an afterthought when he had a different color sharpie in his hand.

The letter that came in the mail with the Abiyoyo record is probably more interesting to look at than either of these LPs. I wonder if some other folks who have sent Pete memorabilia have gotten their stuff returned unsigned along with one of these letters, also unsigned. Perhaps if I hadn't taken the time to write Pete a sincere, thoughtful letter, I would not have gotten his autograph or the personal note on the form letter. That's okay by me. I think anyone who hits Pete Seeger up for an autograph should respect and admire him as much as I do.

Postscript: I like the fact that both the letter I sent to Pete and the letter I got back from him were handwritten. How often does that happen these days?

7 comments:

  1. I'm very curious to see the letters that you write to musicians asking for their autographs. You must be very persuasive. Could you please post some of these letters? I'm sure that I am not the only one who would be interested to see them. Thanks.

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  2. That is quite a note in its imperfections. I guess he figured he would only write that note once, with no chances for a do over! It is quite bizarre, though. Clearly he left room to intentionally write in people's names and his autograph. It's a neat artifact, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it!

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  3. Cathy, I plan to post one of my letters in the near future. I'm still perfecting the way that I write these.

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  4. I notice that Pete sent you (albeit a photocopied form letter) something handwritten. Are your letters written in your own hand or are they typed on that old typewriter you bought in Atlanta. Please don't tell me you type them on a computer. If so, what font and size do you use?

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  5. My letters are usually written in my own hand.

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  6. I received the same letter from Pete. It had my name and his name signed in pencil. He did not return my picture but provided one of his own. Which is honestly not very nice! Oh well he returned something.

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  7. Not sending back the picture was probably unintentional. I'll bet he had a stack of mail and it got lost in the shuffle. Was the returned picture signed? Like you said, at least you got something.

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