Various Artists - Where Have All The Flowers Gone/ The Songs Of Pete Seeger

Limited edition double LP

Featuring recordings of the great American folk artist Pete Seeger by: Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn, Studs Terkel, Billy Bragg, Eliza Carthy, Nancy Griffith, Richie Havens & Tom Paxton among others

Originally Issued in 1998

Probably the last person to feel comfortable with a tribute to himself, no one more than Pete Seeger deserves to be celebrated by his musical contemporaries and descendants and artists from other fields.Where Have All the Flowers Gone presents 39 songs on two volumes of double LP sets written, adapted or adopted by Seeger in 37 exclusive new versions by major figures in entertainment and social activism.

This unprecedented assemblage of performers spanning generations and international borders includes Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco, Judy Collins, actor Tim Robbins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, and politically active musicians from Bosnia, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Canada among its many participants. All acknowledge their debt to Seeger by performing songs or poems he has written or sung for more than half a century to champion the labor and civil rights movement, peace, the environment, and the human spirit. So many artists wanted to be involved in the project that two subsequent all-star Seeger tributes have followed: If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2 (2001) and Grammy finalist Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3 (2003).

Harnessing the power of music to rally support for political and social causes is an American tradition as old as "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail, Columbia." Pete Seeger has been the modern exemplar of that heritage. His "Talking Union" energized embattled laborers; he transformed "We Shall Overcome" (performed on Flowersby Bruce Springsteen) from a gospel spiritual to the anthem of the civil rights movement; "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" gently addresses the futility and casualties of war.

Many of Seeger's best-known songs and more obscure compositions are presented in satisfying new recordings by a rainbow of artists. Widely acclaimed for its scope and execution, Where Have All the Flowers Gone won the American Federation of Independent Music Award as the "Top Independent Release of 1998," and the duet by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt on "Kisses Sweeter than Wine" was nominated for a 1999 Grammy as "Best Pop Collaboration." A decade after its release, Where Have All the Flowers Gone has become a staple of folk radio programs and a cornerstone of modern musical libraries, both personal and archival.

Seeger himself concludes the two volumes of Where Have All The Flowers Gone with the debut of a new song, "And Still I Am Searching," a typically humble and thoughtful reflection. The 50th anniversary of his seminal folk group, The Weavers, is celebrated with a reissue of their classic "Wimoweh," and former Weavers member Ronnie Gilbert is represented on "Empty Pocket Blues."

The new version of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" on this set made a major impact on an international scale. For three years after its release, the version by Irish musicians Tommy Sands and Delores Keane, Bosnian cellist Vedran Smailovic and a chorus of Protestant and Catholic school children accompanied the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England. The song was also used an anthem of peace in Northern Ireland when it was played by both sides after the tragic 1998 "Real IRA" bombing in Omagh that killed 29 people and wounded over 100. John Hume, Minister of British Parliament and Nobel Peace Prize winner, described the song as "such an important anthem for our time and our land" and "a vital bridge of hope and healing between two sides."

Springsteen's rendition of "We Shall Overcome" was also put to good use in a modern context. Already a cornerstone of labor and civil rights movements in the U.S. and around the world, the song arose again as "an anthem of hope for our troubled times" (to quote NBC's Nightly News anchorman, Tom Brokaw) in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist airplane hijackings and attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. The song was used as the soundtrack to an NBC Nightly News video montage featuring heroic responses to the destruction of the twin towers of the city's World Trade Center; first aired on September 13, the video became a theme for recovery from the shocking, horrific events of September 11 and was broadcast frequently, also appearing on NBC's "Dateline" and "News with Brian Williams."

 

Side 1

We Shall Overcome - Bruce Springsteen

Bells Of Rhymney - Roger McGuinn

Oh Had I A Golden Thread - Judy Collins

False From Tru - Guy Davis

Side 2

Letter To Eve - Indigo Girls

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy - Dick Gaughan

All My Children Of The Sun - Tim Robbins

Living In The Country - Martin Simpson

Side 3

One Grain Of Sand - Odetta One

Old Father Hudson - Sailing Down Dirty Stream - Casey Neill

The Torn Flag - John Trudell

Doublin' - Si Khan With The Freighthoppers

To Everyone In The World - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer

Side 4

Over The Hills - Tommy Makem

I Come And Stand At Every Door - Anne Hills

My Rainbow Race - Donovan

Quiet Early Morning - Holly Near

Oh, Sacred World - Studs Terkel

And Still I Am Searching - Pete Seeger

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