Pete Seeger Trivia

1. "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" is a song intrinsically associated with the US folkie Pete Seeger. Which novel was a source for the song?

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: And Quiet Flows the Don

Seeger had read Mikhail Sholokhov's 'And Quiet Flows the Don' and noted a reference to the lines "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", attributed to a Ukrainian folk song. 'And Quiet Flows the Don' was written in 1934 and is an epic tale of Cossack life in the years leading up to WWI. The book has been filmed three times, the most recent in 1993, and was the basis of an opera. Mikhail Sholokhov was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1945.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Faculty members of the Julliard School in New York.

Pete Seeger's family was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper as one "whose chromosomes fairly burst with music."

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: The Kingston Trio

Their version reached number 21 in the US charts in 1962. The Kingstons recorded it the day after they heard Peter Paul and Mary sing it in concert. PP&M included it on their eponymous first album, which was a huge hit, charting in the Billboard Top 10 for 10 months.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: The tenor banjo.

In 1935 Pete Seeger was sixteen years old and playing tenor banjo in the school jazz band. He was uninterested in the classical music which his parents taught at Julliard. That summer, he visited a square dance festival in Ashville, North Carolina, and fell in love with the old fashioned five-string banjo, as he said "rippl[ed] out a rhythm to one fascinating song after another."

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich first sang the song in French, as "Qui peut dire vont les fleurs?" in 1962. It also had an big impact when she sang it in German: "Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, wo sind sie geblieben? Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, was ist geschehn? Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind. Wann wird man je verstehn, wann wird man je verstehn?"

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Avon and Harvard.

Pete Seeger attended boarding school at Avon Old Farms in Avon, Connecticut. He dabbled in music, journalism and Marxism. He did well enough at Avon to be accepted at Harvard University. Pete Seeger left college in the middle of his sophomore year, and decided to absorb American folk music firsthand by traveling the United States.

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire released 'Days And Time' as their first album on the CBS label. It consisted mostly of original songs, plus "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" and "Make It With You", which had earlier been a hit for Bread.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: He traded watercolor paintings for food and shelter.

Pete Seeger did quite well with half a Harvard education. As he traveled the United States mastering the five-string banjo and internalizing the folk traditions he had come to love, on the road he met Huddie Ledbetter and Woody Guthrie. These musicians collaborated with him in his early career.

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: Joe Hickerson

Quoted in 'How Can I Keep From Singing?', by David King Dunaway, Seeger recalled: "When I came out to Camp Woodland the next time, I gave the words to a counselor, Joe Hickerson, and he sang it with his kids. That gave it more rhythm." Hickerson added two verses and set up the pattern of repeating the first verse at the end. [Woodland is a Christian camp and retreat centre in West Georgia]. Interestingly, although Seeger's politics were Communist -and he was blacklisted for them during the McCarthy era - he found inspiration for many songs from the Bible and Christian teachings. Examples include "Turn, Turn Turn" and "My Father's Mansions".

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Assistant to the Archive of American Folk Song.

Pete Seeger, like many artists and musicians during the depression found work with the Federal government working in their chosen fields while creating a lasting legacy for historians.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: The Almanac Singers.

Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger formed the Almanac Singers in 1940. The traveled throughout Mexico and the United States as singer-activists supporting labor movements.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Yes, he joined the Army.

In 1942, as World War II was raging, Pete Seeger joined the Army and continued to sing and play his beloved banjo. He was discharged in 1945 as a corporal.

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane

The Irish singers Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane were joined by the Bosnian cellist Vederan Smailovic and a choir of Protestant and Catholic children from Belfast for a truly haunting version of the song. The others mentioned also sang on the album, which was entitled, naturally, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: The Weavers.

The Weavers was a folksinging quartet. They recorded "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "On Top of Old Smokey" and "If I Had a Hammer." Seeger also toured on his own and helped to establish the Newport Folk Festival.

From Quiz Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Answer: The Rainbow Quest

In the authorised biography, 'How Can I Keep From Singing?', David King Dunaway noted: "At first the song seemed too short to be serviceable, with only three verses. Pete sang it once in a medley of short tunes (released on a fascinating though obscure disc 'The Rainbow Quest') and then forgot about it." 'The Rainbow Quest' was released in 1960 on the Folkways label.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Kennedy Center Honors Award

After receiving the award when asked by the New York Times if his politics had changed, Pete Seeger said: "I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other. My father, Charles Seeger, got me into the Communist movement. He backed out around '38. I drifted out in the 50s. I apologize [in his recent book] for following the parry line so slavishly, for not seeing that Stalin was a supremely cruel misleader. I still call myself a communist, because Communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history Communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail. As my father used to say: "The truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch. All you can do is circle around and say it's somewhere in there." I've been trying to write a song for years on the general theme of "don't give up." Now I just quote the bumper sticker: 'There's no hope, but I may be wrong.' I've been saying it so much that people think it's mine, but it's not."

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Steel drums.

Pete Seeger continued to play regardless of his controversial political stands. He recorded "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" He has been very popular as an entertainer.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: The Hudson River Sloop Restoration.

The project built a genuine Hudson River sloop called the Clearwater. The Clearwater currently participates in "sloop festivals" where residents of the Hudson River get together to address pollution in the river and elsewhere.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: At a "Grapes of Wrath" migrant-worker benefit concert.

Folklorist Alan Lomax said that March 3, 1940 can be celebrated as the beginning of modern folk music when the duo first met and formed the Almanac Singers. The group also included Sis Cunningham, Sonny Terry, Lee Hays, Brownie McGhee and Millard Lampell.

From Quiz Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer

Answer: Toshi Ohta.

They met during Pete Seeger's first leave from the Army. Their friends almost all agreed that Toshi was crucial in helping Seeger manage his finances and organize his career.

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