A bit off topic but when I discovered The Weavers and first heard this song, I was a young high schooler, no more than 13 or 14. For years, I sang it the way I ‘heard’ and understood the English version - in which my ear substituted ‘bear’ for ‘square’ ?


Somehow knowing that dancing bears were still a not uncommon sight in Russia, I concluded that this was probably a Russian folk song and suspected that its Russian origins probably factored into the attempts by Senator Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee to label The Weavers as ‘Reds’ and get them blacklisted.