Pipes of Peace

[lynneuk74]

Have heard the Paul McCartney song 'Pipes of Peace' a couple of times on the radio lately.

Haven't heard it for ages - since I was a child - and love the song.

Has it been rereleased or something or is it just a coincedance that it has been on the radio twice?

Thanks

[Stevee]

Its a Christmas Song

[brachiopod]

As Stevee says.....a Christmas song.

In that it was released just before, and was a hit over Christmas. (I shudder to think what year.)

Although the song itself has nothing to do with it, the video (we called 'em promos then) alluded to the Christmas Day 'football match' played between British and Prussian (German) forces in the Great War (WWI ). Although it undoubtedly happened, the football side of it is incidental, the whole event was more a case of meetings of opposing forces all along the front on the first Christmas of the Great War - Privates, NCO's, and Officers - all those that served in the Front Lines themselves.

Although High Command (ie those nowhere near the Front) found about the events, there were only 'minor' disciplinary actions immediately after. The real clamp-down came about in the lead-up to the second Christmas on The Front, where it was bluntly stated that anyone 'fraternising with the enemy' (Christmas or not) would be shot.

The 'truce' of Christmas Day 1914 was never repeated.

Footnote; the last surviving participant of the 'unofficial Christmas Truce", Alf Anderson, died last month, aged 109.