Where Have All the Flowers Gone? - guitar chords and comments
Lyrics without distraction HERE
First of April - no joke - writing year 2022, a very famous song came to me, with the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraina, escalating to probably be worldwide. I've never sung this before, because everybody else did and have been doing for several reasons during my lifetime ... the song is exactly as old as me. And the origin is found in the area where the conflict is centered.In 1934, Mikhail Sholokhov released "And Quiet Flows the Don". One of its four volumes refers to the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda" and the phrase "Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where are the men, they're all in the army". Pete Seeger read this, and noted it down.
In 1955, he recalled the notes and wrote the first version consisting of three verses, borrowing most of the tune from an old irish lumberjack song. In 1960, Joseph C. Hickerson - a Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song for 35 years (1963–1998), added two more verses, making it recurring. Seeger himself recorded it the same year, followed by The Kingston Trio in '61, and then it exploded. I haven't got a clue how many translations and versions there has been made.
In 2022 we sang it for Ukraina. Now, 2025, we still do. Here we go:
G Em C D ...D7 where have all the flowers gone long time passing G Em Am D7 where have all the flowers gone long time ago? G Em G7 where have all the flowers gone C D gone to young girls every one C Am Em E7 Am D7 C G when will they ever learn when will they ever learn
This song suits well medley with another famous "protest song" of the sixties; actually NOT written by Pete Seeger, but made famous by him: We Shall Overcome, only adjust tempo a bit; keeping the key.
G
G7
C
D
D7
E7
Em
Am
