[lbo-talk] The Red Flag

Mike Ballard swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au
Fri Oct 12 13:39:48 PDT 2007


On 12/10/07 05:04, "Mike Ballard" <swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au> wrote:


> Is this Billy Bragg's satire on New Labour? My understanding is that the old
> song was sung up until Blair became PM.
>
> Mike B)

Chris Brooke responded:

No -- the words below are Leon Rosselson's, and date from the period when Harold Wilson was Labour Prime Minister. Billy Bragg's contribution to Red Flaggery was to record the song about twenty years ago with the original tune, a lively Scottish reel tune called The White Cockade, as opposed to the more familiar, but drearier tune Tannenbaum. And the Labour Party still sings The Red Flag at the end of every Party Conference. Not even Blair could get rid of that.

***********

Cheers mate! Now to Google the tune for the "White Cockade". Haw! And to think I used to stop for a pint of Welsh ale at a place of the same name on my way to Santa Cruz from Palo Alto: http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/ReviewWC.cfm/flat/BrewerID=743

Mike B)

Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." - W. C. Fields http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml

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