"Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire" (

Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

9618) is a British

war song A war song is a musical composition that relates to war, or a society's attitudes towards war. They may be pro-war, anti-war, or simply a description of everyday life during war times. It is possible to classify these songs by historical confl ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The song sarcastically recounts the location of various army members, not to be found in the combat zone, and concludes by describing the location of the old battalion: ''"hanging on the old barbed wire"''. A barbed wire fence separated the front-line trench from No Man's Land, and men brave or unfortunate enough to go over the top of the dug-out were often quickly shot and their bodies caught in the barbed wire. This troop song was not popular with officers, who thought it bad for morale, though attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful.Max Arthur (2001) ''When This Bloody War is Over'': 68

Lyrics

There are several different versions of this song, though all share the final two lines. One version: A variant last line is "if you want to find the privates". Another variation fourth verse sees C.O replaced with colonel, put at the start and, "He's On another 7 days leave".

Covers

The song was included on the 1988 album ''

English Rebel Songs 1381–1914 English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

'' by the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba, as well as on their 2003 re-recording of the same album (''

English Rebel Songs 1381–1984 ''English Rebel Songs 1381–1984'' is the third studio album by English band Chumbawamba. It was originally released in 1988 with a slightly different track list under the title ''English Rebel Songs 1381–1914'', then re-recorded in 2003. Co ...

''). A shortened version of the song was also included on the 2018 album ''The Blind Leading the Blind'' by the Ukrainian metal band 1914 as an interlude. The band's songs are all related to WWI events. The song was covered by death industrial band Maruta Kommand on their 2000 album "Holocaust Rites". The song is part of the "Great War Trilogy" (The Valley of the Shadow / The Old Barbed Wire / Long, Long Trail) sung by

John Roberts and Tony Barrand Roberts and Barrand was a musical group formed in 1969 by John Roberts and Tony Barrand while they were graduate students in psychology at Cornell University. Much of their repertoire is traditional English music, although they have also recorded ...

in their album, '' A Present from the Gentlemen: A Pandora's Box of English Folk Songs'' (Golden Hind Music, GHM-101, 1992).

References

{{Reflist British songs Songs about soldiers Songs about military officers Songs about death Songs of World War I Anti-war songs