This is one of my all time favorite movies!! I have seen it over a dozen times in as many years.
But, for all the times I saw the movie, I overlooked one little detail.. until last night. Last night I saw Union soldiers playing a song and saw one playing a whistle! It was black and I assume it was a Clarke Original with the gold removed.
Is there anyone else who saw the movie who can confirm this?
Bravo 6
[ This Message was edited by: Bravo6 on 2001-10-30 16:02 ]
I saw that movie when it was in the theaters, but that was some time ago. I remember a small group of union soldiers playing some music off to the side of a road right after 54th fought its first engagement. What sticks in my mind was that they were playing a Southern song. I can’t remember what instruments were being played, but was given the movie as a Christmas present. When “A History of Great Britain, Part II” is off the History Channel, I’ll pop it in the machine and see what I see.
Glory is a marvellous movie. I too have watched it many, many times over the years, although last time is quite a few years back now.
I don’t remember any whistling being done in the movie, but will certainly check it out ASAP. As for the tune being a Southern one, many of the ACW tunes were used by both sides (often with different lyrics though!) - might that be the case here as well?
If memory serves, Jens, it was “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” a lively tune with most seditious lyrics. When Federal troops occupied New Orleans the tune was banned, and anyone caught playing or whistling it was fined $5.00. The publisher, Blackmar, was fined $25.00, then a largish sum, for having printed and distributed it. It’s popularity in the South was on a par with “Dixie.”
“Dixie,” I know, has Union lyrics that are quite clever, and many tunes did – as you say – have currency on both sides, but I’ve never encountered Union lyrics to “The Bonnie Blue Flag.”
Here’s the first verse …
We are brothers all together,
And native to the soil,
Who fight to save the property
We’ve earned by honest toil.
But when the Union threatened us
The cry rose near and far:
“Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.”
… and the chorus.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern Rights, Hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what the “property” was they were talking about, and the first verse became so unpalatable – even at the time – that it was modified during the war:
We are brothers all together
And native to the soil,
Who fight to save the Rights of Man
With treasure, blood, and toil.
etc.
If you know of Union lyrics to this song – the tune is very catchy – I’d very much appreciate it if you would either post them or e-mail them to me.
Yeah, I know “The Bonnie Blue Flag”, back from the days where I played a lot of ACW songs on the piano. I too have never heard of a Union version of it, however… A Google search reveals the following page: http://www.melodylane.net/bonnieblue.html which has Northern lyrics for the tune (and pictures of the original tune sheet books the lyrics came with). Check 'em out.
While I don’t know of Union lyrics to “Bonnie Blue Flag”, the tune was originally from a song called “The Old Jaunting Car” or something like that. I have it around here somewhere and I’ll try to find it. I don’t think that version was ever the hit Bonnie Blue Flag was though.
Well, Jens, ya’ learn new things every day, and I just did. Thanks for the link! In all the collections I’ve looked through, I had never seen a Union version of the lyrics to that song. There, they had two. I wonder how popular it actually was north of Mason’s and Dixon’s line?
I have seen that reference, Beth, on some original sheet music, and also read of it being called “The Irish Jaunting Car,” or simply “The Jaunting Car.” For what it’s worth, my sources tell me this precursor tune has never been discovered, whether in the U.S. or Ireland. That may, or may not, mean anything. It may simply mean that no-one has hit the right page in “O’Neil’s 1850.”
