Posted on 09/01/2005 10:00:26 AM PDT by Mike Bates
A summer music hit has sparked a war of words between Italian left-wingers and neo-fascists who claim the Colombian pop song, "La camisa negra" ("The black shirt"), as their anthem.
The record, whose singer says it is simply a love song, has topped the charts this summer in Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
The black shirt -- "camicia nera" in Italian -- was part of the fascists' uniform under dictator Benito Mussolini, and is still a symbol for Italy's extreme right.
Italian left-wing Web site Indymedia (www.indymedia.org) urged readers to "boycott the fascist song, queen of the summer, Camisa Negra", prompting a stream of online comments ranging from the amused to the irate.
The song title was also picked up by Secolo d'Italia, the newspaper published by the National Alliance, a party rooted in Italy's fascist past.
Secolo d'Italia gave front page space to a column imagining beachgoers singing along to "Camisa Negra", leaving out the "g" so it would sound more like "black shirt" in Italian.
Media have reported that extreme rightist party-goers raise one arm in the fascist salute when the song is played in night clubs.
But in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday by Italian television network RAI, Colombian pop star Juanes says "La Camisa Negra" is not a hymn to the National Alliance, but "a love song," according to newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The singer could not be reached for comment.
I want to take this moment to say how putrid the song "Imagine" is from John Lennon.... What an empty, immature and disgustingly marxist song...
I really enjoy how the media lie about Il Duce. He was a rabin, violent socialist (i.e., left winger) before and while he was in power.
The people at the time sure didn't think so. The Italian right had no trouble recognizing the fascists as allies. After all, it was leftists they were killing. Not rightists.
Are you doing a parody of a liberal's stereotype of a conservative?
Huh? I'm with Smith28, 100%. You think its a good song? You like to imagine their is no heaven, and think its a good thing?
It's definitely a commie anthem, that's for sure.
Bump!
Yea...thats it. I love having no value in life worth fighting for. I think Heaven and Hell is a joke. I try to imagine living a life like the song projects and I can simply imagine pointlessness and emptiness. A void at which there is no reason for life and no meaning for my existence.
Lyrics:
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
(yea, look in New Orleans and I can imagine pretty damn easily)
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
(so my family, my life, my very belief in an almighty God is a stupid thing to fight for)
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
(if I learned anything about "man" sharing, its a pipedream only little 10 yr old kids think is viable)
You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
(Ok...your a flippin' crackpot dreamer. Just as soon as I throw away my faith, value nothing, share everything with everyone and never have pride in anything I can join the world.)
I thought they were Brown shirts.
Besides, Mussolini wasn't so bad until he got in bed in Hotler. He cleaned up the Mafia and the Communists and made the trains run on time.
Also, he referred to anti-Semitism as "That German disease".
I always hated that song too.
I thought they were Brown shirts.
Germans wore brown, Italians black, the British Nazis blue and I cannot remember what the American Bund wore.
Imagine is just a song by a rock musician. I like the song Burning Down The House by Talking Heads but that doesn't mean me or David Byrne advocatse arson. Imagine is just a nice song about everyone getting along and world peace. When you start attacking wonderful old songs and picking them apart to find political motives, I think you're going a little overboard.
Huh? It is an entirely political song, there is no need to pick apart political motives. Also John Lennon is a poltical musician. Plus, the song sucks.
I imagine the German-American Bund wore the brown shirt as a show of loyalty to the home country, but the "native" American Nazi movement at the time was called the Silver Shirts.
I think the American Bund wore silver....their storm trooper group was called 'Silver Shirts'
and the Black Muslims storm trooper group... the ones that gaurd Farrakhan wear something in addition to the standard bow ties BUT I can't remember what.
Is?
John Lennon is worm food.
Good analysis.
Right, of course.
And Italian Americans all over the U.S. actually supported him, at least until WWII broke out. Pictures of Mussolini adorned shops from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to North Beach in San Francisco.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.