Remembrance Day 1969

The song recalls an actually day, November 11 1969, in which the usual entourage of royalty, clergy and politicians turned out to commemorate the war dead around the Cenotaph. In the song, Leon imagines he can hear the voices of the deceased rising through the two minutes' silence, rejecting the hollowness and hypocrisy of the commemoration.

Leon was apparently inspired to write it after an incident at the ceremony that year, in which protestors shouted out their objections to Britain's support for Nigeria in their current conflict with Biafra. The protestors were arrested; a Times photograph of one of them being forcibly silenced by a policeman is used on the front of the original LP, The Word Is Hugga Mugga...

The Biafra issue lost its original significance over the years, and when the sheet music was published in 1992, the verse containing the shout, "remember Biafra" was omitted. However the song has been re-made twice with the verse reinstated, first in 2004, where Leon is bolstered by trombone played by Camilla Saunders, and again in 2010 as a solo performance - in both cases the chant is changed to "Remember Iraq". (The "1969" of the title has also been dropped.) A live performance from 2011 has also been released on DVD.

"'Remembrance Day; describes the particular ceremony in 1969 when a group of demonstrators shouted 'Remember Biafra' during the two minutes' silence and were arrested, 'for their own protection', according to the police. They were afterwards fined £10 each. Protection money, presumably."  -  LR (That's Not the Way it's Got to Be (songbook), 1974)


Recordings

Version 1 (1971) 

Version 2 (2004) 

Version 3 (2010) 

Version 4 (2011)   Live performance, released in 2014


Sheet music