For my first "real" blog post I decided to go with a relatively happier war song - "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron," released in 1966 by the Royal Guardsmen. Songfacts (great resource, by the way) gives the context of the song by explaining, "This is a novelty song about the imaginary World War I antics of Charlie Brown's pet beagle in the comic strip Peanuts." I absolutely adore the Peanuts comic strip and cartoons, so I was thrilled to find this song. Sadly, the song apparently caused the Royal Guardsmen to "never [be] taken seriously as a rock band" (Youtube.com user comment). However, it's a cute song and a cute, lighthearted video. Take a minute to watch, and then I'll discuss more of the context and my views on both song and video.
Context
The context for this song really has two parts - the Snoopy part and the "real-life" Red Baron part. The Snoopy part is based on the Peanuts comic strip, where Snoopy the dog acts as "the World War I Flying Ace." Below is an example of one of those comics (from gocomics.com):
When it comes to the "Red Baron" part, this villian is actually Baron Manfred von Richthofen, a Central Powers pilot during World War I. The Royal Guardsmen sing, "Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree," and Richthofen did have "80 credited victories" (about.com). Why the "red" part of his title? The baron said, "One day, for no particular reason, I got the idea to paint my crate glaring red. After that, absolutely everyone knew my red bird. If fact, even my opponents were not completely unaware" (about.com). Eventually, the baron's plane went down and he went down with it, shot.
Commentary
Now, onto my views of the Royal Guardsmen's song and performance!
As already stated, being a big Peanuts fan, I love this song. However, I do want to look a bit deeper than just the "Snoopy" surface. Is this song an appropriate representation of WWI - admittedly a much more serious war than the tone of the song might make it seem? I actually think it is. For one, this song is not meant to be a reflective commentary on a war full of bloodshed. Instead, it is more of a celebration of a Central Powers hero's demise. In addition, the song was written decades after the war had ended. The world had undergone many changes since then, and so there was room to reminisce about the war in a "happier" way than if it had just occurred.
I think the video only adds to making the song memorable. We are able to see the faces of the singers and their interpretation of the lyrics, for one thing. Also, I love how they sometimes "act out" parts of the song. Not only is it fun to watch, but it also helps make the song's story clearer - because after all, it is not just a song about WWI, but a song that tells a specific tale within that war. All in all, I give this song a big "thumbs up" - although, admittedly, Peanuts fans will likely appreciate it more than anyone else.
"Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or more -
The bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the bloody Red Baron of Germany."
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-war_songs
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2774 (includes lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxzg_iM-T4E&feature=related
http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1967/08/10
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/redbaron.htm (and subsequent pages)
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