3/30/07: The Brothers Four “55 Days At Peking” (1963)

Let’s end the week—and the month—with a quick history lesson. No, we don’t mean a quick recap of the Boxer Rebellion. That’s taken care of in the lyrics below. The history lesson is that there was once a time when a folk group could honestly record a song detailing evil Chinese antics.

Of course, this was when honest acts like The Brothers Four were part of a commercial folk music scene. That was long after Nazi sympathizers like Pete Seeger served their master’s bidding by singing whatever they were told to by Stalin’s press secretary. Anyway, here’s what The Brothers Four had to say about the Chinese fascists who wiped out the Christian missionaries of 1900, and then went after a few embassies:

        The year was 1900
        ’Tis worth remembering
        The men who lived through
        Fifty-five days at Peking

        ’Twas called the Boxer Insurrection
        A bloody Oriental war
        Against all nations
        Of the diplomatic corps

        The flags of France and Britain
        How they fluttered in the breeze
        The Italian and the Russian
        And the flag of the Japanese
        Then came the sound of bugles
        And the rolling drums of doom
        And the streets of Peking were empty as a tomb

                The Empress of China gave the signal to begin
                Let the foreign devils be driven from Peking

        They stormed the French legation
        They attacked with shot and shell
        And they came with the blood-drenched blouses
        Screaming “Shachaw!” as they fell

        The drums have long been muffled
        The bugles cease to ring
        But through the ages
        You can hear them echoing

                55 days at Peking

Make it your own: The Brothers Four recorded these lyrics to go with Dimitri Tiomkin’s theme to the 1963 film. It was an attempt to capitalize on an earlier success they’d had with Tiomkin’s 1960 score to The Alamo. As it turned out, a romantic tune called “So Little Time” got all the attention. The Brothers Four only had a minor hit with this one, except for in Japan—where the act continues to be very popular. That’s why you can only find this song compiled on the import Star Box collection. Too bad, since there are lots of cheap Brothers Four collections available domestically.

Also note that these lyrics were taken from a Japanese transcription. We were able to clean up a few obvious errors, but somebody’s going to have to tell us if those brave Frenchmen were shouting something besides, “Shachaw!” as they fell. We don’t see many fighting Frenchmen, so we’d like to be sure we got their last words down right.

Or maybe we got it wrong, and the Chinese are saying, "Shachaw!" Which is Chinese for, "Hey, who taught the Frenchies how to use guns?"

The movie’s on DVD and VHS, but it’s not that great—even with Charlton Heston and David Niven standing up for Western civilization. Ava Gardner, too, so no wonder those Boxers wanted to storm the embassy.

 

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