'Tis The Season to be Jolly

[poliphilo]

I put on my CD of high class carols- sung in German no less.

"Depressing." says Joe.

"What? Silent Night depressing? Go drink some beer..."

Silent Night was what the German soldiers were singing on Christmas Eve 1914. The British soldiers joined in and soon enough they were lobbing tinned food from trench to trench and shouting out "Merry Christmas, Fritz", "Merry Christmas, Tommy". Then someone got up his courage and walked out into No Man's Land and someone from the other side met him halfway and after that for the whole of that Christmas Day there was fraternising and beer-drinking and football the length of the Western Front. And the High Command got into a terrible strop and threatened to shoot anybody who didn't return to the trenches to be shot.... So the unofficial truce came to an end and the war went on for another four years.

What's up next?

"O Tannenbaum" aka the Red Flag.

The Bolshevik irregulars stormed the Winter Palace....

So what's this anyway- the 20th century's bloodiest hits?

How about a nice Basque lullaby to put us in mind of Guernica?

I switch the CD player off and go watch Ant and Dec.

Comments

[cybersofa.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's terrible. Music is the best, even at Xmas. You're badly in need of some harmony, and I prescribe three Irish girls singing Bach. Pure beauty with no unfortunate associations (none that I can think of at least). Hope you like, and the compliments of the season to you and yours.