Hello, I have a research to do on british propaganda during the war, and more specificly I need some pieces of informations about the songs . Not the soldiers's ones , which are sometimes quite vulgar, but one of the same kind as the French "Chant des partisans", which would have been quite like an "official song" of the war. Do you know if there was one song of this type ? If so, could you please give me some more informations ? I'm French, so please forgive my mistakes ^^
Bonjour Claire, do you mean more songs with strong associations with WW2, or more songs for the partisans/maquis/resistance ?
more songs with strong associations with WWII, I've already got the maquis ones ^^. But the thing is, I need a song which would carry something like a strong patriotic feeling , and I can't even find one ><" !! Maybe it's because it has to be a british song, but I thought there were some, weren't they ? ^^
Well there's a few but they're a bit muted on the patriotic angle, but of course no reason why you might know that. "White Cliffs of Dover." & "We'll meet again" are probably the two best known British ones, the oddest one is "Lili Marlene", originally a German poem set to music around '38, never officially adopted by either Nazi nor Allied forces rather they did try to ban it, but it became the song of the troops fighting in N. Africa, regardless of nation or side. Noel Coward's brilliant "Don't Let Us Be Beastly To The Germans" is a good example too. It's worth considering how British wartime songs often weren't highly patriotic or emotional in content, they're more likely to be silly or funny like "When Can I Have A Banana Again?", while US ones tended to be jingoistic and feel-good, Soviet ones almost wholly patriotic similar to German ones. I've no doubt you've had trouble finding a Brit song which is wholly patriotic, as it wasn't (and probably still isn't) the way the Brits dealt with things, dark humour being more the thing, except when hymns might have been sung and the number one patriotic hymn has to be "Jerusalem"; the lyrics for this and other songs of that ilk can be found here; British Patriotic Songs Those might appear a little dated for both today and WW2, but they're still very popular in their way. I can't hear a good version of "Jerusalem" without it bringing a tear to the corner of my eye, I imagine some other Brits are similar. Hope this helps. Bon Chance!
