Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?

Subject: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From:
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 01:50 PM

Can anyone tell me who wrote where have all the flowers gone? Thanks, JAne

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Debbie in Wisconsin
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 02:05 PM

Hi Jane,

I'm pretty sure this is a Pete Seeger song.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Felipa
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 02:23 PM

wasn't it by Pete Seeger but based on lines from Russian author Mikhail Sholokhov?

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 02:25 PM

In his 1993 book, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, Pete Seeger devotes four pages to the story of the development of the song. He wrote the song in 1955, drawing from a passage in a translation of the novel And Quiet Flows the Don, by Mikhail Sholokhov. The novel describes Cossack soldiers singing as they galloped off to join the Tsar's army:

Where are the flowers? the girls have plucked them.
Where are the girls? They've taken husbands.
Where are the men? They're all in the army.

Pete's original version has only three verses, and follows the Russian song quite closely:

Where have all the flowers gone? Girls have picked them every one.
Where have all the young girls gone? They've taken husbands every one.
Where have all the young men gone? They're all in uniform.

Seeger did not register a copyright, but recorded the song on Folkways in 1956. Joe Hickerson, leader of the Oberlin College Folksong Club, added two verses and sang it at a camp in the Catskills. Peter, Paul and Mary started singing it early in their career, and then the Kingston Trio recorded it. The song is now copyrighted. It's usually sung with Hickerson's rhythm and extra two lyrics and with Peter, Paul and Mary's tune changes.
If you haven't heard a recording of Pete singing the song, you're really missing something. It's on the Columbia Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits album.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 03:15 PM

You are also missing something if you haven't heard Joe Hickerson recounting the story with raised eyebrows and a slightly bemused tone...*smile*...seems that no one exactly went out of their way to give him credit for those two verses..

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 29 Jan 99 - 06:07 PM

I understand that Pete credits Joe Hickerson with those final verses (which turned the song into a completed cycle) and shares his percentage of the royalties with him. I'll try to get verification from Joe.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Teru
Date: 30 Jan 99 - 04:24 AM

Strictly speaking, as far as I know, the melody was not from a Russian folksong, but from Ukrainian one.

Regards

Teru

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 99 - 08:28 PM

Ok...straight from the horses mouth..*smile*..I spoke to Joe Hickerson today, Jan 30, at FSGW's annual Mini-festival...and he says that,indeed, Pete Seeger "goes out of his way" to give Joe credit, but that some publishers, over the years, have printed it with no mention, credit or attribution. He does occasionally get some royalties.

(I get the impression that he condsiders it a waste of time to belabor the point a lot..)

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Alice
Date: 31 Jan 99 - 12:25 PM

Teru, I have been searching for your email address because I lost it. The Mudcat message page does not work for me. I have found Taeshokoto instruments in the US, one with 'typewriter' keys and one with piano keys. Please email to me so I can send you a picture. [e-mail]

Thank you, friend.

Alice

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: rick fielding
Date: 31 Jan 99 - 01:09 PM

Joe Hickerson has been such a valuable person in the folk community for so many years. Has he ever participated in Mudcat. Might he? T'would be fun.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From:
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 06:11 PM

Yes, I believe he posts under the name "Joe Offer" :>

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Teru
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 06:12 PM

Alice,

Thank you. I have sent my E-mail address directly to you.

Best wishes

Teru

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 10:01 PM

Joe doesn't have a computer at home. He was promised one as a retirement gift from the folks at the Archive of Folk Culture, but it has yet to arrive. In the meantime, he maintains his E-mail address at the Library of Congress and only checks it when he drops in to make sure they are surviving without him there. If you can stand another prolonged thread on parodies (Joe's favorite subject these days) we can all urge him to join us in this enjoyable enterprise.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Felipa
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 01:38 PM

Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane of Ireland recorded "Where have all the Flowers Gone" along with an instrumental interlude of "'S é fath mo bhuartha" (Irish air/song). I don't know who the additional instrumentalists were. I heard it last night on "Folk Club" presented by Tony McAuley on BBC Radio Ulster (Northern Ireland) -- may be available on line at BBC website. Tony said that Pete Seeger the tune for the song from the Irish air. To me, 'S é fath mo bhuartha stood out as a distinct tune. What does Pete Seeger say about his musical inspiration?
I see Teru says the tune is Ukranian

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 02:08 PM

Cossack comes from the Ukrainian word kozak. The frontiersmen organized into cavalry by the czars were Ukrainian.
We tend to call everyone from over there "Russians", regardless of area or culture.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:40 PM

I always used to sing it with the last verse ending:

Where have all the soldiers gone,
a paper flower for every one,
when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn.

I think I made that line up.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:55 PM

well, we'll give you credit, anyway...*grin*

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: sed
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:53 PM

I've met folks from Deutschland who insist that one of their musicians wrote it! But why argue? It sounds very good in Deutsch, also.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 05:43 AM

Of course, if you first hear a song in your own language there's nothing to tell you whether it is a translation or an original song. So there may have been some Germans believing that Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind is the original.

But there is no serious claim for German authorship except for the translation.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 07:57 AM

Ou sont vont toute les fleurs? It's beautiful in French

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 08:17 PM

Reason I'm researching this due to Dylanites insistence tonite at my sesh that B[Z}D wrote it.

Clearly, that's incorrect- it's a compilation by a number of writers- surely a perfect example of the folk tradition!!

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 04:47 AM

The three verse simple version that Pete originally wrote is far and away the best version, with all those extra verses it just loses it's impact.
And as Joe Offer said listen to the unaccompanied version on Pete Seegers Greates Hits, it's wonderful.

eric

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 09:32 PM

eric: Hooray! A fellow reactionary!

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: I wouldn't be antisocial if society had more sense. :||

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 09:42 PM

We've German fiends who singe 'Sagt Mir Wo die Blumen Sind' frequently along with Scottisch Dave who's fluent in Deutsch lingo.

I'm wondering if that version's perhaps the original upon which the Eng.Lang version's based.

Anyone know?

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 11:49 PM

Mr. Happy, Joe Offer's 29 Jan 99 - 02:25 PM post, above has the bottom line.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Who wrote Where have all the flowers gone?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Oct 05 - 04:30 PM

Mr Happy, your German fiends ought to know (or now you can tell them) that the German version is a free translation of Pete's song written, IIRR, for Marlene Dietrich by Max Colpet. Also, I can't find it now but I've read somewhere that Pete has been heard to say he thinks some phrases of the German version better than his own efforts.