Netscape to Victory
With the world cup here (I may have mentioned it a couple of times) we have all been treated to the national anthems of diverse countries. That Italian one is mad isn't it? But great to hear the massed ranks of Dutch, French and German fans belting out their anthems. The German one no longer includes the phrase "uber alles" by the way although they didn't mean it in a bad way originally. The massed singing of La Marseillaise would bring a tear to a glass eye, reminds me of the bit in Casablanca...
"Rick and Laszlo hear the sound of male voices singing downstairs. From the top of the stairs outside the office Rick sees a group of German officers around the piano singing the "Wacht Am Rhein." Rick's expression is dead-pan. Below, at the bar, Renault watches with raised eyebrows. Laszlo has come out of the office. His lips are very tight as he listens to the song. He starts down the steps, passes the table where Ilsa sits, and goes straight to the orchestra. Yvonne, sitting at a table with her German officer, stares down into her drink. Laszlo speaks to the orchestra.
LASZLO
Play the Marseillaise! Play it!
Members of the orchestra glance towards the steps, toward Rick, who nods to them. As they start to play..."
and of course Escape to Victory which features a great mass singing of the Marseillaise. And I found a sample of it here!
Wikipedia tells me "The film was based on the story of Dynamo Kiev's players, who defeated Nazi soldiers while the Ukraine was occupied by Nazi troops in WW2. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story, as recounted by Y. Kuznetsov, is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against Nazi teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before finally being sent to prison camps by the Gestapo. Most of the team were killed there, but a few survived." Jeez.
But can there be a web site relating to national anthems which rivals that of the sadly absent Russians?
Russian Anthems Museum
You can hear all the different versions of the anthem. The dodgy lyrics including Stalin, the de-stalinised version and the new version with no lyrics at all. Plus the internationale, which was the Soviet anthem till 1943 when internationalism took a back seat to rallying around Mother Russia.
Interesting versions trying to emulate Jimmy Hendrix supposedly and the definitive version by Paul Robeson.
“As you can clearly see, Russian anthem technology is vastly superior to that of any other country.”
The less said about G*d S@£e th3 Qu££n the better.
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