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oh how do you do, young willy mcbride
do you mind if i sit here down by your graveside
and rest for a while in the warm summer sun
i've been walking all day, and im nearly done
and i see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the great fallen in 1916
well i hope you died quick
and i hope you died clean
or willy mcbride, was is it slow and obscene
[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did they play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
and did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
in some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
and though you died back in 1916
to that loyal heart you're forever nineteen
or are you a stranger without even a name
forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
in an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained
and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame
[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did they play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
the sun shining down on these green fields of france
the warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
the trenches have vanished long under the plow
no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
but here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
till' man's blind indifference to his fellow man
and a whole generation were butchered and damned
[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did they play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
and i can't help but wonder oh willy mcbride
do all those who lie here know why they died
did you really believe them when they told you the cause
did you really believe that this war would end wars
well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
the killing and dying it was all done in vain
oh willy mcbride it all happened again
and again, and again, and again, and again
[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did they play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
The author is Eric Bogle,Green Fields of France, was written in 1976.
Comments
Green Fields of France
This is a beautiful and poignant song.The version by the Fureys catches the mood of the song perfectly .Thank you for including it here to remind us of the futility and waste of war.
devonmalc
devonmalc
No Man's Land
Eric Bogle titled the song No Man's Land on his own album. The other names come from covers done by various bands, sometimes with different lyrics.
Green Fields of France
A reminder that war is not glorious
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Here is
a good rendition of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzmU6guHv_A by Eric Bogle and John Munro (another guitar and harmony on the chorus).
Extremely sad and such a waste. In WWII the great slaughter type warfare was on the German Eastern front; the Soviets used human wave attacks with commissars behind the front line troops who would shoot anyone who didn't charge.
I suppose there are stories and songs from the "great patriotic war" by Russians whose men were slaughtered, but I, at least, don't know of them. We know of the Western Front decimation in WWI because the UK speaks English and the US was there toward the end of the war.
The mass casualties in WWI were senseless/useless because no significant ground was gained; the front lines were static until the very end of the war. OTOH, The Russian deaths were tragic, possibly other tactics would have been as successful with fewer casualties, but the Axis armies were driven out of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Germany, (Austria and Hungary) were physically occupied and defeated.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Ready for work, 1992.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Russian Patriotic Music
Hitler hated the Slavs (Russians et al.) worse than almost everyone. The Eastern Front was pretty much a war of extermination, and he persisted in attacking the Russians long after there was any hope of winning. Roughly twenty-seven million died, a little less than half of all casualties during the war. In Russia, they call it the Holocaust.
Here are a bunch of links from here: http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-5266.html
Some are broken, but there's enough information in the description to find most of them. I've corrected some, but not all.
Russian Patriotic Music from WWII
The Sacred War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABby6nGIeHM
"The Sacred War" Translated. It was a very popular song during WWII, and represented the Great Patriotic War to the Soviets. It was played for the first time on June 23rd, 1941, one day after the Germans had invaded, in a train station in Moscow as troops loaded the trains for the front.
The Sacred War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy8mxh0P63M
The Sacred War ( Svyaschennaya voyna) is an inspirational song famously performed by the Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov Red Army Choir that motivated millions of Soviet soldiers to surge forward in the titanic struggle against the German Wehrmacht and satellite armies during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). This clip is taken from the Soviet movie Bitva za Moskvu (Battle for Moscow).
Katusha - nostalgic music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrUjAz4Kh5A
Katusha (cute)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIDhBaEFhM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28w5dx8YXvc
Katyusha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYy3ojj8lvY
Victory Day celebrations in Moscow
Sixty years of Victory
May 9. 2005
Katyusha - Red Russian Army Choir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHlq_P5CI18
Soviet Female Aces of the Great Patriotic War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI67EoCAtZQ
A sincere tribute to these ladies of the Red Air Force
Across the Valleys and the Mountains (melody)
Stenka Rasin - Soviet Army Chorus, Band & Dance Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLd9vy3iCZs
Haunting melody
Soviet Army Tribute - Meadowland - Red Army Chorus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O_ALxZzisA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7zqfaiWV6M
Red Army Chorus - On The March
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbtXT9I25TY
Volga Boat Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-KiYnIn2U
Partisans and Russian Soldiers - Eastern Front WWII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcTJ_JKV3tc
Song is: The Sun Set Behind a Mountain. Performed by Red Star Red Army Chorus.
Great Patriotic War Memorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srei8pvj3E0
Great Patriotic War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYihbFxgodo
1945 Victory Parade in Color (1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xgYsNVDdc
1945 Victory Parade in Color (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soAHzsIQc3o
1945 Victory Parade in Color (3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr45ZBlpzN0
1945 Victory Parade in Color (4) - Final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO9ZpzCKtZY
ZHUKOV SPEECH AND ANTHEM OF USSR IN VICTORY PARADE - 1945 in Color
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHVYpdBSojg
Victory Parade Moscow 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq_XEl955IQ
Victory Day celebrations in Moscow
Sixty years of Victory
May 9 2005 Victory Day celebrations.
Russian Tank T-34 & T-80 Red Square Moscow May 2005 60th Anniversary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru_c0UnoR2k
-
George Eller
09-16-2007, 11:48 PM
-
Pretty Russian girl group Fabrika Фабрика
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR9YiQ4elKo
Day of Victory concert on 5 May 2007 Part 2-15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CwE2LQxWrE
Concert for the veterans of World War II on The poklonneye mountain, Moscow, on 5 May 2007
- "deg factory?" (singing group) - pretty Russian girls.
Day of Victory concert on 5 May 2007 Part 2-13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHhyn78tC8
Day of Victory concert on 5 May 2007 Part 1-3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJriMHNfCg
And more from above concert...
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Mandinu&p=r
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Terminated account
Those last five links don't work because the YouTube account has been terminated. Wonder why?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
YouTube is famous for users going down the tubes...
...for copyright violations and cetera. These things happen. Often, the same user gets a new ID and reposts.
The videos are still there. Here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skcgl3ax9X4
Many of the rest link from there.
I tweaked the first link to point to the version with English lyrics as described.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Nice one
unfortunally he wasn't a geographical mastermind -> cfr WO1 fields he was talking about weren't in France but in Flanders >hence 'In Flanders Fields< Although the Western Front was for the biggest part on French territory cfr roughly the area between the rivers Ijzer (Belgium/Flanders and Somme (France)and thenfollowing the French/Prusian border (wasn't Germany yet -> cfr still the Emporer( map Western Front 1915-16)
Lynne
Oooh, how many things...
Firstly, those are not Eric's original lyrics. "Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered yoiu down" is the original line. There are some other changes too. Eric is a lovely man, and I have his personal permission to use those lyrics in a dead tree book of mine. All he said when I asked was "send me a sample so I can be sure. Stuff the legal rubbish, we'll do this like human beings"
Flanders...stretches a long, lokg way into France. One of those cross-border regions. While much of the British fighting was in Flanders, such as the carnage around Ieper, most of it was in France. Almost all of Belgium fell to the Germans, and it was only a comparatively short stretch north of Lille that was covered by the BEF, some Belgians and some Portuguese. The carnage that overtook our army in 1916 was entirely in France, where in one battle we basically lost the same number as we di in the whole of the next war. Loos, Bapaume, Vimy for the Canadians, Cambrai, the Somme, all in France.
http://ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/nomansland.pdf
And the fun bit...
I always hear this done in a sort of cod-Irish accent. Eric's Australian. Originally from Scotland...
I'm most familiar with the
I'm most familiar with the version done by Eric Bogle, himself. I believe I heard a cover, once, that was different in accent and timing, and perhaps some tweaks to the lyrics. I don't recall who it was by, but it sounded very wrong to me, used to the original.
Versions
I discussed one version with him, and it is one that I feel loses the point. The couplet that starts "Well I hope you dies quick..." was replaced with "...died well...", which changes the message. Eric was talking to a 19 year old boy who was in his words 'butchered and damned' and praying death took him easily, not hoping he died proudly.
I though the point of the
I though the point of the song was that none of them died well. Quick, slow, proud, scared, it was all a waste. And if the point was lost in No Man's Land, then the Gallipoli survivor narrating And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda makes it more explicit. "The young people ask, 'What are they marching for?,' and I ask myself the same question."
Battle of Verdun wasn't
Battle of Verdun wasn't it??? which was near the Somme :). Maybe it's just a nationalist tick of mine with the Ijzer and Iepre.
Lynne
>thinking about another song which talks about WO1 but in this case the afrturkish front And the band played waltzing Mathilda what having an uncle that plays 'old' songs can do ...
Verdun
Verdun was an entirely French affair, where the Germans drew in more and more French troops in a simple plan to chew them up and spit them out as they defended a 'holy' part of France. Unfortunately for the Germans, they lost sight of their original battle plan and attempted to capture the forts they had originally intended as a lure, so the carnage went both ways. Along with the Chemin des Dames, it nearly broke the French army.
The Somme was fought in Picardy, and it was an attempt to relieve the pressure off the French. Tragically, it was fought using large numbers of 'pals' battalions', units formed of men who worked or played together, so when the slaughter began entire towns lost their menfolk in one blow. The troops formed up in lines, and at the signal set off at a walk towards the enemy lines, because the huge artillery preparation would smash the German defences and they would simply walk over the wreckage.
And the artillery fired, and the Germans hid in their concrete bunkers screaming in terror till it stopped, and then they ran up the stairs to their machine gun pits and firing steps, and climbing those steps quicker than walking soldiers could cross a mass of barbed wire churned into a rats' nest by the shellfire. And they could do it quicker, and that sunny July morning they shot down nearly 60,000, and by the end of the battle it was pushing half a million on the British side.
And whole bloodlines, whole communities, were extinguished in a morning.
Dear Cyclist,
I'm pretty sure the original lyrics are used in the song I linked to on YouTube.
You could check it out?
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Indeed
That's the lovely man, and his great bear of a mate. Of course, the other one of Eric's everybody knows is the Australian equivalent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=471-ucVd7o0&feature=related
And apartheid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ0Fb1NKwC0&feature=related
And the neglect of the elderly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgjhhUEdozg&feature=related
But he has a sense of humour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mOHvUUzgn0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcXzdq9kMw0
Gee!
I don't know how I missed out on being part of this chat, but I am glad I did. By not commenting earlier or in response to some other comments, I have managed to stay out of trouble.
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson