We ran a news item about songs concerning battles...
And received the following from MagWeb.com member Neil Cosgrove:
I noticed that we have strayed a bit in the original premise of "rock songs" by going to the "Battle of New Orleans" and "Please Mr. Custer". Certainly if you take Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" you would have to consider "Sink the Bismarck" too. Also on the folk side what about the song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" about Gallipoli
- "And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia. "
You can hear it at http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/bandplayed.ram
Of course Irish songs are filled with references to Battles (as a wise man once observed "People in power write history, People who suffer write songs") examples are Boulavogue about the Battle of Vinegar Hill in the 1798 rebellion or The Foggy Dew (recently covered by Sinead O'Connor on the album "The Long Black Veil") about the battle at the G.P.O in the Easter Rebellion which also mentions Suvla and Sud el Bar.
FWIW and thanks for a great service in MagWeb
- --Neil F. Cosgrove
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