The iconic sweet harmonies of jazz accompanied with the energy of big band style music dominated the music scene in the 1940s. In the 1940s music began to enter family rooms around the globe, as the phonograph player had finally become an affordable asset for consumers to purchase. Music was used as a way to escape the horrors transpiring the world by storm as the Second World War reached its peak and devastation impacted many nations. During this time it was common for music artists to create happy-sounding music to distract listeners from their wartime agonies.
By 1943 the Allied forces started to defeat the Nazi regime on the battlefield. In that same year UK singer and playwright Noel Coward released “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”. I chose this song because of it’s interesting title filled with horrible grammar that was written right in the middle of World War II. Turned out, it was quite the controversial song of it is time as many believed it was written to encourage support for Nazi Germany, but that wasn’t actually the case. The song was not his first wartime song as it was not nearly as popular as “London Pride” written in 1941.
“Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the German” was far more controversial. According to Coward himself, the song was “a satire directed against a small minority of excessive humanitarians who, in my opinion, were taking a too tolerant view of our enemies”. The satire contained comical lyrics such as “it was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight, and their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite!” and “let’s give them full air parity and treat the rats to charity”. These lyrics along with many other comical phrases were embedded into the harmonic tunes of Coward’s piano playing.
The tempo of the piece brings out Coward’s former experience of theatrical performances during the 1930s. This background made the song sound more like a tune that would be performed at a live musical performance. Although many denounced the track, Prime Minister Winston Churchill enjoyed it so much he had Coward perform the song seven times at a privately held event. This came as Coward had been receiving insulting letters from listeners after only having been played once on the radio. Because of this controversy, major corporations such as His Masters Voice and the BBC scrambling to figure out what to do with his recordings. To add to the fire even further, “Don’t Lets Be Beastly to the Germans” was the first song containing the popular English expression “bloody” played on the air as songs played on the English radio were censored.
The tune resurfaced in the 2000s as a new version of the song was composed with lyrics referring to Muslims rather than the Germans. The song was written in the early 2000s after the US 9/11 attacks in New York lead to an international War on Terror. The lyrics of this version can be seen here. According to Songfacts.com, “”Don’t let’s be beastly” has become a catchphrase, and the opening lines of the song has found its way into the Oxford Dictionary Of Modern Quotations.”
Intro to WA 