Today in Labor History May 3, 1919: Pete Seeger was born, Patterson, New York. He started his folk singing career in the 1940s, with the Almanac singers. This group included Woodie Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Bess Lomax Hawes. They sang about industrial unionism and racial inclusiveness. In the 1950s, they reconstituted as the Weavers. However, they were blacklisted by the McCarthyites. As a result, radio stations stopped playing their records and their bookings were cancelled. Seeger was a member of the Communist Party USA, but left it in 1949. He was also an early backer of Bob Dylan until he went electric and Seeger threatened to unplug him at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
This is the first spellbinding volume of the three-volume memoir of one of the greatest musical legends of all time. In CHRONICLES Volume I, Bob Dylan takes us back to the early 1960s when he arrived in New York to launch his phenomenal career. This is Dylan's story in his own words - a personal view of his motivations, frustrations and remarkable creativity.