Martin Meenagh blog

For No Good Reason Whatsoever....

Some American Civil War and Liberty songs. I love the Battle Cry of Freedom, which I associate with my grandfather's cold spare room after nightshifts in my second summer of Oxford. Here's an odd, West Virginian version that alters and displaces George Root's 1864 lyrics, with it's references to 'three hundred thousand more' and 'New England's Golden Shore' in favour of something less specific.

This is Kittredge's 'Tenting on the Old Camp Ground', which is evocative too. Paddy's Lamentation, in this Mary Blackversion, is mournful, but not as much as Sinead O'Connor's.

The Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederates is a nice tune; and, balancing it, here's a proud African American version of My Country 'Tis of Thee by Marian Anderson, which British people will recognise as the tune of God Save the Queen. It's anachronistic and mad, but here's Joan Baez and the Muppets singing The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and good grief it feels trippy.

But, well, really. Even if you can on youtube find a crazy Japanese version of Marching Through Georgia, or this weird, Northern-Ireland-Meets Algeria-in-Seattle ode, Robert Burns' Slaves Lament, or the twentieth-century Ashokan Farewell, can you beat The Battle Hymn of the Republic?

I can't.

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