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If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
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Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)
Artist: Pete Seeger
Author: Pete Seeger
Label: Folkways
Year: 1960
Inspired by three lines in Russian song Koloda Duda that he knew from Mikhael Sholokov's novel And Quiet Flows The Don (1934): 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. The melody has been compared with Irish-American woodchopper's tune Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill, but then there's the beginning of every stanza in Daar Was Eens Een Meisje Vroeger Opgestaan, track VI-1 in box set Onder De Groene Linde (M&W - 2008). Sure, it's only been recorded in 1967, but the Dutch singer (born in 1905) learned it from his mother! That's what you get with oral tradition, where no two identical versions exist, unless collected among long-term convicts, sharing the same prison cell or chain gang for years.
Covers:
Marlène Dietrich [as Sag mir wo die Blumen sind; translated by Max Colpet; also as Qui peut dire où vont les fleurs?]
Kingston Trio [hit US]
Joan Baez [and in '65 in German]
Dalida [hit Fr as Que sont devenues les fleurs]
Springfields [with Dusty, in German]
Jaap Fischer [as Zeg Me Waar De Bloemen Zijn]
Conny Vandenbos [as Waar Zijn Alle Bloemen Toch, translated by Annie M.G. Schmidt]
Grady Martin [instrumental]
Walter Jackson [R&B version]
Laurentius Scheenen [at the beginning of every stanza in Daar Was Eens Een Meisje Vroeger Opgestaan, collected by Dutch Lomax Ate Doornbosch in Heythuysen (Limburg); see note]
Wes Montgomery [instrumental]
Juliane Werding [as Sag' mir wo die Blumen sind]
Culture [as Down In Babylon]
A.P.P.L.E. [punk version]
Einstürzende Neubauten [as Sag mir wo die Blumen sind]
Jan Rot [as Waar Zijn Alle Bloemen Heen]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)