I found this interesting article that details some music written about WWI. You all can read yourselves, so I just hyperlinked the article (it’s like a one minute read and worth checking out), but I’ve compiled all the music into a Spotify playlist (plus I’ve added some of the more interesting music videos). Check it out!
ALSO: Because my ego is fragile and I like to think I have a good taste in music–this isn’t generally the music I like to listen to, but I think it’s important to hear these songs and see how other people interpret the Great War.
- Pipe of Peace by Paul McCartney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwyFTRGiIUU&t=13s
- On Battleship Hill by PJ Harvey
- Going Home by Randy Newman
(This isn’t a video…duh…but here’s a cool quote from Newman on the song).
“This is a World War I song. World War I fascinates me because it was such a shock to the world. Nothing before or since has come close. It was a horrible, horrible event. It was modern weaponry and cavalry and then tanks. They fought for four years over a hundred yards, some ridiculously small amount of ground. It’s the stupidest event in history. This is one of those songs that I just can’t sing – it’s right in one of the cracks in my range. So we did it to approximate what a recording of that era would sound like. I know Mitchell’s going to get blamed in some review for using all these effects, but we did it because I simply can’t sing the thing.”
The long awaited Spotify playlist with all of the songs:
Okay, so nothing scholarly or insightful to add other than, thank you for sharing this! I could easily text you this, but I am already here so, I have since followed you and the playlist on Spotify and I think it is going to become my normal playlist on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the semester.
I found it interesting that Snoopy’s Christmas was about WWI because I tend to think of Charlie Brown as a pretty cheery cartoon. I also think it is fitting as Laura mentioned Peanuts yesterday. I looked it up and Snoopy’s Christmas is loosely based on the Christmas Truce which I am fascinated by and I really hope we will talk about that in class once we hit December.