just a quick question about Rebel Songs, now those of you who are Irish will know exactly what I mean, those songs written about heros that died fighting for Irish Freedom from British Opression in the 18/19/20th centuries.
The songs in question, in this country anyway, are usually sung while in the company of others, and hardly feature on popular radio/tv programs
I am not particularly Anti-British, but I do enjoy a good sing-song, and this type of song is quite enjoyable, not only are they Anti-British, but tell of a proud history.
Do any other countries have traditional Anti-British songs, that are still sung to this day.
Well, the Star-Spangled Banner (U.S. National Anthem) is all about kicking British butt. We don’t usually sing that bit in verse three about their blood washing out their foul footsteps’ pollution anymore, though.
Ya know, I don’t think that link is 100% accurate, gosh darn it. Their blood washes out their foul footsteps’ pollution, not “wipes” out. (Or, to be completely accurate, it “wash’d” it out.)
Here is the text courtesy of the United States Embassy to Germany. I figure a U.S. Embassy ought to know all the words, no?
That’d be Jimmie Driftwood’s “Battle of New Orleans”. Though Horton’s version was the hit (in both the US and the UK, though it only went to the Top 20 in the UK; Lonnie Donegan’s version went to number 2 in the UK, however).
Jimmie Driftwood was high school history teacher from Mountain View, Arkansas, who started writing songs about historical events to help his students learn about them. He also spent a great deal of time collecting the folk songs of the Arkansas Ozarks. He was a co-founder of the Rackensack Folklore Society (“Rackensack” being an old corrupted form of “Arkansas” – or more likely, of “Rio de Acansas”, the Spanish name for the Arkansas River, which in turn derived from the French version of the original Indian name of the river, whatever that may have been).
Not exactly as much fun as “The Risin’ of the Moon” or “Whiskey in the Jar”, but whaddya want?
The German ones are kind of… uncomfortable. The least offensive one that I know is the WWI era “Hymn of Hate.”
Although it’s not quite the same, I have a collection of WWII era Nazi propaganda songs, in English. Mostly American jazz songs that have had the lyrics altered to mess with allied soldiers’ morale, like “St. Louis Blues” changed to “That Churchill bad man, with his war and things, pulls folks 'round by his apron strings. Weren’t for Churchill and his bloody war, I wouldn’t be here, so dog-gone sore.” If anyone would like to download these, I can make them available.
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I collect WWII propaganda from all sides, and am not a neo-nazi or anything like that. (Although the Reich sure were snappy dressers. Hugo Boss & all that.)
rackensack, that’s pretty neat about Jimmie Driftwood. He was sort of like a proto-Bob Dorough (of Schoolhouse Rock fame), wasn’t he? Did any of his other songs chart?
Larry Mudd, I’m with you. One needn’t be a Nazi sympathizer to recognize that they had the whole martial-glory style down cold.
Eddy Arnold’s version of “Tennessee Stud” went to number 5 on the country charts in 1959. That’s the biggest one. Bruce Eder’s biography of Jimmie Driftwood at AllMusic Guide indicates that at one time in 1959 there were six Driftwood tunes on the country charts at the same time, including “Tennessee Stud”. Eder’s account of Driftwood’s life and career is by far the most comprehensive I’ve seen; another good resource is JimmieDriftwood.com.