SoldierPalmer Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 apologies if it's been posted already or recently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosanostra Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Great song. One of my dad's favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ando Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 great song with great words Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janie jones Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Written by a scottish guy Eric Bogle IIRC who emigrated to Australia and who also wrote Waltzing Matilda. I think the song is actually called No Mans Land. A great song and captures the futility and tragedy of war. The Men They Couldn't Hang do a very good version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillie chris Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 http://www.aftermathww1.com/mcbride.asp Here is a link Also look at the youngest casualty not even 14 years old further down the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoldierPalmer Posted November 11, 2008 Author Share Posted November 11, 2008 The haunting melodies and lyrics work really well with the images in the video - it really makes you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott herbertson Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Written by a scottish guy Eric Bogle IIRC who emigrated to Australia and who also wrote Waltzing Matilda. I think the song is actually called No Mans Land. A great song and captures the futility and tragedy of war. The Men They Couldn't Hang do a very good version. It is and they did Th egreen fields of france is an alternative name, used by irish folk singers , who have a habit of this Reminds me of a story about Euan McColl (writer of Dirty Old Town, First Time ever I saw your Face and father of Kirsty...) He did a series in the 60's/ 70's for radio where he went round the country meeting workers in their workplaces and recording their work songs. He wrote some songs of his own to accompany the series. One of these was about herring fishing, and it was called "The Shoals of Herring" Many years later he went to visit family in Ireland and went into a local pub where as session was going on. He joined in without introducing himself. The songs passed around until a guy announced he was going to do a traditional song about Irish fishermen - "The Shores of Erin", which was of course McColls song with a few words minced about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vulture Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 That is the ultimate peace song, GFOF, think Janie meant to say Bogle wrote the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and not Waltzing Matilda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Arthur Wilson played a wonderful cover of this song at the McCrae's Battalion Trust lunch on Sunday, a lovely song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janie jones Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 That is the ultimate peace song, GFOF, think Janie meant to say Bogle wrote the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and not Waltzing Matilda. I did indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janie jones Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 http://www.aftermathww1.com/mcbride.asp Here is a link Also look at the youngest casualty not even 14 years old further down the link Thanks for this. The line "You really believed this war would end war?" seems particularly poignant even today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnkey1874 Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 a very nice song, thanks for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I P Knightley Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Written by a scottish guy Eric Bogle IIRC who emigrated to Australia and who also wrote Waltzing Matilda. I think the song is actually called No Mans Land. A great song and captures the futility and tragedy of war. The Men They Couldn't Hang do a very good version. I was going over this with my son only last night. There was a lump in my throat I we played it and interpreted what Eric Bogle was singing. One of his teachers had introduced it to him saying it was an Irish song. Fair enough, it was recorded and made successful by some Irish band(s) - including the Fureys, I think. But I sent him into school with a flea in his ear. No doubt at all it's my favourite folk song. Eric Bogle was born in Peebles in 1944 and emigrated to Australia in 1969. He keeps his Scottish accent which is clear in his recordings. No Man's Land was inspired by a visit he made to 4 of the WWI cemetaries in France and his perception of the futility of it all. The name Willie McBride caught his eye - not one in particular but the fact that he happened to see a few crosses bearing that name. How anyone can listen to the words of that song and think it's a good idea to send thousands of troops off to an unwinnable war beats me but Tony Blair is on record as saying that he thinks it the finest anti-war poem ever; he's said to have signed a copy of the lyrics as a gift to a Norn Irish girl who wrote to him about the 'Troubles'. There are very few people on whom I wish pain and discomfort but Blair's one. Some schmuck of an Irishman responded to the song with the same tune but lyrics saying, yes they beat the drum slowly, yes they played the fife lowly, yes the rifles fired o'er me... etc Completely missing the point that so many of the war victims were laid to rest without the pomp and ceremony assured to the generals. Did I mention that this is one of my favourite ever songs? The song Bogle wrote was "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" about the ANZACs in Gallipoli, referring to Waltzing Matilda rather hollowly as the song of "celebration" seeing the 'wounded, the crippled, the maimed' make their way back to Circular Quay. Equally worth a listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I P Knightley Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 http://www.aftermathww1.com/mcbride.asp Here is a link Also look at the youngest casualty not even 14 years old further down the link Darn it! Should have seen the link before typing all that stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerd Muller Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Fantastic song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeeToonJambo Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 ""How anyone can listen to the words of that song and think it's a good idea to send thousands of troops off to an unwinnable war beats me but Tony Blair is on record as saying that he thinks it the finest anti-war poem ever; he's said to have signed a copy of the lyrics as a gift to a Norn Irish girl who wrote to him about the 'Troubles'. There are very few people on whom I wish pain and discomfort but Blair's one."" Tony Blair is also on record as saying it was written by a soldier who died in the trenches!! I could give him the benefit of the doubt and say he confused Eric Bogle with Wilfred Owen, who wrote some great anti-war poems including "Dulce et Decorum Est", (the greatest of them all) and did die in the trenches, a week before the end of the war. Interestingly enough I watched a programme on TV last night and learned that Owen taught at Tynecastle School for a time when he was home on sick leave. PS - I agree with your sentiments entirely about Blair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkmmgcycbwc Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 That would be the same Tony Blair who "recalled" SITTING behind the goals at St James' Park watching Jackie Milburn scoring goals for Newcastle... in an era of no seats behind the goal and historically impossible for him to recall Millburn. But like some of his other lies it maybe conned a few gullible people into voting for him. Maybe there weren't that many WOMD in Iraq after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tambothejambo Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Written by a scottish guy Eric Bogle IIRC who emigrated to Australia and who also wrote Waltzing Matilda. I think the song is actually called No Mans Land. A great song and captures the futility and tragedy of war. The Men They Couldn't Hang do a very good version. Just wondering how many people were Men They Couldn't Hang Fans loved them and went to see them in edinburgh in the 80's Ghost of Cable Street, Colours, Iron masters ... ahhh the memories, lots of good stuff on you tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
interista Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Just wondering how many people were Men They Couldn't Hang Fans loved them and went to see them in edinburgh in the 80's Ghost of Cable Street, Colours, Iron masters ... ahhh the memories, lots of good stuff on you tube. I saw them at Teviot Union in 1986 or thereabouts. I went with a few mates one of whom was John Colquhoun's brother in law. John Colquhoun also came to the gig along with his mate Brian McClair. The gig was abandoned during one of the encores after a small fire broke out in Teviot and the building had to be evacuated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Wilfred Owen, who wrote some great anti-war poems including "Dulce et Decorum Est", (the greatest of them all) and did die in the trenches, a week before the end of the war. Interestingly enough I watched a programme on TV last night and learned that Owen taught at Tynecastle School for a time when he was home on sick leave. During the First War, Craiglockhart was requisitioned by the Army and Officers suffering from Shell-shock were sent here for treatment. Prior to the War Craiglockhart was an Hydropathic, along the lines of Crieff Hydro, or Peebles Hydro. Owen met Sassoon here and it was Sassoon who encouraged Owen to write poetry in his own style on subjects he knew. http://www2.napier.ac.uk/warpoets/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Dover Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 I hope this isn't just an annual phenomenon, like public Tennis courts teaming with life during Wimbledon fortnight, because I'd like to think that many peoples awareness, of the great significance of this period, has been sharply raised by all the recent activity surrounding the Haymarket clock tower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norwaymartin Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamaz Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 i'm Irish and this song was made famous by the Fureys and Davy Arthur, however most definately written by Eric Bogle, for a good "Scottish" version of the song look for the North Sea Gas Version.....although they do support hibs i believe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homme Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 The Pogues do a nice version of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Dover Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 The Pogues do a nice version of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda too It is indeed. I also prefer it to Bogle's own rendition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.