Still More Nazi Swing Music (MP3s)

Last March, I posted what I thought was the first volume of music by Charlie and His Orchestra, a Nazi big band assembled by Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. You can find that post and all 22 tracks from it here. It turns out that what I posted was actually the second volume of this material, so here are the 22 tracks from volume one.

Charlie and His Orchestra was led by Karl Schwendler, an English speaking German who broadcast Nazi-themed swing and big-band hits every night on the medium-wave and short-wave bands throughout the 1930s to Canada, the US and Britain. Leave it to Goebbels to take the music of The Andrews Sisters, Paul Whiteman and Irving Berlin and fill it with venomous rants against Jews, America and the British. The man took his propaganda seriously. But at least he admitted it was propaganda, unlike the current crop of spin-meisters.

In a 1928 speech, Goebbels expounded on his then-radical theories of manipulation. What he said then seems today to be cutting edge meme-ology, and provides an insight into why he favored using the most popular music of the day to spread his message of hate:

"An idea always lives in individuals. It seeks an individual to transmit its great intellectual force. It becomes alive in a brain, and seeks escape through the mouth. The idea is preached by individuals, individuals who will never be satisfied to have the knowledge remain theirs alone. You know that from experience. When one knows something one does not keep it hidden like a buried treasure, rather one seeks to tell others. One looks for people who should know it. One feels that everyone else should know to, for one feels alone when no one else knows. For example, if I see a beautiful painting in an art gallery, I have the need to tell others. I meet a good friend and say to him: "I have found a wonderful picture. I have to show it to you." The same is true of ideas. If an idea lives in an individual, he has the urge to tell others. There is some mysterious force in us that drives us to tell others. The greater and simpler the idea is, the more it relates to daily life, the more one has the desire to tell everyone about it."

The full text of this speech is here. Follow the link below for the MP3s of Charlie and His Orchestra.

You're Driving Me Crazy  |  You Can't Stop Me From Dreaming

Saint Louis Blues  |   Slumming On Park Avenue

Dinah  |  Daisy  |  FDR Jones

Who'll Buy My Bublitchky  |  I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

The King's Horses  |  I've Got A Pocketful Of Dreams

Three Little Fishes  |  Why'd Ya Make Me Fall In Love?

Miss Annabelle Lee  |  South of the Border

Hold Tight  |  The Man With The Big Cigar

I'm Sending You The Siegfried Line  |  Bye Bye Blackbird

Japanese Sandman  |  Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?  |  Untern Linden

Comments

[Blind Uncle Gaspard]

Hey, Track one is listed as the wrong MP3, Ken.

Thanks for all the hard work.

b.u.g.

[Station Manager Ken]

Thanks bug, that link is now fixed.

-ken

[ec Brown]

There's a little more to this in a documentary called "Propaganda Swing" (1989). Swing and jazz had already been banned (or at least highly discouraged) by the 3rdR. to thwart the dissemination of American Negro psychic influences. When some musicians were invited to perform the forbidden music for English and American ears, they (in interviews) said they were so overjoyed that they could care less what rhetoric was superimposed over, or injected into it.

[Zipko]

Ummm... How does Godwin's Law apply to posts of this nature?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

[Ryan]

Reminds me of that movie "Swing Kids."

[nobody]

I heard about this page from BoingBoing. Thanks so much for posting these songs online, they make for a unique and historically valuable listening experience. One queston, though: is it safe to distribute these songs to others without getting whacked by copyright holders? I would assume that the Third Reich would be a bit hard-put to file lawsuits against people sharing these tunes, but one can never be too careful these days...

[Rob]

ACHTUNG! Diese MP3s are posted in violation of der KOPIRITE laws of der THIRD REICH. Der RPAA (Reich Propoganda Artizts Association) has TRACKED der MP3s und vil be sending der Gestapo to EDUKATE der infriging webzite maintainerz. Our ENIGMA VII MP3 tracker zoftware has logged EACH and EVERY downloader und you vill ALL soon hear the knock on der door. Zease und desist NOW or face der WRATH of der Fuhrer's mighty lawyers!

[ERK]

I don't hear any venomous rants against jews, America, and Britain. Am I missing something? Is this explicitly Nazi or music by Germans who some happened to be National Socialist party members?

[HRD]

I don't hear any venomous rants against jews, America, and Britain. Am I missing something? Is this explicitly Nazi or music by Germans who some happened to be National Socialist party members?

[dgaicun]

"I don't hear any venomous rants against jews, America, and Britain. Am I missing something?"

Yes. A lot in fact:

You're Driving Me Crazy

Here is Winston Churchill's latest tearjerker:
Yes, the Germans are driving me crazy.
I though I had brains, but they shattered my planes.
They've built up a front against me, it's quite amazing
Clouding the skies, with their planes.
The Jews are the friends who are near me to cheer me, believe me they do.
But Jews are the kind that will hurt me, desert me and laugh at me too.
Yes, the Germans are driving me crazy, my last chance I'll pray, to get in this muddle the U.S.A.
This new pact also is driving me crazy, Germany, Italy, Japan, it gives me a pain.
I'm losing my nerve, I'm getting lazy
A prisoner forced to remain in England to reign.
The Jews are the friends who are near me, that still cheer me, believe me they do.
But Jews are not the kind of heroes who would fight for me, now they're leaving me too.
Yes, the Germans are driving me crazy, by Jove, I pray, come in U.S.A.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

F.D.R Jones

It's a Hebrew holiday everywhere,
All the Jewish family has a brand new heir,
He's their joy heaven sent,
And they proudly present,
Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones,
He's grown up, but I'm afraid he will stray,
With a name like the one he's got today,
He sends the boys to Iceland's shore, to engage in foreign wars,
Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones,
Non-intervention, how he shows it,
His decision to send troops along,
Oh what a jam and I bet he knows it,
But the folks in the world all agree,
He's aggressive, aggressive as he can be,
If he could he'd like to be, known to those in history,
As the big Emperor D. Roosevelt Jones,

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Who's Afraid Of the Big Bad Wolf

Listen to the BBC, BBC, BBC,
Listen to the BBC, tra-la-la-la,
Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy?
Who wants to make free people free? tra-la-la-la
First they won the war in France,
Then they said they no chance,
Each time the Germans did advance,
How could they have a chance?

They told stories so divine,
Oft'n marched across the Rhine,
Germans eat only rats and mice,
But in England all was fine,
Bye-Bye Churchill, BBC, BBC, BBC
Your tricks won't work with Italy, tra-la-la-la,
Why not give us different news, different news, different news,
Skip those Soviets, skip those Jews, tra-la-la-la