Pete Seeger: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite Pete Seeger and seven others (including playwright Arthur Miller) for contempt, as they failed to cooperate with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists. Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955.
In one of Pete's darkest moments, when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were in jeopardy, a flash of inspiration ignited this song. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quie Flows the Don". Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?" Shortly after she sang it in German. The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all that hear it.

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[taisetsusuzuki]

I just saw 93-year-old Pete on Colbert Report; there was something so touching in his calm, slow playing and singing of a '69 song, which for him must seem relatively recent! Yet, the audience, who must be two or three generations younger actually sang along.

Beautiful people like Pete make the passage of time more than bearable - they give it an ephemeral gentleness, making aging light.

[Nick Turner]

You're never too old to have heroes.

[Zoran Jakovčev]

Nice,Where are other people,where are the children of flowers.?

[Brendan McNassar]

At least Pete said what he thought, stood by his beliefs and faced down detractors. That is brave, ballsy and bold.

[Bielostotsky]

Happy birthday Mr Seeger!

[elvis presley]

a hero to communists!

[elvis presley]

oh cry me ariver!!!!!!

[Dardo gonzalez dalto]

happy b'day Pete!

Pete Seeger (Nueva York, 3 de mayo de 1919) es un músico de folk estadounidense. Su carrera musical se inició en la década de 1940, al integrarse a las bandas The Almanac Singers (donde también participó Woody Guthrie), y The Weavers.

[Peter Byrne]

tanvo93, don't engage with him. Don't try to rationalize with him. You're just setting yourself up for more insults. He's arrogant, insensitive, bullheaded, abusive and cruel. He's one of the reasons people are so appalled by so many crass and ignorant Americans such as he. How he found such a song as the Seeger classic here is inexplicable. He sure as heck doesn't understand a single word of it. Peace to you in your struggle.

[bella dorset]

we here in the u.k fighting the battle of our lives to save our N.H.S, and our welfare ,

[matthew hayman]

The first concert I was ever taken to was the Weavers at the University of Illinois, Approx 1956. A few years later Pete played and sang at a church across the street from Purdue University. Peter was kind and generous enough to invite all the kids in the audience onto the stage to sing with him. Best memory ever. Dear Pete, I know you are knocking on heaven's door. But you will be in my heart forever.

[tanvo93]

ever heard of inheritance? ever heard of caste, oops,i mean class? let me paint you a picture. imagine yourself living in the inner city, surrounded by drugs and gang violence as you are growing up. how interested would you be in school? your older now and barely getting by, you work two minimum wage jobs just to afford a roof over your head, how much time or money do you have to spend on going to school or opening a business?