Pete Seeger’s life and work have a strange symmetry. He lived almost a century, yet until his dying day seemed frozen in time — not a relic, but a reminder that despite all mainstream arguments to the contrary, American culture has always had an organic and irresistible socialist streak living within.

It speaks volumes that even Fox News has heaped a kind of awkward praise on Seeger’s music and persona. But even as most outlets equivocate about his membership in the Communist Party, it’s impossible to separate Seeger the artist from Seeger the communist (with, as he was a fan of saying, a small “c”).

He lived one of those extraordinary lives which track history’s ups and down: Joining the Communist Party at the height of the working class rebellions of the 1930s, leaving after World War II as the heavy-handedness of Stalinism became clearer. Along with Woody Guthrie and Paul Robeson, he was among the leftists who literally had to flee for their lives from a mob of KKK members looking to shut down a Civil Rights benefit concert in Peekskill, New York, in 1949.