Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature,alt.guitar.tab
Subject: LYRIC:  "Christmas in the Trenches"
From: choover@charlie.usd.edu (Christopher J. Hoover)
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 21:15:06 GMT
Reply-To: choover@charlie.usd.edu
Organization: The University of South Dakota Computer Science Dept.

Fred Handloser (fredh@cv.hp.com) writes:
 
>If you have already typed the words please post.  I like that song
>also but have not tried to figure out the chords.
 
Well, Fred, as it happens, I put a similar request out on rec.music.folk, and
got a response that at least includes complete lyrics, which follows.  Also,
I got some e-mail from someone who plays it in D, but says McCutcheon himself
plays it in an open tuning, and that the song was in _Sing Out!_ a couple
of years ago, and suggested I track that down.  I'll see if I can, but I don't
know if any library near me carries _Sing Out!_.  So if anyone else is sure to
have access to it, maybe such a person could hunt it down and let the rest of
us know, too.
 
Here follows the post from rec.music.folk:
 
 
From: jonb@Ingres.COM (Jon Berger)
Subject: Re: Looking for "Christmas in the Trenches"
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:28:41 GMT
Organization: Ingres, an ASK Company
 
In article <BzLGsL.FBy@sunfish.usd.edu>, choover@charlie.usd.edu (Christopher J.
Hoover) writes:
>Very sorry if this request is off topic for rec.music.folk (more appropriate, I
>suppose, for the tablature groups, and I _have_ posted a request there, too),
 
Perfectly appropriate.  Here's a chord-free version, which makes it
off-topic for the tablature groups, I guess, not that I read them.
This is courtesy of Bruce McLaughlin, who responded to my identical
request a few years ago.
 
 
             Christmas in the Trenches
                       by
                John McCutcheon
               (c) 1984 Appalsongs (ASCAP)
 
    My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool,
    Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
    To Belgium and to Flanders to Germany to here
    I fought for King and country I love dear.
    'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung,
    The frozen fields of Frace were still, no Christmas song was sung,
    Our families back in England were toasting us that day,
    Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
 
    I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
    When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound.
    Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
    As one young German voice sang out so clear.
    "He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me.
    Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony.
    The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
    As Christmas brought us respite from the war.
 
    As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
    "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent.
    The next they sang was "Stille Nacht", "'Tis 'Silent Night'", says I
    And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.
    "There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried.
    All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side.
    His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
    As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.
 
    Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land
    With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand.
    We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
    And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
    We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home,
    These sons and fathers far away from families of their own.
    Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
    This curious and unlikely band of men.
 
    Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more.
    With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war.
    But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
    "Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
    'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
    The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung.
    For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
    Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore.
 
    My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell.
    Each Christmas come since World War I I've learned its lessons well,
    That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame,
    And on each end of the rifle we're the same.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
   -__ __ /_   Jon Berger              "If you push something hard enough,
  //_// //_/   jonb@ingres.com          it will fall over."
_/ ---------                              - Fudd's First Law of Opposition
 
---
 
My thanks to John, too, for posting the lyric.  I'll send the chords/etc.
along to him if we can come up with them in the tablature newsgroups.
 
Chris
 
---
 
Christopher Hoover
Network Coordinator for Student Life
User Services, University of South Dakota
choover@charlie.usd.edu
.sig line:  "I'm still looking for the right quote."