Re: A Christmas song of a different kind

Thu, 26 Dec 1996 18:43:51 -0800 (PST) Karen Rall <quarong at eskimo.com> wrote:

> CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES
> [By Canadian John McCutcheon. Tune is done by a slow, haunting violin.]

This is on his "Winter Solstice" album. Well worth picking up.

You might be interested to know that it was written about a true event that happened during WWI. On one of his live albums he tells the story of playing this song in Germany. Every night a bunch of geriatric old Germans would come to hear him. They would drag along their children and grand children, wait for the song, then say, "See? See?"

It's interesting to juxtapose "Christmas in the Trenches" with Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land." Then everybody can be depressed together, and go slit their throats or jump off a cliff.

"No Man's Land" memorializes the Irish dead in WWI. The Irish troups were used as cannon fodder. Casualties among Irish recruits were over 80%. In many villages, not a single young man returned from the war. This is why Ireland remained neutral throughout WWII.

Both the Eric Bogle songs are on his "Scraps of Paper" album, along with that perennial filker favorite "He's Nobody's Moggy Now." This is another album that any folk music fan should own.

• Larry