Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel

Subject: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: George Dawn
Date: 26 Jun 17 - 01:12 PM

On 12th November 1988 I heard Tony Capstick sing a song about Erwin Rommel...

I've asked people across South Yorkshire but it hasn't rung a bell anywhere but I remember it as a cracking song which deserves more exposure. So much that was in Tony's head is lost and I hope against hope this is not one such thing!

He said it was highly appropriate to sing on the day between Armistice day and Remembrance Sunday, but then again this was the chap who told a German audience his father used to come over on business (as a gunner in a Lancaster Bomber...)

Ever since I have been searching for this lyric.

The chorus runs:

Here's to tell,
don't serve a tyrant well,
If soldier bold you be

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: GUEST,Wayne
Date: 27 Jun 17 - 10:06 AM

Don't remember the lyric, but I believe the song was written by Terry Conway & was recorded by him & Liz Law on the album "Premier. Can't lay my hand on my copy annoyingly but it may be available from www.stonehousemusic.co.uk, although the website doesn't seem to have been updated sine Terry died a few years ago. It's a fine album - definitely worth tracking down.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: George Dawn
Date: 27 Jun 17 - 04:48 PM

Thank you so much for that - I'll drop them a line!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 27 Jun 17 - 08:43 PM

Hope you find it - it was a fine song and very well performed by Tony.

I may well have it on tape but am in the middle of a mini / mammoth task of digitising all my photographs, sound and video recordings. I don't envy Doc Rowe!

I am getting there but the continuing enjoyment of folk events and the all too frequent funerals keep slowing me down.

It would be good if someone with more time than I have could set up a website for the exchange of photographs etc to help identify people and events.

I had thought that Mudcat could be useful in that respect but unfortunately not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: George Dawn
Date: 28 Jun 17 - 01:21 PM

I've ordered Terry Conway and Liz Shaw's CDs so we'll see what's on there...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: r.padgett
Date: 28 Jun 17 - 01:31 PM

Yes I certainly remember Tony singing this ~ no idea lyrics or tune

Best of luck

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: Sugwash
Date: 28 Jun 17 - 04:38 PM

Here you go George

There's a couple of lines I'm not entirely sure about, but you'll be able to fettle them when you get the CD

The Ballad of Erwin Rommel

My name is Erwin Rommel
And I was a bold commander
I was the Desert Fox on the plains of Africa
I was a match for Wavel and the rest in Alexandra
And the winged Casino sent aloft a brighter star

Chorus

And here's to tell,
Don't serve a tyrant well
You soldier bold if you mould
Your life on me

I led the 7th Panzers in fatal 1940
We fought like men or iron
In the name of Germany
Our panzers played a noble part
Eclipsed all France's genius
And swept the haughty Britons
Into their infernal sea

We landed in North Africa
To help the sons of Italy
We swept like proud Olympians
To glory at Tobruk
But then the tide of fortune turned
Our soldiers felt the Fuhrer's curse
When at snowy Stalingrad
His armies he pursued

Well the seasons changed and the Allies changed
Their spear of operations
I was made a Field Marshall
And I went to Normandy
And from the rock of Britain's Isle
Came the united nations
Sailing in the biggest fleet that ever put to sea

(No chorus)

Well they breached our Atlantic wall
And guided by a master's hand
Full forty three divisions
Did a net of throw across the plain (not too sure about that line)
Cruel irony was at my side
A fighter pilot laid me low
I thought I'd die in that small town
That bore Montgomery's name

Well the tyrant thought I planned his fall
And ordered me this world to leave
Yet served my corpse
With riotous unseemly panoply
My comrades mourned to see me gone
My foes remembered one an all
How I would rule the challenge down
To fight and not to flee

Well the times have changed
And the years roll on
And many have come after me
They ask "How could you share
In that accursed traitor's crimes?"
But from my grave I cannot speak
Yet read the horrors of our age
Think of me as one who lived as in a nobler time

(No chorus)

Yes tell them that I was a man
Who scorned wars depradation
Tell them I was a soldier and
I'll ask for nothing more
From my grave I hear men laugh
At these United Nations
May they yet save human kind
From cursed bloody war

Final chorus

And time will tell
Resist all tyrants well
And soldier bold
Do not be sold like me


Andy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tony Capstick on Erwin Rommel
From: Sugwash
Date: 29 Jun 17 - 11:24 AM

Correction of typo on verse 2:

I led the 7th Panzers in fatal 1940
We fought like men of [not or] iron
In the name of Germany
Our panzers played a noble part
Eclipsed all France's genius
And swept the haughty Britons
Into their infernal sea