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Film Clip by Bing Crosby  |
Elvis in the Round  |
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Film Clip by Bing Crosby |
Elvis in the Round |
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by Eartha Kitt (1927-2008)
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Liner Notes Intro:
This song depicts the moods of the soldiers, on both sides of the front lines, during the first Christmas of World War I. It was hailed as the “Amazing Truce” where German and British soldiers took a respite from the War. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his history of 1914, called the Christmas truce “An amazing spectacle, one human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory of war.”Conan Doyle’s phrase, indeed, sums up the attraction of the truce. It is the human dimension which means that this relatively obscure event in the fifth month of a fifty two month war is still remembered and will continue to catch the imagination. In a century in which our conception of war has been the Exocet, the Cruise Missile, and the Neutron Bomb, the fact that in 1914 some thousands of the fighting men of the belligerent nations met and shook hands between their trenches strikes a powerful and appealing note. It is perhaps the best and most heartening Christmas story of modern times.
CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES (lyrics by J. McCutcheon)
Oh my name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school
From Belgium and to Flanders, Germany to here
I fought for king and country I love dear.T’was Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France where still no Christmas songs were sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
There brave and glorious lads so far away.I was lying with my mess mates on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I now listen up me boys, each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.He's singing bloody well you know, my partner says to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony
The cannons rested silent and the gas cloud rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
God rest ye merry gentlemen struck up some lads from Kent
The next thing sang was Stille Nach - T’is Silent Night says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that skyThere’s someone coming towards us now the front line sentry said
All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side
His truce flag like a Christmas star shone on the plane so bright
As he bravely trudged unarmed into the night.Then one by one on either side, walked into no mans land
With neither gun nor bayonet, we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare lit football game we gave them hell.We traded chocolates, cigarettes and photographs from home
These sons and father far away from families of their own
Ton Sanders played the squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
Whose family have I fixed within my sights.T’was Christmas in the trenches and the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed, the songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forever more.
Oh my name is Francis Tolliver, from Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas comes since World War I have learned its lesson well
For the one who calls the shots won’t be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we’re the same.
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John McCutcheon, writer, folk singer |
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Elvis From the 1957 Christmas Album |
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