A Song For Poly - need speakers

[Helen]

Hi Folks, I saw this on U -Tube and it's one of my favourites way back and then I thought of how much Poly might enjoy this and maybe you folks too:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EOe18JcatZo&mode=related&search=

[Prof.Witchheimer]

no speakers in my office :-( what's the story? a long way home from the battlefields of the Great War?

[Lowtardog]

I loved this song, it still pops up at Xmas time on the Radio  

[Helen]

Basically Prof, if he survives the war what he will do at home!

Or have I missed something?

[KeyanSark]

I've heard that song for ages, but didn't know it was WWI related...

In fact, it is difficult for me to understand the lyrics...  :cry:

[fastolfrus]

I don't think the song is WWI related, it's just the video that is.

Some of the lyrics don't make a lot of sense if you start looking closely at them.

[Helen]

Hi, Actually Churchill is mentioned in the Lyrics, plus something about bombs, surviving etc.

Its quite poignant though and even the film clip shows this.

[SgtPerry]

Nice song though I always prefered this one released nearly at the same time



Olivier

[Westfalia Chris]

Interesting! Heard that one numerous times on the radio, but couldn´t ever pin-point it.

I guess the key phrase is indeed "Wish I was at home - for christmas"... but he´s indeed doing a spiffy job of mumbling, so the other parts are hard to make out. Will watch it s´more. Just for the heck of it.

Oh, and for the Snotty Comment of the Day™: If his hairdo won´t get him shot, that yellow scarf surely will. I don´t understand how he excepts to make it home for christmas running around like that. Must be an artistic thing to make the singer "stand out".

[Plynkes]

That takes me back, Helen. Gets played here in Blighty on the radio quite often around Christmas time. I was a little kid when it came out, I had forgotten it had a video.

My favourite Great War-themed pop song would be this one:


Unfortunately, the video budget didn't stretch to any scenes shot in Flanders. They are mumbling scousers, so in case Chris can't penetrate their mumbling, this is what they're singing:

Remember boy that your forefathers died
Lost in millions for a country's pride
But they never mention the trenches of Belgium
When they stopped fighting and they were one

A spirit stronger than war was at work that night
December 1914 cold, clear and bright
Countries' borders were right out of sight
When they joined together and decided not to fight



Paul McCartney did one along similar lines. I don't like the song, but it has a much better video (perhaps I need to combine the soundtrack from one with the visuals of the other):




And finally one for Helen, though I don't think was ever a single, so it doesn't have a proper video:

[Will Bailie]

I'll jump on the bandwagon!  Here's another Eric Bogle tune, performed this time by John MacDermott:



W

[Plynkes]

How could I have forgotten "Green Fields of France?"

THAT'S my favourite Great War song, bar none (though it ain't really a pop song).


I like the Angelic Upstarts version, but I don't suppose they have that on Youtube.

[Will Bailie]

Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles had Children's Crusade, if you want something more poppy (oh, dear, I really have to lay off the puns, especially when they are in such bad taste...)

[Hammers]

My favorite song, to the tune of What a friend we have in Jesus made popular during the Great War is this one:

     When this lousy war is over no more soldiering for me,
     When I get my civvy clothes on, oh how happy I shall be.
     No more church parades on Sunday, no more begging for a pass.
     You can tell the sergeant-major to stick his passes up his arse.

     (Repeat first two lines of first verse)
     No more NCOs to curse me, no more rotten army stew.
     You can tell the old cook-sergeant, to stick his stew right up his flue.

     (Repeat first two lines of first verse)
     No more sergeants bawling, 'Pick it up' and 'Put it down'
     If I meet the ugly bastard I'll kick his arse all over town

[Will Bailie]

Nice one, Hammershield.  

I remember playing an old LP of my parents, Oh What A Loverly War, over and over again, entranced by all the cynical Great War tunes.

From a more modern WWI film, this one was nice (in a sappy, melancholy way):



I searched for this old Scottish melody in vain, until I found it had been written for the film by a Frenchman!

W