Here is a very interesting part of history. We all know that Disney had their fair share of WWI propaganda. If you haven't already bought Walt Disney Treasures - On the Front Lines
, I really recommend giving it a shot.What we have here today is some Nazi German propaganda; a parody of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf by CHARLIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA.
In the wake of Nazi Germany's attempt to cleanse the fatherland of all they considered to be "degenerate art", swing music and big bands were outlawed. But unbeknownst to the general public, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Gobbels, created his own big band, Charlie and His Orchestra, fronted by English speaking German, Karl Schwendler.
Gobbels knew the power and influence of modern music and created this group in the early 30s to perform the hottest songs of the day with Nazi-centric lyrics. The songs would often start out very familiar, but then change half way through to include slander towards Jews, the British and anyone else that didn't follow their world view throughout the 30s. The songs were broadcast throughout North America and in Britain via short-wave radio.
I really like this arrangement of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf; the band is really good! However, the new lyrics, which explain how the CBC and BBC are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of anyone under democratic rule, mean that this track doesn't get much repeat listing in my house.
2 comments:
Cannot believe, what I'm reading and hearing.
Not only about music, but about history we can learn on your site.
By the way: Everytime you post them it's nice to see that there are covers of songs, of which I weren't really aware of they're existing (like the songs from Three Caballeros and the Silly Symphonies).
It's a disturbing, yet interesting, side to the German propaganda machine during that time.
I learned about how Joseph Gobbels would make films that weren't just promotion for the German polictical party of the time, but really escapist films, with a subtle propaganda undertone, like Gobbels' version of Munchausen.
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