Pipes of Peace Video

[JoJo]

This takes place in the trenches of WW1, and the idea of the video is of course to make peace with your enemies, they are just like you..

Thought this was another interesting example of Bill thinking in "twos"..

Him as an English soldier:



His Pepper mustached German counterpart:

[ReallyReallyDead]

Hah!



I guess Sgt. Pepper was Billy after all! (Duh)

This is definately going in my siggy (you'll see soon enough)

[JoJo]

From Rense.com

The Christmas Truce' -
When Men Said No To War
12-22-6

On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas." "You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Chrismas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March, 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. Military leaders have not gone out of their way to publicize it. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radiohost. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?'"

I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

Excerpted from David G. Stratman, We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991). Available for $3.00 from New Democracy Books, P.O. Box 427, Boston, MA 02130.

Well...we can't have cannon fodder thinking for themselves and just laying down their arms, now can we?

Pipes of Peace:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sVt8wCPz-4

[fourthousandholes]

www.catholic.net/RCC/music/midi/christmas/trench.html

Christmas in the Trenches
(John McCutcheon)

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate 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 harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds 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 they sang was ``Stille Nacht.'' ``Tis `Silent Night','' says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
``There's someone coming toward us!'' the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's 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 soccer game we gave 'em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox 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 prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
``Whose family have I fixed within my sights?''
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as 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 forevermore

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same

[Doc]

fourthousandholes said:

www.catholic.net/RCC/music/midi/christmas/trench.html

Christmas in the Trenches
(John McCutcheon)

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate 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 harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds 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 they sang was ``Stille Nacht.'' ``Tis `Silent Night','' says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
``There's someone coming toward us!'' the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's 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 soccer game we gave 'em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox 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 prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
``Whose family have I fixed within my sights?''
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as 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 forevermore

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same

Quite moving, really. I seem to remember , on a TV show about WWI, and I think it was on the History Channel or Discovery, one or the other.

Anyway, there was a segment about this type thing; in the trenches in fact. The account mentioned Alsace -Lorraine as the location, where over Xmas how the two sides got together etc during this time. Very moving.

I wonder if that ever happened during the Civil War.

They must make us hate one another to win their objectives. Without our cooperation, they can't move ahead sometimes. They get us to war each other. The mighty and the powerful.
Oldest routine in the book.

Is that one of the games? Make an opposition between brothers and cousins?

If we are the Rabble, they are the Rouser.

How Rabelesque of me.

[Doc]

That's a real nice track. And video. Lavish audio, so pretty.

Moving song.

It sounds like James Paul is singing especially at the beginning, other spots.

Perplexing.

The message is one that John Lennon would have been rather excited about; he would have
been proud of this song and video narrative of Sir Paul's, and a little jealous, too.
Video is like a mini movie; a Frank Capra kind of expression about war and the universal yearning for peace.

I thought of Henry Kissinger for a moment, and some interview I caught the tail end of on TV the other day, saying how "we" needed to stay in Iraq , and escalate, etc.....Iraq., etc.
Escalate. Always escalate. If Arnold is "The Terminator", then I guess it's apropos to call Henry "The Escalator." lol
Everybody rides him all the time but he still goes to the next level.

?

OK DON'T think about that last sentence for very long.

I mean, thank God for our military. But one day Peace will come and we can beat the swords into plowshares. (Whatever THOSE are.....)

I digress....

Can you imagine Nixon on some old watergate tape? "Rosemary, quick, get me "The Escalator" on the phone right away to help me explain this Cambodia mess......"

And up comes Kissinger to tell why more is better in Southeast Asia.


And then I think of the current situation in Iraq, with other countries nearby and soon to follow. Sadly.

So, perhaps an add campaign to help get American support for escalating into neighboring nations in this War on Tara, or Terror, or whatever it is......using the fashion by-line/joke:
"Pink, the New Black."

"Iran.The New Cambodia."

Might not sell.But, with The Escalator's endorsement on FOX, CNN, and "McNeil-not-Lehrer" Report, the approval rating for such a move in Iran or Syria, etc.,will soar as high as the Escalator can take us.

[mysteryboy]

Great stuff. You JPM always liked disguises and the like. At times I still find myself doubting the whole PID/PWR phenomanom as a reality and revert back to thinking that it was all a creative way of saying that JPM had a death-of-ego experience, and that is why he and his music changed so much. But then I come bacl to my senses.
Anyways, thank you posting this beautiful and moving story and video!