Lyr Req: Christmas day 1960something? / 1914

Subject: Lyr Req: Christmas day 1960something?
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 02:32 PM

Last year i heard a song titled chistmas day in 1960 something, it was a song about the ceasefire that took place in the trenches christmas day, There are numerous mentions,poems songs etc of this on the web but not the version i heard.
The line, "Oh Holy night,No cannons roar"... is in it, and goes on to tell of a young soldier emerging from the trenches and singing in no mans land, the follwing day the narrator of the song(it is written from a soldiers point of view) shot the very same boy, after their night of fellowship. it is a very moving song that questions the real logic of warfare. The guy i heard sing it has now passed on, and would be gratefull for help in finding it.
Thanking you for any replies, you'll make a happy man, very old!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Christmas day 1960something?
From: nutty
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 03:36 PM

I think this may be what you are looking for .................
Christmas in the Trenches

Subject: Lyr Add: CHRISTMAS 1914 (Cormac MacConnell)
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 02:51 AM

This beautiful song was written by Cormac MacConnell, the brother of Mudcatter Chordstrangler (Mickey MacConnell) who has recorded it on his CD "Joined Up Writing." You can PM Mickey right here to order his superb recording.

Seamus





CHRISTMAS 1914   by Cormac MacConnell

In the year 1914 on Christmas Day,
On the Western front the guns all died away.
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from No Man's Land.
He had a tenor voice so clear and true;
The words were strange, but every note we knew.
A-soaring o'er the living, dead and damned,
That soldier sang of peace from No Man's Land.

Chorus: Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.

They slowly left their trenches, we left ours.
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine,
We made a soldier's peace on that front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one;
We begged another song before the dawn,
And sitting amid carnage, death and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.

Chorus:

In the morning all the guns roared in the rain,
And they killed us and we killed them again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither them nor us at at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting all throughout that day.
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay.
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I shot the lad who sang from No Man's Land.
Chorus:

Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar,
A king is born of peace for ever more.
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
O Silent night, Holy night,
And his ghostly voice still rings
As the young dead soldier sings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No Man's Land.

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I closed this thread in an attempt to avoid splitting the discussion. Please post here (click) or in one of the related threads listed in the crosslinks toward the top of this page.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-