One of the classic cases of a song being misappropriated from its original meaning is Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A.", which addresses the Boss' friends who served in Vietnam and the aftermath of the war. However, the wrong side of the US political spectrum, hearing the "(I was) Born in the U.S.A.!" line, has totally tried to wrench it into a different meaning as a jingoistic anthem, even though the song is anything but.
This misunderstanding of a song, or work of art, is nothing new. Across the pond, one song, or more properly anthem, has that kind of "misunderstood" status, with 68 years head-start on Springsteen, written in the context of another war. The anthem is Jerusalem, written in 1916 by the British composer Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. Jerusalem has such status in England that it's even sung at football matches as an "alternative national anthem" to God Save the Queen.
The words, however, have nothing to do with football. But they do have a bit of a sociopolitical charge, which tends to get ignored these days. (What else is new?) More below the flip....
First, the words to Jerusalem are by William Blake:
"And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land."
(Yes, this is where the title of a famous 1981 Oscar-winning movie comes from.) You can watch the performance of Jerusalem from the 2009 Last Night of the Proms here:
The poetic imagery is quite vivid, as you can see. Literally, of course, the "narrative" has no basis in reality, since the feet of Jesus Christ, AFAICT, did not trod the shores of the British Isles in His lifetime. (Explanatory disclaimer: read comment from Lib Dem FoP below.) One common interpretation of the "dark Satanic mills" is as a reference to the factories dotting England during the Industrial Revolution. However, the "bow and arrows", and spear....well....you can guess subtext there :) .
In essence, however, this poem is a call to create a utopian paradise on earth, hence the idea of building "Jerusalem" in England, although the history of building utopian societies in general has been pretty lousy. Anthony Burton in his notes from The 2009 Last Night of the Proms program(me) that the hymn had its inspiration under very different circumstances from football, with a definite social and political subtext:
"Parry made his famous setting of these lines in March 1916, only two and half years before his death, as a unison song (with soloist in the first verse) accompanied by organ. The idea was suggested by the Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges, who wanted a simple setting 'that an audience could take up and join in' for a meeting of the patriotic wartime Fight for Right organisation."
About the name "Fight for Right", its roots in World War I Britain were as follows, from:
"......a curious movement founded in 1915 by Sir Francis Youngshusband. Youngshusband decided that the spirit of the British people needed to be awakened:
'The future of the world is at stake....We are fighting that the ordinary human rights of defenceless women and children be preserved. We are engaged in a spiritual conflict - a holy war - the Fight for Right.'"
Citation: A.W. Brian Simpson, Human Rights and The End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention, Oxford University Press, p. 161 (2001).
However, at least musically, the lasting contribution of the Fight for Right movement is the anthem in question here. Jerusalem later served as an anthem in the British campaign for women to get the vote (again from Anthony Burton's note):
"[Parry] was happier to see his work taken up by the women's movement, and gladly assented to it being adopted as the official Women Voters' Hymn. Later, it was to become the national song of the Women's Institute movement, and also to find a place in many hymn-books. So it already had something of the status of an alternative national anthem when Malcolm Sargent first invited the audience to sing it at the Last Night of the Proms in 1953."
David Cannadine has mentioned how, in a sense, Left and Right "get their own anthems" in the now-traditional sequence of music that closes The Last Night:
"Thanks to Sargent, 'Pomp and Circumstance' No. 1, the 'Sea Songs', 'Rule Britannia!' and 'Jerusalem' now became both a mixture and a fixture; the exuberant audience and their adored conductor were united in mutual admiration; and the 'Last Night' was established as an iconic national occasion, transcending party loyalties (it may have helped that 'Land of Hope and Glory' was associated with the Conservatives, whereas 'Jerusalem' was identified with Labour)."
Citation: David Cannadine, "The 'Last Night of the Proms' in historical perspective". Historical Research, 81(212), 315-349 (2008).
Interestingly, Billy Bragg, well known for his leftist political sympathies, is cool (Britannia?) on the idea of Jerusalem as an alternative English national anthem:
"Jerusalem would also make a great anthem for England because it's a song about idealism.
While the Scottish anthem, 'Flower of Scotland', goes on about beating the English 600 years ago, Jerusalem talks of the future, of fighting for something yet to be achieved 'till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land'.
Some detractors have sarcastically asked why should we want to built a Middle Eastern city in England. Duh! Blake isn't talking literally. Again, he is using mystical imagery.
His metaphorical Jerusalem is an aspiration, an ideal we should aim for as a nation, be it in sport or in society as a whole. 'I shall not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand', the closing lines are actually saying, until we have achieved this glorious aim in England's green and pleasant land....
Devoid of the jingoism that makes so many good tunes from that time sound dreadfully dated, Jerusalem's radical roots make it relevant to everyone in modern England."
Oh, and going from the sublime to the slightly (?) ridiculous, from the very same Last Night performance, following up on the 2nd part of last week's SNLC, the video of Malcolm Arnold's A Grand, Grand Overture:
Just to identify clearly the "cleaning crew" on screen:
(a) Jiří Bělohlávek, principal vacuum cleaner (and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BTW)
(b) Jennifer Pike, associate principal vacuum cleaner
(c) Stephen Hough, section vacuum cleaner
(d) Sir David Attenborough, floor polisher
(e) Chi-chi Nwanoku (MBE), Goldie, rifles section house right
(f) Martha Kearney, Rory Bremner, rifles section house left
Disclaimer: I certainly don't condone in real life what happens 'comically' from 6:30 to 6:45 of the video. However, Sean Rafferty noted in his live commentary on Radio 3, in conversation with Roger Wright, Controller of BBC Radio 3 and of The Proms:
"I love the way they 'died', fell on to the platform with no sense of safety or stylistic damage."
Wright also attributed to Rory Bremner, and the latter's particular "target":
"As Rory Bremner was saying, he's made himself now, or we've made him, the most unpopular man in the UK; the person who actually 'finished off' David Attenborough."
During the curtain call, Rafferty commented that the vacuum cleanerists played "with stylistic insouciance, I think", with Jennifer Pike in particular "getting great vibrato", and in his opinion "Sir David Attenborough, I think, probably stealing the show". In addition, for those who didn't listen to the archived radio webcast from the BBC's site, this was the snarky wisecrack from the Prommers right after the applause ended:
"Arena to Cleaners: you missed a bit."
BTW, if you look closely in either video, you will see a young Muslim woman in a hijab, as a commenter from Stephen Hough's recent essay on the Last Night from the Telegraph noted:
"I saw a muslim woman in the crowd, she was wearing a hijab and waving the union flag singing Land of Hope and Glory and God Save the Queen - well done lady who ever you are."
The Prommers certainly took note of her, in the BBC Radio 3 Performance thread on Jerusalem:
From Message 12: "And one of the best things I saw last night was a young Muslim girl, in a white full headscarf and red dress (couldn't see if it was a burkha) about five rows back in the arena. She was singing enthusiastically and waving a flag in each hand - one of Syria and the other the Union Jack.
It gave added point to David Robertson's speech."
Appendix on her, Message 28: "You might like to know that the Muslim couple in question are season ticket holders - they were not in the Hall just for the Last Night."
I have to admit that when I caught a glimpse of her in the video (1:28 and 2:25 of Jerusalem, in case you missed her), it was a bit of a surprise, just because of how so veddy, veddy British the Last Night is. Upon further reflection, of course, one realizes that hey, she's enjoying the occasion, and why wouldn't she and her partner be there? By the way, in the video, you can also see the UK and Syrian flags waving amongst all the other flags in front of Sir David Attenborough during the curtain call.
So, it's Saturday night (at least in 2 US time zones), and 'tis time for the usual SNLC protocol, for your loser stories for the week below. Have at it, folks....