Where Have All the Flowers Gone

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Where Have All the Flowers Gone is an anti-war song written in 1955 by the American songwriter Pete Seeger . The folk song was translated into German by Max Colpet under the title Tell me, where the flowers are , and in the version by Marlene Dietrich first published in 1962, it became internationally popular.

Emergence

The song was written in October 1955 when Pete Seeger was on a plane to Ohio . It specifies the basic idea of a Don Cossack song can Koloda Duda to have borrowed from whom he three verses as a quote in the novel And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov had discovered:

А где ж гуси?
В камыш ушли.
А где ж камыш?
Девки выжали.
А где ж девки?
Девки замуж ушли.
А где ж казаки?
На войну пошли…

And where are the geese?
They ran into the reeds.
And where did the reeds go?
Mowed by girls.
And where are the girls?
Married long ago!
And where are the Cossacks?
Are gone to war!

Where are the geese?
They ran into the reeds.
Where have the reeds gone?
Gathered by the girls
Where are the girls?
They've all taken husbands.
Where are the men?
They have gone off to war.

Similarities with the folk song Zogen once five wild swans - the German text of which Karl Plenzat published in 1918 - are striking; here, too, the message is conveyed via the association chain “nature - bridal wreath - man at war”. The question “Where are they?” As a stylistic device to illustrate transience has a long literary tradition, for example in the Ubi-sunt motif of medieval poetry.

According to Seeger, the basic idea for the melody comes from the American folk song Drill Ye Tarriers Drill , which was written by Thomas F. Casey in 1888. The text is in the form of a chain link : each stanza begins with the closing thought of the previous stanza. The ending thought of the last stanza leads back to the opening thought of the first stanza. This form illustrates a coherent circle of ideas, in this song the apparently eternal return from war to war. In every stanza the refrain asks when humanity will finally learn from the mistakes of previous generations.

In May 1960, Joe Hickerson wrote two more stanzas in Bloomington, Indiana . In late 1960 in New York , Peter, Paul and Mary began singing all six verses. This version became known at the end of 1961 through a recording by the Kingston Trio : The music group recorded the song without naming the author, because they had mistakenly taken it for a folk song. A phone call from Pete Seeger cleared up the misunderstanding. In April 1962, the Seeger / Hickerson version was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. Joan Baez is one of her most famous English-speaking interpreters .

song lyrics

Where have all the flowers gone
Long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone
Long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone
Young girls picked them everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Tell me where the flowers are.
Where did you go
Tell me where the flowers are.
What happened
Tell me where the flowers are.
Girls picked them up quickly.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

(Excerpt, 1st stanza)

The German text comes from the songwriter Max Colpet . In addition to Seeger's / Hickerson's original text, he used the poem After an old song (Says where the violets go) by Johann Georg Jacobi from 1782 as a template. The German version was first performed in 1962 by Marlene Dietrich , who also wrote the song in English and French sang and contributed to the world success of the title.

Other well-known performers included Lolita , Hildegard Knef , Nana Mouskouri , Vicky Leandros , Freddy Quinn , Juliane Werding , Udo Lindenberg , Hannes Wader , Katja Ebstein , Chris de Burgh , Annie Lennox , Joan Baez and the rock band City . Pete Seeger mentioned in an interview that the German text sounds more impressive than its original text and is also easier to sing.

Others

  • In 1993 Friedrich Kurz wrote a musical about the life of Marlene Dietrich with the title Tell me, where the flowers are .
  • Reinhard Mey sang the song Tell me where the flowers are in French: Que sont devenues les fleurs.
  • The German punk band ACK published the song with a changed text under the title Tell me where the beers are .
  • The music project 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs published the title on its website in February 2017 as a protest against the policies of US President Donald Trump .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Interview with Pete Seeger for Democracy Now !, 2004
  2. ↑ On the 7 "single from 1965 (Amadeo 921338 APF) by Joan Baez, the title says Tell me where the flowers are , on her other releases Tell me where the flowers are .
  3. ↑ You can help with a teaspoon. In: New Germany. June 27, 2005 ( online ).
  4. ↑ 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs. Dave Eggers & Jordan Kurland, accessed March 27, 2017 .