As a member of The Weavers, Seeger had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. He was formerly a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and was a major contributor to folk and protest music in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Perhaps best known today as the author or co-author of the songs Where Have All the Flowers Gone, If I Had a Hammer, and Turn, Turn, Turn, songs that have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and which are still sung all over the world. Flowers was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn" in the mid-1960s.
Early work
Seeger dropped out of Harvard (where he had been studying journalism) in 1939, and he took a job in Washington, D.C. at the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress. In that capacity, he met and was influenced by many important musicians such as Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. He met Woody at a "Grapes of Wrath" migrant workers concert on March 3, 1940 and the two thereafter began a musical collaboration.
In 1948, Seeger wrote the first version of his now-classic How to Play the Five-String Banjo, a book that many banjo players credit with starting them off on the instrument. He went on to invent the Long Neck or Seeger banjo. This instrument is three frets longer than a typical banjo, and slightly longer than a bass guitar at 25 Frets, and is tuned a minor third lower than the normal 5-string banjo.
As a self-described "split tenor" (between an alto and a tenor), he was a founding member of the folk groups the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and the Weavers with Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman. The Weavers had major hits in the early 1950s, before being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.
On August 18, 1955, Pete was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where he refused to name personal and political associations stating it would violate his First Amendment rights... "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this." Seeger's refusal to testify led to a March 26, 1957 indictment for contempt of Congress; for some years, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York. He was convicted in a jury trial in March 1961, and sentenced to a year in jail, but in May 1962 an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction.
Seeger started a solo career in 1958, and is known for songs such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "If I Had a Hammer" (co-written with Lee Hays), "Turn, Turn, Turn," adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and "We Shall Overcome" (based on a spiritual and later became the unofficial anthem for the civil rights movement). Seeger became influential in the 1960s folk revival centered in Greenwich Village. He helped found Broadside Magazine and Sing Out!. He was strongly associated with Moses Asch and Folkways Records. To describe the new crop of folk singers, many of whom were politically minded in their songs, he coined the phrase "Woody's children", alluding to his former bandmate Woody Guthrie, who by this time had become a legendary figure. He has often sung and is associated with the song "Joe Hill".
In the mid-sixties he hosted a regional folk music TV show called Rainbow Quest which featured folk musicians playing traditional folk music. Among his guests were Johnny Cash, June Carter, Mississippi John Hurt, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Roscoe Holcomb, The Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Richard Fariña and Mimi Fariña, and many others. Thirty-eight hour-long programs were recorded at new UHF station WNJU's Newark studios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi with Sholom Rubinstein.
An early advocate of Bob Dylan, Seeger was supposedly incensed over the distorted electric sound Dylan brought into the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, especially with the inability to clearly hear the lyrics. There are many conflicting versions of exactly what ensued, some claiming that he actually tried to disconnect the equipment. He is often cited as one of the main opponents to Dylan at Newport 1965, but claimed in 2005:
"There are reports of me being anti-him going electric at the '65 Newport Folk festival, but that's wrong. I was the MC that night. He was singing 'Maggie's Farm' and you couldn't understand a word because the mic was distorting his voice. I ran to the mixing desk and said, 'Fix the sound, it's terrible!' The guy said 'No, that's how they want it.' And I did say that if I had an axe I'd cut the cable! But I wanted to hear the words. I didn't mind him going electric.
Later work
Seeger achieved some notoriety in 1967 and 1968 for his song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", about a captain—a "big fool"—who drowned while leading a platoon on maneuvers in Louisiana during World War II. Seeger performed the song on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour after some arguments with CBS about whether the song's lyrics were objectionable. Although the song was cut from the Smothers Brothers show in September 1967, Seeger returned in January 1968 and sang the entire song. It was clearly an allegory about the U.S. under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson which was in over its head in the Vietnam War.
Another slight against Lyndon Johnson can be heard in his singing of Len Chandler's seemingly juvenile song, "Beans in My Ears" from his 1966 album Dangerous Songs!? in which he accuses "Mrs. Jay's little son Alby" (Alby Jay is meant to sound like LBJ) of having beans in his ears, or of not listening to the people.
In 1998 a double-CD tribute album was released - "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: the Songs of Pete Seeger". It contained contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg, Eliza Carthy, Bruce Springsteen, Roger McGuinn, Judy Collins, Indigo Girls, Dick Gaughan, Martin Simpson, Odetta and others.
Pete Seeger still performed occasionally in public until his death, and for a number of years appeared at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough Tennessee to tell stories, mostly children's stories such as Abiyoyo. He performed at MerleFest April 27-30, 2006 in Wilkesboro, NC.
On March 16, 2007, the 88-year old Pete Seeger performed with his siblings Mike Seeger and Peggy Seeger, and other Seeger family members at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where he had been employed as a folk song archivist 67 years earlier.
In April 2006, Bruce Springsteen released a collection of songs associated with Seeger or in Seeger's folk tradition, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Bruce Springsteen performed a series of concerts based on those sessions, to sellout crowds. Springsteen had previously recorded one Seeger favorite, "We Shall Overcome," on the 1998 "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" tribute album.
Seeger lived in the hamlet of Dutchess Junction in the Town of Fishkill, NY and remained very politically active in the Hudson Valley Region of New York, especially in the near-by City of Beacon, NY. He and Toshi purchased their land in 1949, and lived there first in a trailer, then in a log cabin they built themselves, and eventually in a larger house. Seeger joined the Community Church (a church practicing Unitarian Universalism), is considered a famous Unitarian Universalist, and often performed at functions for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Seeger died in 2014 of natural causes.
Awards
Seeger has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including:
A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1993)
The National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994)
Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor (1994)
The Harvard Arts Medal (1996)
Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1996)
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996 for his record "Pete" (1997)
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Pete Seeger Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
The lyrics for Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" are a poignant commentary on the cyclical nature of war, and the human cost of conflict. The song is structured as a series of rhetorical questions, each asking where a particular group of people or things has gone, and then answering with a bleak truth. The first verse asks where all the flowers have gone, and answers that young girls have picked them all. The second verse asks where all the young girls have gone, and answers that they have all taken husbands. The third verse asks where all the young men have gone, and answers that they have all gone to become soldiers. The fourth verse asks where all the soldiers have gone, and answers that they have all gone to graveyards. The final verse asks where all the graveyards have gone, and laments that they are now covered with flowers.
The song's message is deeply anti-war, and suggests that the human toll of conflict is not limited to soldiers, but affects entire communities. The lyrics refuse to take sides, and instead urge the listener to reflect on the consequences of war, and ask when we will learn to live in peace.
Line by Line Meaning
Where have all the flowers gone?
What has happened to all of the flowers?
Long time passing
It has been a significant amount of time since the flowers disappeared
Where have all the young girls gone?
What has happened to all of the young girls?
Long time passing
It has been a significant amount of time since the young girls disappeared
Where have all the young girls gone?
All of the young girls have taken husbands
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
Where have all the young men gone?
What has happened to all of the young men?
Long time passing
It has been a significant amount of time since the young men disappeared
Where have all the young men gone?
All of the young men have gone for soldiers
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
What has happened to all of the soldiers?
Long time passing
It has been a significant amount of time since the soldiers disappeared
Where have all the soldiers gone?
All of the soldiers have gone to graveyards
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
When will they ever learn?
When will people learn from this cycle?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
What has happened to all of the graveyards?
Long time passing
It has been a significant amount of time since the graveyards disappeared
Where have all the graveyards gone?
All of the graveyards are now covered with flowers
When will we ever learn?
When will we as a society learn from this cycle?
When will we ever learn?
When will we as a society learn from this cycle?
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Peter Seeger
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Paul-iy1yx
HOW VERY HUMBLING for me. I MET Pete Seeger in my college years (1980's) after attending his fund-raising concert in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A truly amazing (and yet VERY HUMBLE gentleman). This was almost a "perfect closure" for me since we lost him not too many years later. I got both a photo of US AND his autograph for my parents.. our family was RAISED on his (and the WEAVERS') music.
Our mom was a folk music singer / guitarist as well as a teacher (schools also).
Within the year that the WOODSTOCK movie came out, our family attended the TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
On stage were: Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Odetta, Richie Havens, Country Joe MacDonald (just to name a few).
BTW.. this recording can be found on YouTube (parts also at a similar production done in New York).
@davedavis256
The rest of the song returns to the flowers.
Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
They’ve gone to graveyards, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone? Long time passing.
Where have all the graveyards gone? Long time ago.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
They’re covered with flowers, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
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, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
@GracielaNorris
"Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"
(originally by Pete Seeger)
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, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
A long, long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
@johnhulsker9123
I'm an old man that stood against war and strife going back to when this song was new. I do wish there were more Pete Seegers to follow in his footsteps. From where I look, I see only cynicism and indifference, it greatly saddens me.
@harveystill4549
my mother loved this song but was happy for me go to Vietnam ? thankfully the labor party (in australia) got elected in 1972 and ended conscription
@nunocosta3923
@Harvey Still in Australia? in Australia you go to Vietnam? i dont understand...
@harveystill4549
@Nuno Costa Australian soldiers were in Vietnam from 1962 to 1972 . i was due for conscription but the labor party won the election and abolished conscription -whats there not to understand ? 500 australians died for no reason -60,000 served
@margaretmitchell4200
There should be many more John Hulskers in this world X
@chiraranjanbakshi3877
Both Pete and Peggy Seegers had been the voice of peace! Nobel Prize is too feeble to define their values! I, for one, had witnessed their most captivating performance in the basement of Union Tavern at King's X, London, in late sixties! What a joyous recollection !
@mariaantoniettacannizzaro7096
A true and beautiful song against war.A great singer.I love Pete Seeger.
@marknewton6984
Still a great song!
@philipr1567
Pete Seeger deserved a Nobel Peace Prize far more than some recent recipients.
@vadimasmir
U R so right. Bob Dylan got it sirca 2016. With due respect for the Panel and their rationale I would make it shorter: if only for his "The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind". But Bob fathered this beautiful creation much later than Pete. Nobody's perfect, High Commands, Panels and Juries included. Even Tempora with their respective Mores.