Some people seem to have been offended by the musical taste of the captain of the German frigate Braunschweig on its current visit to London, England. He played the Imperial March from the second movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, as his ship moved up the Thames River. This apparently put certain English noses out of joint, so to speak.
I didn't see much wrong with it. After all, he could have gone over the top and played something earlier from German musical history about England! Lyrics are here, including an English translation.
I'm sure the French, the Dutch and the Spanish have equally insulting songs about England in their historical record, given the centuries-old history of warfare between those nations. Heck, if we try hard enough, we could have a regular anti-British Eisteddfod on the Thames!
Peter
They could have played 'Erika'!
ReplyDelete... kind of hard to do a proper anti-/British/ eisteddfod, given that it's one of the most significant Brythonic traditions. Anti-English though should be easy...
ReplyDeleteWe Spaniards have almost no songs about those heretic pirates.
ReplyDeleteI found it is enough to tell Englishmen about the many defeats of their armed services at the hands of the everlasting glorious Spanish Army and Navy.
Defeats, on the other hand, they do not learn in their History classes.
ReplyDeleteTrafalgar seems to have put a final damper on Spanish naval adventures. Been a while. Nothing much doing since then, can't even get things together at home. Perhaps they could advise the British on how to digest humble crow while watching a much bigger empire crumble away. At least English is the global lingua franca, even in former Spanish colonies, which all seem to be very decrepit dungheaps, chief export being former citizens bound for less-Spanish locales. What part does the romish babylonish paedophile cult masquerading as Christianity play?. Hasta la vista, el meirde.
ReplyDeleteBut Germans sailing up the Thames have to be careful what songs to play to stick it to the House of Saxe-Coburg/Gotha. Good old Rule Brittania would be bitter, Hearts of Oak no longer applies
Ships refueling at sea--in the US Navy, at least, and probably others--play "breakaway" songs as they increase speed to pull ahead and turn away from the ship that provided the fuel. My captain on the frigate that was my last assignment was fond of the harmless "Little Deuce Coupe". When we refueled from the RANGER (CV-61) we used "Danger Zone" from Top Gun, as Ranger had been used as a filming location.
ReplyDeleteWhen refueling from a British oiler, we did NOT play "London Calling," by The Clash. Awesome song, but I've heard it described as a "protest song." Better than "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols!
Seems like a reasonable response to the recent "10 German bombers" brouhaha at Euro 2024.
ReplyDeleteThere is not much of an Empire left to strike back with. If the Argies invaded the Falklands again, Labour would let them keep it.
ReplyDeleteAt my daughter's passing out parade at Sandhurst in 2014, the band played the (same) Imperial March while the Chief of the General Staff reviewed the cadets, so I suspect it's a very limited, and touchy, group of people that are objecting.
ReplyDeletePerhaps 99 Luft ballons would have been slightly more Harvey Korman, tongue-in-cheek, nicht war?
ReplyDeleteAt least it wasn't "Wir fahren gegen Engeland!"
ReplyDeleteWhat I find astonishing is not that a German naval ship played some John Williams (the most well-known composer in the world) but that, considering Germany's green policies and how their bio-fuels tend to destroy good equipment, the good German ship managed to make it to England at all.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely astonishing, in fact.
They could have played "Der Toten Erwachen" or "Wir fahren gegen Engelland" or "Ein Schifflein sah ich fahren." All traditional German naval songs.
But, no, the Kapitan went for something fun.
Geeze, Engellande, lighten up, dudes.
Should have played it backwards to match the direction of the ship's movement.
ReplyDeleteI'd have played the death march while firing "salute" salvos. Would have been fun to watch the reaction.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should try Misty Mountain Hopp.
ReplyDeleteLOL, too funny!
ReplyDeleteIt did look to be difficult to project menace whilst your ship is being towed backwards.
ReplyDeleteIt could have been Preußens Gloria, in memory of Von Blücher winning the Battle of Waterloo...
ReplyDeleteLike playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in England.
ReplyDelete