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[Music] Favourite WAR songs
- Thread starter El Presidente
- Start date
- Oct 20, 2022
- 8,807
I was talking about Sunday Bloody Sunday which was written by U2 about Bloody Sunday which took place at the height of the Troubles in County Derry when I said it was the best anti-war song of Sectarian violence. It’s literally that.
AFA Green Fields is concerned, it is about an IRISH Soldier called Willie McBride who died in France in 1916 hence appropriated by the Irish as a protest song against Irish young lads dying at the hands of the British in Ireland too - yes it was refashioned from an old song originally written by Eric Bogle but a lot of anti-war/protest songs are refashioned from earlier songs. The Streets of Laredo which I posted above, inspired the original Bogle song - in turn The Streets of Laredo can be traced back to a traditional ballads of the C19th Century, including an Irish one.
Eric Bogle himself described the song as written ‘about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there."
No Man's Land (Eric Bogle song) - Wikipedia
Bogle named the soldier in his song Willie McBride to counter anti-Irish sentiment in Britain at the height of the Troubles (info which I posted on my favorite song of the day thread last year along with The Fureys’ version of ‘Green Fields of France) so it would seem entirely reasonable to think he would be sympathetic to the idea of it becoming an anthem for Irish protest songs too.
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Superphil
Dismember
Zounds, anarcho punk telling it like it is. I nearly wore this EP out when i bought it.
GT49er
Well-known member
Written by Eric Bogle reflecting on the grave of a young British or British Empire man who died in World War I. In Flanders (as Bogle himself stated). Among thousands of others - McBrides from all over the world; Scotland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, England or Ireland. Non specific, just on our side, not theirs..
Yes, the Irish have taken it on board as a sob-story. Well, fair enough in a way - they're way behind the Scots when it comes to sob-stories! And I guess they couldn't have the nerve to claim 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' as one of their own, so best hijack this one!
One from Australia
The problem is that while we all seem so opposed to war, once it seems inevitable, the majority end up standing firm behind their national identities. A classic example of this was WWI; the various Marxist parties of the 2nd International had the power and stated aim to prevent the war. However, once war was declared, they largely (there were a few notable exceptions) fell in line with their nations' governments in support of it. The alternative? They had the power to call a Europe-wide strike and refuse to fight. These days, we don't need massive armies to destroy civilisation. This Book "The War That Ended Peace" sets out the build up to WW1. What is scary is the correlation of then to now.
Algernon
Well-known member
Mars, the bringer of war first in the suite.
Oddly enough, north of Ireland group Stiff Little Fingers did a song called Bloody Sunday - not about the horrific day itself, but about how boring it was on Sundays in Belfast….I was talking about Sunday Bloody Sunday which was written by U2 about Bloody Sunday which took place at the height of the Troubles in County Derry when I said it was the best anti-war song of Sectarian violence. It’s literally that.
AFA Green Fields is concerned, it is about an IRISH Soldier called Willie McBride who died in France in 1916 hence appropriated by the Irish as a protest song against Irish young lads dying at the hands of the British in Ireland too - yes it was refashioned from an old song originally written by Eric Bogle but a lot of anti-war/protest songs are refashioned from earlier songs. The Streets of Laredo which I posted above, inspired the original Bogle song - in turn The Streets of Laredo can be traced back to a traditional ballads of the C19th Century, including an Irish one.
Eric Bogle himself described the song as written ‘about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there."
No Man's Land (Eric Bogle song) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Bogle named the soldier in his song Willie McBride to counter anti-Irish sentiment in Britain at the height of the Troubles (info which I posted on my favorite song of the day thread last year along with The Fureys’ version of ‘Green Fields of France) so it would seem entirely reasonable to think he would be sympathetic to the idea of it becoming an anthem for Irish protest songs too.
JamesAndTheGiantHead
Well-known member
Two of my favourite songs, war or otherwise.
(actually it’s the other way around he was playing long before the PSB)