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1917

by Saul Blease

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1.
1917 05:41
lyrics
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Fighting over, a brick coloured stain. After the shells, all that remains A foreign field, a lake of mud. Tinted red, with good mens blood In a place called Passchendaele In a town called Passchendaele You feel the dread, you smell the fear. Grasping a photo, of all you hold dear Over the top, once more we go Shot down or drown, the reaper sows In a place called Passchendaele In a hell called Passchendaele Withdrawn now from the front Those that have born the brunt Revolution, mutiny What, pray tell will come of me? Don’t they know, we’ve had our fill Tell them I don’t wanna kill Tommy’s now, strapped to a gun Field punishment number one In a place called Passchendaele Through a hell called Passchendaele March along the Menin Road, Hellfire corner fed and done. Puts down a sandbag, longs for home and blows his foot off with a gun The court martial they don’t care, Six minutes, and he’s been tried. At dawn’s light he hears the prayer, The paper square has been tied Lack of morale fibre Example needed, to be seen For the honour of the regiment he’s shot dead at just nineteen

about

2014 was the centenary of the “war to end all wars” and I had the idea to compose some music around the subject. Rather than just release one song or EP in 2014, I decided it would be an interesting concept to release one song a year, from 2014 to 2018 that, combined, would form one (longer) piece of music. 1914 was released in December 2014, 1915 released in September 2015, 1916 in December 2016 and now here is 1917…

1917 was written largely about the Battle of Passchendaele fought between July and December 1917 in some of the worst conditions of the whole war, and described by Lloyd George as "one of the greatest disasters of the war ... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign ..."

The song also references the changing political situations, the Russian Revolution and French army mutiny, as well as the less well known British mutiny at Étaples.

Finally 1917 addresses the executions of 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers in World War One, many of whom were suffering from shell shock and unfairly branded cowards. There is a little nod to Magnum's superb song on the subject Les Morts Dansant in the lyrics.

credits

released December 31, 2017

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Saul Blease Bristol, UK

Multi-instrumentalist and singer / songwriter from sunny Bristol creating new music that fuses together elements of alternative, heavy and industrial rock, with splashes of electronica.

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