And, as you no doubt also know, Billy Bragg and Dick Gaughan sang The
Red Flag to its original tune on Billy's Internationale mini-album. See
my Roots To Fruits playlist for 21 March, tucked between Robert Wyatt's
"Tannenbaum" version and Dave Swarbrick's lively rendition of The White
Cockade.
Richard
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Iain wrote:
Also had a strange experience with Muzak. I was in Austin a couple
of years back just before Xmas (you ever heard the Cornell Hurd
band do an Xmas medley while you're eating enchiladas?) and I was in
the HEB supermarket near the Austin Motel stocking up on anchos. I
became aware that the Muzak sounded familiar, after listening a few
seconds I realised that it was the German hymn tune 'Tannenbaum'
which I believe you associate with Xmas ('O Christmas Tree, O
Christmas tree etc'). Now anyone from over here only thinks of one
association with that tune, it's the air to 'The Red Flag' longtime
anthem of the Labour movement ("The people's flag is deepest red,
it shrouded oft our martyred dead ...."). I resisted the temptation
to join in the chorus ("So raise the scarlet standard high, Beneath
its shade we'll live and die, Tho' cowards flinch and traitors
sneer, We'll keep the Red Flag flying here") as I figured it might
not go down too well in Texas, even in Austin, but it did strike me
as pretty weird.
PS The words of The Red Flag were:
a) originally written to be sung to the tune of an Irish folk song
'The White Cockade'
b) composed by two men stuck on a train between New Cross and London
Bridge stations
There's not many people know that, (b) anyway.
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Iain Noble
Hound Dog Research, Survey and Social Research Consultancy,
28A Collegiate Crescent Sheffield S10 2BA UK
Phone/fax: (+44) (0)114 267 1394 email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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