Just heard this one on the radio a few days ago. "The Kingston Trio" recorded the best version of this song. (I guess that Peter Paul & Mary has the second best version).
According to songfacts, Pete Seeger wrote this song as a call for peace. He was inspired by Mikhail Sholokhov's novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”, which is about Czarist Russia.
In a 1988 interview with Paul Zollo, Seeger explained:
"In one of the early chapters, it describes the Cossack soldiers galloping off to join the Czar's army.It's a great song!
And they're singing: '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. Gallop, gallop, gallop, wheeeee!'
I stuck the words in my pocket. "
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