Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

:"For the 2008 documentary, see Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (film)"

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"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song of the 1960s written by Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson.

Composition

Seeger found inspiration for the song while on his way to a concert. Leafing through his notebook he saw the passage, "Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where are the men, they're all in the army." These lines were from a Ukrainian folk song referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel "And Quiet Flows the Don" (1934). Seeger adapted it to a tune, a lumberjack version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill". With only three verses, he recorded it once in a medley on a "Rainbow Quest" album and forgot about it. Joe Hickerson later added verses four and five.

Versions

It was first performed by Marlene Dietrich in French (as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?") in 1962 at a UNICEF concert. She also recorded the song in English and in German, the latter was entitled "Sag' mir, wo die Blumen sind", with lyrics translated by Max Colpet.

European superstar Dalida also recorded the song in French as "Que sont devenues les fleurs?"

The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1962 and claimed authorship, but they took their name off when Seeger asked them to; their single reached #21 on the charts. Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and The Countrymen all recorded it as a popular folk song. Johnny Rivers had a top 40 hit with a folk rock version. American R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire covered the song on the 1972 album, "Last Days and Time". The lyrics are also cited in the Massive Attack 1998 single "Risingson", which credits Seeger as one of its writers. Country singer Dolly Parton has also recorded a rendition of the song, in her 2005 album entitled, "Those Were the Days".

Side One of the 45rpm vinyl single included "O Ken Karanga", while Side Two included the top chart hit "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?".

A recording of the song was also utilized on an episode of The Simpsons titled Girly Edition from the show's ninth season (1998).

A Russian version of the song was created in 1998 by Oleg Nesterov, a lead singer of Megapolis, and later performed in duet with Masha Makarova (Masha I Medvedi) in a misic video [ [http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwd46Oj6gtQ Где цветы?] - "Where have all the flowers gone?", Russian clip on YouTube] .

A Czech version of the song was also created and recorded by several popular artist. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_lZGRPYko0 Rekni kde ty kytky jsou] - "Where have all the flowers gone?", Czech clip on YouTube]

References