Six more Spanish Civil War Songs, and more besides (long post!)
G. M. Watson
I've been waiting for someone to post a few more of the great songs of the
battle against Fascism in Spain, but since no one has-- not even "Thaelmann
Column", possibly the best of them all, I guess it's up to me.
Unfortunately, I'm not a musician, so those wanting chords and so forth are
on their own. Most of these songs sound better on a piano, anyway-- these
were songs meant to inspire soldiers, not campfire ballads. If you want
tunes, several people have posted info on recordings. There's another one on
the Chant du Monde label from France, called "Songs of the Spanish Civil
War"; featuring vintage recordings of Spanish and Basque worker's choruses I
believe. It's available thru Amazon, where so far it has received only one
(bad) review. I haven't heard it.
This was a war that involved people from many different countries and as a
result produced many songs. Many volunteers carried a small multilingual
songbook called "Canciones de la Guerra". It is also a war that has inspired
much music and art in the 60+ years since it ended. For a few examples, have
a look at <http:www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9820/spain16.html>, part of a
larger Spanish Civil War site.
I'm lucky enough to have a rare original copy of Folkways FH 5437, "Songs of
the Spanish Civil War, Volume 2" featuring Woody Guthrie, Ernst Busch and
SCW veteran and singer Bart van de Schelling. As someone noted, it's
available on cassette from the Smithsonian, along with its predecessor,
Volume 1, which includes Seeger's original recording of "Viva la Quince
Brigada"-- a superb performance of which is also to be found on the CD
release of Pete's 1963 Carnegie Hall concert, "We Shall Overcome". Easily
found. But get the Smithsonian (Folkways) cassettes. Thy're terrific.
By the way, if anyone out there has a copy of the LP version of Folkways'
"Songs of the Spanish Civil War, Volume 1" that they'd be willing to part
with, contact me immediately! I've been looking for the LP for many years.
There are many sources of information on the Spanish Civil War and on the
Lincoln Batallion in particular. Try to seek out the wonderful 1984
documentary, "The Good Fight", available on video and narrated by Studs
Terkel. It features interviews with several surviving members of the
Lincolns, including the magnificent Eddie Balchowsky, who is seen giving one
of the most stirring performances of "Thaelmann-Batallion (Freiheit)" you
will ever hear. Eddie, thanks to Utah Phillips, made a few appearances at
folk festivals in the early 80s. He was heading for a career as a concert
pianist until he went to Spain and lost an arm in the Ebro Valley. He used
to perform an exquisite one handed version of the "Moonlight" Sonata. Utah
wrote a lovely song about Eddie with the chorus "One hand on the
keyboard/Moonlight fills the room/One hand on the Ebro/No regrets". He was a
remarkable man and his appearance in "the Good Fight" is very moving for
those of us, like myself, who were privileged to see him play and meet him.
Eddie died about ten years ago.
Anyway, the songs. I've listed six here. These are mostly songs of the
German Communists who fought in Spain. They are from the second Folkways
album, whence I have the lyrics (handily included in the insert). All except
"Jarama" are performed on the album --by the great Ernst Busch-- in German,
but you will have to settle for the English translation, as that's all that
was included. Sorry.
1) JARAMA
(written & sung by Woody Guthrie)
(To the tune of "Red River Valley")
There's a valley in Spain called Jarama
It's a place that we all know so well
It was there that we fought against the Fascists
We saw a peaceful valley turn to hell.
CHORUS:
From this valley they say we are going
But don't hasten to bid us adieu
Even though we lost the battle at Jarama
We'll set this valley free 'fore we're through.
We were men of the Lincoln Batallion
We are proud of the fight that we made
We know that you people of the valley
Will remember our Lincoln Brigade.
(Chorus):
You will never find peace with the Fascists
You will never find friends such as we
So remember that valley of Jarama
And the people that will set that valley free.
(Chorus):
All this world is like this valley called Jarama
So green and so bright and so fair
No Fascists can dwell in our valley
Nor breathe in our new freedom's air.
(Chorus):
2) ON THE JARAMA FRONT
(Translated from the German)
(Performed as a slow march, gradually building in intensity)
(Spoken:)
"On the Jarama Front,
February 1937".
All comrades in trenches
Now sing with us
And silence all other music.
We are singing the song of the Jarama front
Where numberless brothers have fallen.
With tanks and with planes they attacked our ranks
We had only courage and rifles.
Though many men perished, the legions of hate
Were shattered by our brave attack.
The grenades came flying and tore in all our ranks
So many bloody breaches.
We shielded the roadways, we guarded Madrid,
We held the Arganda bridgehead.
In Jarama's valley now poppies bloom
They blossom before our trenches
With a blood-red carpet they cover the land
Where the best of our brothers are buried.
Ah! But later for ever and everywhere
When working folk gather together,
They will sing Jarama's defiant song,
And all hearts will be roused to give battle.
And one day then when the hour has come
That all spectres will be banished from the earth;
Then the world will be our Jarama front,
As in the February days!
(NB: This song was originally recorded in 1937 by the great German Communist
singer Ernst Busch, who, along with Paul Robeson, made many tours of the
front in Spain. The famous East German film director Frank Beyer (director
of the original "Jakob the Liar") used a Busch re-recording of "On the
Jarama Front" over the closing credits of "Funf Patronenhulsen" (can't
remember the English title) a 1960 (fictional) film about German volunteers
in Spain. When I saw this film a few years ago, by the end of the song I was
damn near ready to march on Madrid. This is one powerful piece of music,
friends.)
3) BALLAD OF THE 11TH BRIGADE
(A smoothly-flowing, midtempo tune)
(Translated from the German)
For us in Spain, every thing got worse,
And so we fell back step by step,
So all the fascists cried aloud
Ah! The town of Madrid will be ours!
Then they came to us from all the world,
And those with red stars on their hats.
In Manzanares they put an end to Franco's overbearing pride.
CHORUS:
Those were the days of Brigade Eleven
And their banner of freedom.
Brigada Internacional
Brigada Internacional
Is their proud badge of honor,
Is their proud badge of honor.
At Guadalajara, in the month of March,
In cold and raging storms,
Even stout hearts then were afraid,
Torija's tower trembled too.
Garibaldi from his grave stood up
With Andre and Dombrowsky near.
They sent Il Duce running off,
He had no time for running back.
(Chorus):
And should it be that for seven years
Still we must remain at war;
Even this war must end one day,
We shall see Germany again,
And we shall sing our Passeremo,
Entering through German gates.
(Chorus):
4) HANNS BEIMLER, KAMERAD
(Based on an old German military song called "I Had a Good Comrade". Music
by Paul Dessau, a German classical composer who worked extensively with
Brecht; Beimler was one of the political officers of the Thaelmann
Batallion)
(The first two stanzas are a spoken introduction):
How can we ever forget the land
Where the best of us were left behind
The land that bound us in brotherhood
In war, in love, in hate.
From the lands in which we lived so lightly,
We left without tears or regrets
But this land for which we hoped and trembled,
We shall love and cherish till we die.
(Sung):
Before Madrid on barricades
In the hour of greatest need
With the International Brigaders
His heart with hatred burning
Stood Hanns, the Commissar.
He had to leave his homeland
While in freedom's cause he fought
On Spain's torn and bloody soil
For the rights of those who toil
Died Hanns, the Commissar.
A bullet came a-flying
Frome his homeland, meant for him
The shot was well-directed
The sight was well corrected
A German gun for war.
On this I give my word
Liberty will triumph yet
The foe won't be forgiven
You remain with us, the living
Hanns Beimler, Kamerad!
(Spoken:)
Fell before Madrid in the fight for freedom
December, 1936.
6) THE THAELMANN COLUMN
(AKA "Freiheit! [Freedom!]"; Eddie Balchowsky's showstopper. Music (a
stirring march with powerful downbeats) by Paul Dessau. Possibly the most
famous of all Spanish Civil war songs. The German volunteers named their
batallion after Ernst Thaelmann, the longtime leader of the German Communist
party, who spent ten years in a concentration camp before finally being
murdered there in- I think- 1943.)
Spanish heavens spread their brilliant starlight
High above our trenches in the plain;
From the distance morning comes to greet us,
Calling us to battle once again.
CHORUS:
Far off is our land,
Yet ready we stand,
We're fighting and winning for you,
Freheit!
We'll not yield a foot to Franco's Fascists,
Even though the bullets fall like hail,
With us stand comrades, they are fearless,
And for us there can be no retreat.
(CHORUS:)
Beat the drums! Bayonets at ready!
Forward march! Victory's our reward.
With our freedom banner, smash their columns!
Forward march, Thaelmann Batallion!
(CHORUS:)
"...I love that song. Makes me feel...good."
---Eddie Balchowsky, Lincoln Brigade volunteer, on "Freiheit".
There are other songs that came out of Spain, but that's all for now, folks.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or whatever.
Sayan Bhattacharyya
>There's another one on
>the Chant du Monde label from France, called "Songs of the Spanish Civil
>War"; featuring vintage recordings of Spanish and Basque worker's choruses I
>believe. It's available thru Amazon, where so far it has received only one
>(bad) review. I haven't heard it.
I saw this CD at a Harmonica Mundi store in France, and later bought
it from Amazon last year.
I like the CD, and my friend who is from Spain told me after listening
to it that the songs are authentically rendered. The only problem is
that there are no lyrics provided and no good liner notes, and because
of the recording the words are hard to make out even for someone who
speaks Spanish moderately well, like me.
Sayan Bhattacharyya
>Lincoln Batallion in particular. Try to seek out the wonderful 1984
>documentary, "The Good Fight",
Two other great films about the Spanish Civil War are:
(1) `The Spanish Earth', in English, made in the 1930s during the
war. It's a documentary in which the narration was written and read
by Ernest Hemingway, who participated in the war, first as correspondent,
and then as a fighter.
The screenplay of the documentary was later published as a book by
Hemingway, with the same name. (Another great book that Hemingway wrote
about the Sp civil war was "For Whom the Bell Tolls".)
(2) The film "Land and Freedom", in Spanish and English with English
subtitles, by the British filmmaker Ken Loach, released in the mid-nineties.
This is not a documentary but is about a fictional British worker who
goes to fight in the international brigades. It has the authenticity
of a documentary, however. Great film -- I highly recommend it. It's
available easily on video.
pet...@ms.com
the
> >Lincoln Batallion in particular. Try to seek out the wonderful 1984
> >documentary, "The Good Fight",
>
>
> (1) `The Spanish Earth', in English, made in the 1930s during the
> war. It's a documentary in which the narration was written and read
> by Ernest Hemingway, who participated in the war, first as
correspondent,
> and then as a fighter.
>
> The screenplay of the documentary was later published as a book by
> Hemingway, with the same name. (Another great book that Hemingway
wrote
> about the Sp civil war was "For Whom the Bell Tolls".)
>
> (2) The film "Land and Freedom", in Spanish and English with English
> subtitles, by the British filmmaker Ken Loach, released in the
mid-nineties.
> This is not a documentary but is about a fictional British worker who
> goes to fight in the international brigades. It has the authenticity
> of a documentary, however. Great film -- I highly recommend it. It's
> available easily on video.
>
>
Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.
hth
Pjk
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