There's a current thread BS: Most popular historical losers... which was started by LittlemHawk with the remark and question:.


While it is the winners who are usually most popular after great historical conflicts, and the losers are usually condemned or looked down upon in some way...there are some notable exceptions to that.

So, who are the most popular figures from lost battles and/or lost causes?

A good thread, which threw up all kinds of interesting stuff. But it occurred to me that, when it comes to songs at any rate, in fact it's almost always the losers who win out.

I can hardly think of a single song that has made it into the repertoire which celebrate the winners, except in the special case where the winners get killed in the process, like Nelson or Wolfe, or Admiral Benbow - and maybe a few cases when the winners are people who hadn't a chance of winning, but somehow pulled it off anyway. The folk like underdogs and fallen heroes.

And when I said as much and asked for suggestions, no one seemed to have any.

So I thought I'd start up a thread specifically asking the question. About the only one I can think of that might qualify is "Marching through Georgia".

But, unless there's a fair amount of thread drift, I think this one is going to be a pretty short thread.

And yes, I've put this in as BS, even though it's about songs - but the other thread was BS too, so I thought this should be in the part of the forum where it'd be more likely seen by people who have read that one.