For the Fallen
As recommended by bystrousky
“I’d nominate Cyril Rootham’s gorgeous setting of Lawrence Binyon’s For the Fallen,” offers bystrousky. “It’s an epic choral piece using the text of noted war poet Binyon’s famous poem as its lyrics.”
The Green Fields of France
As recommended by poubelleproductions, gerald2
“Always got the tears a flowing after too many drinks,” confesses poubelleproductions of the powerful anti-war song written by Eric Bogle. “Many people mistakenly believe it to be from that era, but it was only written in the 1970s,” adds gerald2.
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
As recommended by Silgen, congenialAnimal
Another song written by Eric Bogle, the song describes a young Australian soldier’s experiences in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and his return home. If you can listen to it “without a tear in your eye then you’re a better man than me,” says Silgen.
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
As recommended by FearlessFreep
One of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression, the song asks why the men who built the nation – the railroads, the skyscrapers – who fought in the war, find themselves abandoned and in bread lines. FearlessFreep notes the poignant line “Ten thousand boots that were marching through hell/I was the boy who banged the drum.”
Quand Madelon
As recommended by LordUpminster, philippeblades
This song tells a story about soldiers flirting with a young waitress in a country tavern, and was one of the most popular songs in France during the first world war. It became a patriotic song as the war wore on. “When I got called up to do my military service in the early 1980s it was a song we regularly sang when out on a march,” remembers philippeblades.
La Chanson de Craonne
As recommended by: Starkwood
This song celebrated French soldiers who in May 1917 refused to return to the trenches after the disastrous April-May Chemin des Dames offensive of General Robert Nivelle, in which more than 30,000 French soldiers died and 80,000 were wounded. The song was understandably prohibited in France until 1974.
Vaughan Williams’s third symphony
As recommended by: Zulu_uniform
This work is among the least performed of Vaughan Williams’s symphonies, but is regarded as a beautiful elegy for the dead of the first world war and a meditation on the sounds of peace. “Vaughan Williams’s third symphony is perhaps one of the best and most specific evocations of the landscape of the Western Front in classical music,” opines Zulu_uniform.
1916 by Motorhead
As recommended by: Paul Moody
An atmospheric and powerful track from the album of the same name, reflecting on the horrors of the war - sometimes in graphic detail. “I heard my friend cry and he sank to his knees/Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother/And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died/Clinging like kids to each other...”
When This Lousy War Is Over
As recommended by: ColonelKorn
Taken from a soldiers’ parody from the trenches, sung to the hymn tune What a Friend We Have In Jesus, the lyrics reflect on military life. “So bitter, so moving. So beautiful,” says ColonelKorn
Mademoiselle from Armentières
As recommended by: Freddy1957
This was, according to Freddy1957, “the Tommies’ favourite – the verses were made up and altered on the march, there were many different versions” – many of which were somewhat bawdy. One of the most successful wartime songs, the original lyrics referenced a British solder’s bad French and the rejection he received from a local woman.
