Jeri Smith-Ready

A Veterans Day video tribute

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Germans signed the Armistice agreement ending one of our planet's greatest tragedies of all time: World War One. Naturally, it wasn't called that at the time--in fact, Woodrow Wilson declared it the "war to end all wars." It wasn't.

Here in the States we observe this anniversary with Veterans Day. In most of the British Commonwealth it's known as Remembrance Day. Australian folk singer Eric Bogle (whose concert Chris and I saw in Wilmington, DE, in 1993) wrote a song called "No Man's Land." Lots of bands have covered it, and most refer to it by the name The Fureys gave it, "The Green Fields of France."

I like Dropkick Murphys' version best, due to the use of pipes and drums, just as the song describes. Here's a video an American soldier put together to accompany the song, honoring the fallen. (Some of the images are also shown in Dropkick Murphys' official video, but I liked this one slightly better.)

Warning: you will cry. But the twenty million soldiers and civilians who died in that war deserve a few tears.

Labels: holidays, music, videos

• posted by Jeri @ 11:00 AM
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