Remembrance Day Song
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From the No Glory website
http://noglory.org/index.php/multimedia/music/364-vincent-burke-on-remembrance-day
Shocking news item in today's i paper:
Quote:Stone 'diminishes' anti-war songThe composer of the anti-war anthem "No Man's Land" (also known as "Green Fields of France") has criticised the pop-soul singer Joss Stone for recording a "sentimentalised" version of his song, which omits key verses about the horrors of war, as part of the Poppy Appeal.Stone teamed up with the guitarist Jeff Beck to record a version of the song, a reflection on the grave of a young man, Willie McBride, killed in the First World War, which was written by Eric Bogle. Chosen official single for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, Stone will perform her version in front of the Queen on Remembrance Sunday.But Stone's version, sung to a gospel choice backing, removes the final two verses, which deliver a withering condemnation of the futility of war.The missing lines refer to "man's blind indifference to his fellow man. And a whole generation who were butchered and damned" and "the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame. The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain".This is worse than the nationalists hi-jacking "Jerusalem". It was a song that Islington branch members, when they met in the Queen Victoria pub in Holloway Road in the 1980s on a Saturday night, always used to request the band to play. (Despite its name the Queen Vic was an Irish pub where they sold An Poblacht and they always played "A Nation Once Again" at the end, but we didn't stand up).Alan, you're in Thailand or somewhere, but if you were back here you wouldn't believe what Poppy Day has become: a commercial as well as a nationalist feast-day. The shops are selling crimson cards and crosses. It's just like Easter, Mothers Day, etc. In fact, worse because it's putting over an onboxious message.
Yeah, it's totally sick. And here in Turkey where we flip quickly through the international news channels to 'compare and contrast' we are also sickened to see EVERYONE, presenters and guests alike, who appears on the BBC for almost a month before the 11th November wearing a red poppy. Do they really have a poppy box at the door and a policy that if you don't wear one you don't appear? It certainly seems like that. Puke, puke!
It's well and good to remember the horrors of war and the people who die so needlessly in them. But the underlying message of all this poppy stuff, and the TV programmes about WWI, is that it's a necessity and an honour to fight and die for your country. And then of course there's all the puke-inducing religious stuff that goes with it.Refuse to have anything to do with it and people think you're churlish or mad.Not forgetting having Children In Need rammed down your throat as well…the BBC are really milking it this time of year.
ALB, I just can't believe what they have done to, " No Man's Land," This was the war to end all wars, was it not and the final verse just sums up nicely, the futility, the horror, the loss and waste of life and what is more, it is still going on today. Perhaps at every opportunity, we will tell the people what has been omitted.
Untruncated and unsentimental lyrics here:http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/e/eric_bogle/no_mans_land_lyrics.html
Listen to this Furey brothers' recording here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0tFv8yu7owI've listened, and sung alomg with it, for years – it always hits the mark.
I thought this statement from Wigan football player who refused to wear the poppy quite moving even if it is simply another nationalist view.http://www.wiganlatics.co.uk/news/article/14-11-07-statement-regarding-james-mcclean-2070059.aspx#p0k9HUKLmojzl0T0.99"…for me to wear a poppy would be as much a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles – and Bloody Sunday especially – as I have in the past been accused of disrespecting the victims of WWI and WWII. It would be seen as an act of disrespect to those people; to my people…"
Heres a link to a version by the writer, Eric Bogle. Interesting, as some of the verses are sung in German. Apologies if it's all old hat to most of you.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUzQ6Am-bbc&feature=youtube_gdata
Here's the "sentimentalised" version sung before the queen. It's not just sentimentalised. It's fucking obscene. I wonder who the cynical bastards were who knowingly travestied the original in this way:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gTOcoD0c0&feature=youtu.be
Something perhaps we could endorse…not the red poppy…nor the white poppy…but the BLACK poppy/
Quote:on the 6th Nov 2014, counter-militarism activists pasted 16,000 black poppiesaround the city of Glasgow to appeal to the public to consider what Remembrance Sunday means. Each poppy represents one of the conciencous objectors, making up 16,000 war resistors who took a stand against their enlistment during the First World War.http://resistmilitarism.com/(533 posters were pasted up, each depicting an approximately 30 poppies equalling the 16, 000 total.)Imagine the indignant uproar if we were to go along on Remembrance Sunday to exercise the right to lay a wreath of Black Poppies…..we want our existence highlighted…such an act certainly would attract attention if we could get away with it. Even trying would draw interest.Kudos to Glasgow activists
Quote:So then, to the most asked questions about this affair. Was my permission sought when Joss’s team decided to record No Man’s Land? No. Did I know what they proposed to do with the song when they decided to record it? No. Do I approve of what they have done to the song (missing verses, rock’n’roll arrangement)? No.Eric Bogle this man's a genius and that's all there is to it. No man's land one of the best songs, lyrics & videos ever.
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