Pete Seeger - Wimoweh & Flowers Gone

[ProNorden]

Nice protest against Lyndon Johnson's conduct of the Viet Nam war.

The 3 main 'macro-systemic importance' points of that war were all avoidable: 1. The successful predation by the 'corporate parasite' community shifting resources to themselves from the American Treasury and economy.

2. Losing the war to the communist totalitarian NorthVietnam by not merely supporting SouthVietnam.

3. Fostering the 'Adversarial Culture' of the New Left in the U.S. and their "long march through the institutions".

[Rasbiff]

@ProNorden May I introduce to you: The Internet Genius. This sad person has spent far too many hours debating the same topics over and over with likeminded that he's come to believe that everyone can jump in his train of thought like it ain't no thang.

[Rasbiff]

@ProNorden "macro-systemic importance", "adversarial culture"... Please, mister...

[Myrthmor]

I think Pete Seeger is an example of the ideal human soul. Every bit of his personal demeanor and performance style is perfectly genuine and classy. Adding his brilliant musicianship and his persistence as a force for good throughout his entire career to that sincerity makes him my greatest hero. The most unambiguously good-natured artist and activist I know of.

[thisherecat2]

Not someone I'd invite to a party. Or even for tea.

[jshalom65]

Totally agree on Nobel prize.When MLK and Jimmy Carter won it it meant something,but giving it to Obama his first year in office was a not so funny joke.As of today american forces are bombing 6 countries(and these are just the ones we know about).The military-industrial complex goes marching on............................

[KITCHENOFDISTINCTION]

Great.

[mydinkywebcam]

FYI - the video containing "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" referenced in the description is no longer available. I'll be checking it out somewhere here in YouTube. Thanks for posting this!

[stanibol]

Funny how some people want to dwell on politics in an attempt to diminish a singer who only wants for us, the audience, to be happy and sing Wimoweh Wimoweh Wimoweh

[mwhaley78]

@savvyscottyboy - I'm glad you're qualified to judge the talent of a man who has been performing for seven decades and has influenced the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello. Pete never "got" political; he always was, and his beliefs led him to be an integral figure in the fight against McCarthy's red baiting, the Civil Rights movement, and the environmental movement. Did you do all that too, in seventh grade?

[savvyscottyboy]

ha finnemcool, Pete Seeger had marginal talent, but got political like other mindless pop heroes to make it into the in crowd. I liked his rendition of Wimoweh a bit, but he guitar strumming is unremarkable. I learned to do that in 7th grade. He is a liberal whinner who gets the Hollywood vote.

[mwhaley78]

@savvyscottyboy - I'm glad you're qualified to judge the talent of a man who has been performing for seven decades and has influenced the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello. Pete never "got" political; he always was, and his beliefs led him to be an integral figure in the fight against McCarthy's red baiting, the Civil Rights movement, and the environmental movement. Did you do all that too, in seventh grade?

[savvyscottyboy]

Pete Seeger was somewhat overrated. He was not a summer front porch taught folk singer, but rather highly trained in music school. That kind of diminishes the mystique. Not to mention he hated traditional American values. I think Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan by the way were much more intriguing performers, even if their politics were similar to Pete Seeger!

[finnemccool]

@savvyscottyboy Seeger arranged and popularized "We Shall Overcome", He wrote if "I had a Hammer" ,"Where have all the Flowers Gone" he arranged and popularized "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore." He formed the folk group the Almanacs with Woody Guthrie in 1940, and later formed the Weavers. There's no way he's over rated. And he is about real American traditional values. He was against abusive authority, and stood up to McCarthyism. Young Americans today are mindless lemmings.

[Myrthmor]

@savvyscottyboy Why in the world would good training diminish him? Besides, his talent with the banjo is due almost entirely to his own self-motivation, since in New England no one else could play it like he did. Also, Pete is the ideal American, and gave peace activists and unionizers a musical platform on which to gather. No other folk artist did as much hands-on work to make tangible change for good in the world.

[AlemanJuan]

If you think the Nobel Peace prize is still relevant you're delusional. Pete has a good message for class consciousness and political activism, but the Nobel Peace prize is a sham coopted by the Bourgeoisie elite to placate their detractors and advance their free-market agenda. *breathes, trails off*

[a476716048]

Love those 'dos" in the audience.

[playlikechampions]

if you have a problem with pete seeger, you have a problem with yourself.

[hitthatperfectbeat]

Can't believe CBS censored Seeger! Television should be unbiased by law, like in Britain.

[lovestrout]

I wish you would have added the next part where the Smothers Brothers come on and help him sing This Land is Your Land...I was so moved by the gesture, I'll never forget it.

[Ascaidh]

I was just a kid and all I wanted was to see my uncle home again. Well he did come home and for a few days he just sat at the edge of a bed. He kept telling me to go away. So one afternoon I got upset started crying. He still told me to go away. So I walked in front of him all full of tears and asked if he still loved me? I don't know what happened next, except that I was in his arms and he was crying. Not everything is so simple nor is one era worse than another. Hat's off to Pete Seeger!

[Ascaidh]

I remember those times. People then were so stuck in their ways. More so than any of the "neo cons" as we define them today. The generation of folks that gave all during WWll and Korea. Had to question their government for the first time. That was a very big no no then. Yet in time they did.

People change but not as quickly as some of us would like them to!

[dschonsie]

wonderful

[neonmeat1]

YOu can here him start to play the intro to waist deep in the big muddy while the 'comedian' is talking to him its a pity they cut it!

[johnny07652]

I'll bet that the George Bush conservatives of today would have called Pete Seeger a pinko commie Marxist socialist Lib-tard if they weree alive back then. They'd probably ignore that he is Bob Seeger's father even though Bob Seeger is a huge Conservative singer.

[JR1KC]

To johnny07652: Pete Seeger WAS a communist. In the 1930s he joined the Young Communist League (YCL), and in the 1940s he became a member of the Communist Party USA. In the 1950s and on, he remained a collectivist and a socialist thinker.

And NO, he was not Bob Seger's father.

[whyicare]

@JR1KC

Don't forget Helen Keller, a devoted socialist. Does this make her an enemy of the Americans. You have to look at what the person stands for, not what she believes. Pete Seeger believes in peace, unification of mankind. Pete was a socialist at his younger age. Over the years, he drifted away from socialism and became a pacifist. BTW, he was invited to Hanoi in the late 69s or early 70s.

[JR1KC]

@whyicare : I didn't comment one way or the other on Pete Seeger. My comment was to johnny07652, who posted a bunch of ill-informed nonsense.

[neonmeat1]

What does he says Big Bill Broozny says???

I can't make it out!

Excellent video.

[dynomax666]

he says pete, it must be a folk song, i've never heard horses sing it.

and i've never heard big bill say that

i didnt know these guys were buddies...

[arkanax01]

triste et magnifique !

[Javiu86]

Did he compose Flowers gone?

[JManIOOI]

yes he did

[Ibanezheadz]

Yep

[ledder68]

Yes.

[1canyonguy]

Please vote for a nobel peace prize for Pete- just google it you will find it

[whato1986]

wow, he was 48 in this clip (from 1967)!

[TheAvalos08]

listen from 2:20 when he starts to play a little song and especially when he is starting to end it at 2:30; it sounds like the song Aerials from System of a Down. huh, maybe they got it from pete...

[dschonsie]

killer version.

[KillerInstinct2006]

I love the banjo in the song where have all the flowers gone.

[monesv]

Such a great soul.

[DarkOrazu]

he's so amazing. any hero of Harry Chapin has to be remarkable and he is definitely that!!

[alouette87]

ha-ha

God please give him many years to live

[MoorOfDundee]

Pete Seeger is truly the greatest folk musician of this century and the last. I respect the wonderful genius in so many ways musically, politically, as humanitarian and with this song one of the first musicians to promote and encourage 'World Music'....Wimoweh aka Mbube was certainly one of the first and the biggest cross over in the history of modern American music...Wimoweh is America yet Mbube so very African. I LOVE YOU PETE SEEGER!

[AllBobsAllTheTime]

One of Seeger's claims to fame is his threatening to cut Bob Dylan's mike at Newport in protest of electric folk music.

[Parsa9]

AllBobs, I think Pete was famous long before Bob was born, and he's still performing at 90 as we saw at the Obama inaugural.

[MarxBakuninMe]

That's a controversial incedent that's been subject to many different interpretations. A more likely explanation is that the sound was terrible (as you can tell from the recording) and needed to be fixed.

[Wadsleyite]

The wonderful. wonderful Pete Seeger - he'll be 90 in May. God granted him a long life, to teach us all about what life really means, and what it should be for all. God bless him.

[tomhamilton8]

that what happens when you live in 'free' country

[peacelord]

2:58 is the place where it looks like they cut the song. He's playing the chords to waist deep with the guitar, then all of a sudden he starts playing a banjo.

[mboning]

Nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize...

Google it and sign the petition.

[Ascaidh]

@mboning Send me the pertition. I'll sign it!

[geohabe]

@mboning An excellent suggestion! This man has devoted so many years, and so much energy, to the cause of peace, harmony, and tolerance that he certainly deserves the award about forty times more than our President!

[murriskman]

May be, I'm sometime able to sing like him - may be I will be glad, or happy, or something of that,what you describe you - to be geatfull!

said the old fashioned 'murriskman' from Germany!

[Lyndehouse]

Wow--Pete Seeger sure was a great singer and his heart was in the right place--too bad liberals took over a made a welfare state that will soon collapse

[montims]

when and where was this welfare state? I want to move there before it collapses...

[Lyndehouse]

You are living in it. Welfare for the non-productive and weapons makers and warmakers--and poverty for working people. Join Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty

[SliverXII]

Apparently, you don't realize how liberal Pete Seeger was. I say 'was' because I am not sure where he is politically now. You should read "How Can I Keep From Singing?: The Ballad Of Pete Seeger" to learn more. Regardless of his views, there is much inspiration in his story.

[MMDC2001]

I think he was a communist.

[metrage]

Yeah...naive, hypocritical conservatives just don't exist. That's a fact.

[Paulph04]

This is factual information, sorry that the Liberal Left don't like it. Keep hitting me with the thumbs-down, I can take it. :)

[MarxBakuninMe]

He was a communist, but that doesn't mean he was a lover of Gulags and mass murder. He was misled by the Party, as were plenty of other good people.

[EllyMcCormack]

Jesus Christ... when will people like Paulph04 ever learn? Pete's always seemed to be to have a good heart. Anyone can see that by his sincere songwriting. About peace and love. Giving peace a chance.

So judgemental... so angry. You don't have to be a member of a party to show some fucking respect, peace and love for your fellow human beings. Its not about politics, having some good manners doesn't make you a liberal lefty. It makes you a man.

[pukeyknox]

people can give you thumbs down for that comment, but you're absolutely right. sometimes people would endorse the devil if he backed their agenda. and indeed they do. ;)

[Hyymiee]

Co ty możesz wiedzieć o komunistach i komunizmie.

[OllieOxenFree18]

He's so awesome.

[ytcarol]

Does anyone know where you can find the entire Wimoweh performance by Pete Seeger? It's fantastic!

[cajunhornet60]

THis was 1968...the year I went to Vietnam.....60,000 of us died for that lie....the newest outright lie is Iraq..."we will stop them HERE before they are at our shores" same bullshit we heard in Vietnam..all lies.

[folkhippie500]

@cajunhornet60 i am 21 years old. i would like to thank you for serving for that lie. you have brought tears to my eyes.... i agree with you, so completely useless vietnam... i am a large fan of pete seeger, bob dylan, donovan, etc... thank you.

[alanmorri]

@cajunhornet60 Yep, same old shit, different way for politicians to line the pockets of thier pals while young Americans die, not to mention all the civilians killed in the confusion of it all. I grew up watching Vietnam get bigger and bigger as Walter Cronkite gave out those casualty figures that turned out to be totally phoney planted by Generals to make it look like we were killing more of the bad guys than we actually were. Nothing like pride and paranoia to make things deadly for innocents

[nytimes19992000]

Is this an edited, censored, and sanitized CBS version? Young men "gone to uniforms" instead of "graveyards?"

[mickeymouse8o8]

no, that's how he sings the verse from time to time--i think he ended the song before he got to the "soldiers are all in graveyards" verse--either that or the verse was edited out.

[Not14Lies]

Viewing Mr. Seeger's other videos, it very evident the man is a total class act. Modest and humble to say the least. He does this version in 1968, preformed in Stockholm, Sweden, he could have included the graveyard verse. Unlike today's shock jock mentality, I'll bet he censored him self. As he wouldn't want to offend love ones who were losing there son's, brothers and or husbands as a war was raging on at that time. either version the the meaning is there.

[LeslieSlape]

He sang the three verses he wrote, as originally written. The other two verses were written later by Joe Hickerson.

[kesenwein21]

the chunky white folks seem awfully baffled by an african tune like wimoweh

[morganjefford]

I have very fond memories of this man,from my youth until today,at present this song means we will never, never , learn. Man will be our own demise. It dosen't take a whole lot to turn one man against anouther.

[flowerchildA]

Sorry I meant Pete Seeger.

[flowerchildA]

I love this man Bob Seeger, what a breath of fresh air to see him, and know he was motivated by simply unselfish reasons and then contrast him with the people in the entertainment industry of todays world, and ask them what they are motivated by the majority are in it for the money, not all are though, but we can all learn a lesson from this man.

[davefordavefor]

Great comment. Just wanted to point out that his name is Pete Seeger. You probably realized that right after you posted your comment.

[lmghoy12]

how many nazi's must a grown man now before he says he's a man the answer my friend is hiding behind a BUSH

[ANuclearEra]

Come on man, Pete Seeger is one of the most patriotic men in the states. He loves this land.

[1kyredneck1]

you are right tomr999 thanks for the wonderful comment..if these assholes hate this country, they need to get the hell out of it..LOVE IT OR LEAVE-OBAMA!! ted nugent put him in his place..

[ceb2633]

Why don't you leave it, redneck. Good name for you. Which starving boat did you arrive on? Believe me, we won't miss you and Timothy McVey.

[ceb2633]

Better believe it, TOMR.  Haven't heard that pinko commi label since the 50's. Who you voting for, another mindless nazi like Bush?

[TOMR999]

Clam down I was just trying to stir up some shit. I watch the PBS documentry because i like Springsteen now i like Seeger.Just wanted to see if anyone would notice my remarks.i am voting for Clinton

[ceb2633]

Well, you got the remarks. NO ONE knocks my hero, Pete Seeger OR my beloved Bruce. Glad to see you are a fan and I was voting for Clinton until her campaign went nuts. Now Obama for me. I promise to "clam" down.

[olehippy13]

Smothers Brothers, and Pete Seeger...thumbs up...I was a medic in Vietnam, and I fully understand what the song means...Where Have All The Flowers Gone....Pete, I salute YOU.

Amen Brother,

olehippy13

former vietnam medic

banjo player

[blffle]

Seeger is an excellent musician as well as a great human being. Look for the documentary on PBS where he explains how his parents were excellent classical musicians who put together a touring concert tour of the US and therein discovered that a lot of backwoods folks had some pretty good music to play too. Pete shows of some pretty darn mean Bach keyboard music played on his banjo!

[jimfields]

"the blue suit announcer guy"... man! That's the Smother's Bros who dared to put this blacklisted dude on the air..and they took a lot of heat for it. Pete, your freakin' awesome and NEVER irrelevent. Pete Seeger is timeless...and a brilliant singer/songwriter/performer.

[GeezusChriest]

i love how pete doesnt like that blue-suit announcer guy.. haha i dont either, that guys a prick.

pete - you're a godsend, we do all love you

[Alaidh]

"Blue-suit announcer guy"? The only one in a blue suit in this clip is Tom Smothers! You might notice he's playing with him at the beginning of this clip.

Tom Smothers is not a prick - he's one half of The Smothers Brothers and quite funny...Dick Smothers is usually the "straight man" hence his comment.

You could do a search here on Youtube to see some other Smothers Brothers clips...really...they're funny...and talented musicians...really!

[altoidyoda]

This is great! Thanks 2old2Rock. I would love to see the entire performance of Wimoweh. I'd love to see him explain it to the audience. If anyone has that video, I'd be very grateful if you could upload it.

[annaenanna]

What an amazing musician and human being! Pete, we all love you!!!

[susanannemiller]

pete..so powerful...so true....if you read this, i pray you do...do you remember thew artist in west village..the painter...ricco..he has been the since the early 60s..we were talking about those times and i was a little girl then living in maine....help us pete....how can i get very serious story by email.  to you???.thankyou, susan

[Emden10]

See, it doesn´t take more than a man and a banjo to make a great performance, but the thing ist : you have to be gifted!

[tmarkl]

Can anyone turn me on to someone as gifted as he was? (I am serious, I love music, but Pete Seeger has always been my hero.

[LOMANDYO]

.The man had a beautiful singing voices.

[yogione]

I love the polychordal stuff Pete is doing on the banjo in this performance. I have a recording with the original "when will you ever learn" as the refrain. I suspect that's what they didn't want him to do - too "us 'n them" for teevie-land. Better go with the PP&M translation when will "we" ever learn. Say, GW Bush; when will you ever learn?

[htfiddler]

Just saw the documentary on Pete, Power of Song. Google it. Awesome! Also, Google Video and YouTube have short clips of it. Check 'em out!

[greggy47]

Notice he didn't sing the last verse of the song? He looked depressed at the end that he couldn't, probably nixed by CBS. I like the "white audience" comment, I think we've come a long way.

[rtyuoip123]

This is a very important video. After Wimoweh, Pete strums a few bars of the censored "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and Tommy asks, "Are you going to sing THAT song?" A moment later, after the applause, Pete is suddenly holding a banjo and begins "Where Have All the Flowers gone?" Hooray for Tommy Smothers for persisting in having Pete reappear, which he did at a later time. At that time they did not censor "Big Muddy." His delivery of it is determined and fierce-- look for it on YouTube.

[DrewBludd]

Does anyone have footage of The Smothers Brothers singing the Phil Ochs song "Draft Dodger Rag" on their program with a gentleman who I don't remember (but I know for sure he's NOT Phil Ochs)? I would like to see that performance again.

[terrygilmer]

I believe that's George Segal and his banjo playing with the Smothers Brothers. I watched this online several years ago but now I can't find it either. Let me know if you find it.

[nudespankings]

jesus christ that is a white crowd

[Alenephoenix]

Yes, I am loving this, I'm just old enough to remember all my dad's brothers in Vietnam, and grew up on Seeger's music. Dont apologize! Seeger and Woody will never be forgotten ever- but Seeger was sneakier than Howard Stern, and for the right reasons.

[feludaa]

Thank you very much for posting this song. Not many people appreciate him now but he will always be a hero to me.

[ytcarol]

Thanks for posting this wonderful look at a singer I grew up hearing. That wail on Wimoweh goes right through me. His rich voice sang for all decent men (and women) of his era.

[snarkywonton]

Beautifully said...I feel the same way with his voice!

[hoboharp]

Great to hear Pete's version of this song (Wimoweh). (more similar to the original Solomon Linda tune). It reminded me that there was a independent lens documentary on PBS a few years ago about the origination of what most people know as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", where Seeger spoke about how he came upon the song.  Interesting to check out.

[runar108]

pete is the best

[MYABUTTREEKS]

thanks for the video. Pete is a national treasure.