World War One- the musical version

This classic production sums up the whole war in the songs which were sung at the time.
Either patriotically at home, or sarcastically in the trenches (the trench songs, it should be noted, are very subversive).

Holy # disraeli. What are you opinions on these wonderful productions?

For me, I could only make it through the first 2 before I got sick to my stomach. #1 = women singing about the glories of MEN going into battle, killing/raping/pillaging and dying. How the cannon fodder has the full feminine support and even encouragement to go and kill. Glorious huh? Maybe these were british productions? #2 again the glories of war for king and country. You gotta be a true MAN and pick up a gun to go forth and KILL. jesus, were those troops in a bunker singing happily about trench warfare?

Really. Again, what do you think about this? I just can't believe the average citizens were that brainwashed in those times. Then again, maybe we still are today. oohrah

originally posted by: ClovenSky
How the cannon fodder has the full feminine support and even encouragement to go and kill.

I'd murder a mofo or two if some hot chicks sang to me and told me to do it.

a reply to: ClovenSky

Indeed, the glorification of war and "Doing one's duty" for King and country. Pure propaganda.

a reply to: ClovenSky
The first two songs (from the beginning of the war, I think) were popular songs at home in England, where people actually knew nothing about the harsh realities. They did think of it as a patriotic duty that would bring glory.
The next three come from trench life, from the soldiers themselves, as parodies of other existing songs. It's a way of expressing their bitter feelings about trench life (just listen to the words), and no, the songs wouldn't have been sung quite so joyfully at the time.
But bitter humour is one way of coping with bad situations. There's a famous Punch cartoon in which one soldier is saying to another;
"Wot a life! No rest, no beer, no nuffin. It's only us keeping so cheerful as pulls us through!"

originally posted by: ClovenSky
= women singing about the glories of MEN going into battle, killing/raping/pillaging and dying.

Incidentally, this is not new, historically. We are told that the Spartan mother would give her son a shield, telling him he must come back from battle "wearing this shield, or on it" (i.e. either victorious, or carried back as a corpse)..

a reply to: DISRAELI

Wow, if those were parodies and sarcasm from the soldiers that lived that hell, it was well below my radar to detect.

I guess they wouldn't have been able to tell the blatant truth back then without tongue in cheek.

Damn, I am depressed now.

a reply to: ClovenSky
"When this lousy war is over..."
"... with our old commander safely in the rear..."
That is satire, not patriotism. That's why I added "just listen to the words".
I might have added another one, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne-
"We're here because we're here because,
We're here because,
We're here-
We're here because we're here because,
We're here because,
We're here."
Which says as much about "the futility of war" as any speech-maker.
That's why this whole production was put together in the Sixties as a satire on war.
In fact-

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thank you for the time and clarification. I should have powered through and listened to the words as instructed. Maybe those songs were coming as close to crossing the line in those days as possible.

I just wish we were more against war in the past so that level of subtlety wouldn't have been needed. But maybe we were, maybe the victors of war created the illusion of public support as well, along with the phony reasons we entered in the first place.

a reply to: ClovenSky
Perhaps this is why modern troops have marching songs supplied to them (I understand), so that they don't come up with their own.

While we're on the subject of black humour, this is how the sitcom "Blackadder goes forth" ends the war;

a reply to: DISRAELI

Blackadder was legendary, accurate and oh so funny, yet sad at the same time.

"But Sir, I have a cunning plan..."

originally posted by: LightSpeedDriver
a reply to: DISRAELI

Blackadder was legendary, accurate and oh so funny, yet sad at the same time.

"But Sir, I have a cunning plan..."

OTOH, I am a member of a punning clan.

a reply to: Lazarus Short

Hey, I used to be a Cupid Stunt.