Joan of Arc They Are Calling You

DESCRIPTION: "While you are sleeping Your France is weeping, Wake from your dreams, Maid of France. Her heart is bleeding, Are you unheeding?" "Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc, Do your eyes from the skies see the foe?" The people beg Joan to help them
AUTHOR: English words: Alfred Bryan and WIllie Weston / Music: Jack Wells / French version: Liane Carrere (source: Silverman-BalladsAndSongsOfWWI)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Silverman-BalladsAndSongsOfWWI)
KEYWORDS: soldier war | World War I Jean Darc
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silverman-BalladsAndSongsOfWWI, pp. 89-91, "Joan of Arc" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30276
NOTES [144 words]: This song managed somehow to earn a small place in tradition, but I can't help but find it incredibly obnoxious. Ignore the fact that Jean Darc (not "Joan of Arc") was a patent schizophrenic (auditory hallucinations that began in late adolescence, which is when the symptoms usually begin), neither a witch nor a saint but someone with a disordered brain. Admittedly that's a lot to ignore if you don't come at the matter with pre-formed opinions, but ignore it anyway. Jean Darc's express goal, and the only reason she is remembered as anything other than a nut job, was to drive the English out of France! If she had shown up at any time other than the mid-fifteenth century, it would have been the French who declared her a Loony Toons, but her timing was good from the standpoint of fame. But no sane Englishman would invoke her while fighting in France! - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: SWWI089

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography