Friday 7 September 2012

Musical Inspiration: Wargaming Borodino 2012 (9)


We have a special theme song for our bicentennial game of the Battle of Borodino; “Holy Grail” by Hunters and Collectors.
‘Hunters’ (H & C) were one of the many great Australian rock bands of the 80s. “Holy Grail” was inspired by the story of the 1812 Campaign, particularly the retreat. The song, which features a ‘killer riff’ akin to “Wild Thing”, “Louie, Louie” and numerous others, has become a rock ‘anthem’ in this country and has even been used by the AFL to promote our indigenous game, Australian Rules Football!
What better way to start this 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino (and our bicentennial bash) than to turn the speakers up nice and loud and click play!

Just in case you cannot understand them, here are Mark Seymour’s lyrics:
Holy Grail - Hunters And Collectors

Woke up this morning,
from the strangest dream
I was in the biggest army,
The world has ever seen
We were marching as one,
on the road to the holy grail

Started out,
Seeking fortune and glory
It's a short song, but it's one 
Hell of a story, when you
Spend your lifetime trying to get
Your hands on the Holy Grail

Well have you heard of the Great Crusade?
We ran into millions, and nobody got paid
Yeah, we razed four corners of the globe,
For the Holy Grail.

All the locals scattered,
They were hiding in the snow
We were so far from home,
So how were we to know,
There'd be nothing left to plunder
When we stumbled on the Holy Grail?

We were full of beans
But we were dying like flies
And those big black birds,
they were circling in the sky,
And you know what they say, yeah,
Nobody deserves to die.

Oh I,
I've been searching for an easy way
to escape the cold light of day
I've been high, and I've been low
But I've got nowhere else to go
There's nowhere else to go

I followed orders
God knows where I'd be
But I woke up alone, 
all my wounds were clean
I'm still here
I'm still a fool for the Holy Grail
Oh yeah,
I'm a fool for the Holy Grail

1 comment:

  1. I had no idea it was inspired by the 1812 campaign! I always took it literally to be a reference to the Crusades, but the references to snow etc. makes more sense if you think of the Retreat from Moscow.

    You learn something everyday! ;)

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