ABSTRACT
The “Chanson de Craonne” is an anonymous pacifist song which was later associated in the public mind with the numerous mutinies which occurred in the French army in 1917. It symbolized for many generations of French people the rejection of the war and of the priorities of the elite who would not be dying in the trenches. In the 1920s the song became an anthem of the radical Left. Internationally it has become relatively well-known, and appears in Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War! This chapter attempts to explore the roots of the song: was it really sung in the trenches, and what did it mean to people? It will be shown that its reputation owes much to political considerations of its usefulness at different times since the First World War. The chapter will examine a series of primary sources: soldiers’ letters confiscated and archived by the censors, regimental and civilian songbooks kept at the time, and soldiers’ memoirs. Finally, it will explore more widely the question of the archaeology of popular songs.
