Can We Talk about a Disney Song Being Used as Nazi Propaganda

Hey guys,  today's Can We Talk about deals with a topic that is a bit heavier than usual.   In case your wondering why the Big Bad Wolf is dressed up as a Nazi solider in that picture, well that is from the short, The Thrifty Pig which is a re-edit of Three Little Pigs that deals with selling war bonds.   I will be reviewing that down the road when I get to my Three Little Pigs retrospective but before that there is something that I need to bring up because it has been gnawing at me ever since I learned of   it's existence.  If you have visited Fans of Disney, you may have seen that I put up a discussion about a Disney song that was used as Nazi Propaganda.   I first discovered this song when I visited the site,  Covering The Mouse.  This is a site that house covers of Disney songs and just for the fun of it, I was looking up  covers of Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf and then I came across this song. Okay technically this song is a parody of Big Bad Wolf but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.  Now I'm actually going to include a video for this song and to understand where I'm coming from, it might help if you listen to the song.    

Again, I know that this is a touchy subject and I apologize if I offend anyone by talking about this but I had to bring it up.  You can tell that it sounds exactly like Big Bad Wolf but just listen to the lyrics and you'll notice the darkness in this song.  Today we may be able to look back at this song and just say that it was a part of it's time.  But go back to the time of the song and just think of what this man is saying with this song. It's not even the fact that this is a parody of a Disney song that bugs me but rather what this person is saying with the lyrics here.   For all intents and purposes he is saying that the Jewish is below people such as him and Hitler and I feel that this song is just another method of brainwashing.  And no it doesn't help that Hitler supposedly liked the original version of this song. Though I never pictured him as much of a Disney fan.

I suppose I need to give some background on this song. This song was brought to us by Charles Gobbels or as he is labelled here Charlie and His Orchestra.   As you see during the time when  the Nazis were trying to cleanse Germany,  Big Band and Swing were outlawed. However this didn't stop Gobbels from starting  his own Big Band. Another thing that I forgot to mention was that he was the Nazi  Prime Minister in charge of propaganda.   I think  Covering The Mouse can explain what   I have to say better than I can about this man.

Gobbels knew the power and influence of modern music and created this group in the early 30s to perform the hottest songs of the day with Nazi-centric lyrics. The songs would often start out very familiar, but then change half way through to include slander towards Jews, the British and anyone else that didn't follow their world view throughout the 30s. The songs were broadcast throughout North America and in Britain via short-wave radio

So what does that make him the Nazi version of Weird Al?   Heck no because Weird Al is actually funny but apparently  this gentlemen would do this other songs as you could see from that quote.  I will say this much while I hate this song that must have an effective method to get their message out at the time but even still I find this thing both morally wrong and needless to say a bit shocking.

I'm going to say right now that vocally that this is not a bad song but then we come to the lyrics and that is where things get hairy. I don't care how many covers of Disney songs you have listened to. This is the most disturbing thing I have ever heard that goes by the title of a beloved Disney song.  Heck, I'd rather listen to the B5 cover of this song then this one again and yes I listened to it all the way through for this article.  That experience tops Ben and Me in most uncomfortable thing that I have ever done for A Look at  Disney.  I'd rather watch Ben and Me on a continuous loop with Home on The Range playing in the background than   ever listen to this thing again.  Hell,  I'd rather watch The Incredibles then listen to this song.  Call me sheltered or what you want but after having taken a Holocaust Studies course at my college last semester, I can't say that this surprises me but think having taken that class makes me more upset about finding out about this song.

I know the period that this song came from but that doesn't excuse it.   I will admit that part of my hatred for this song does stem from being a Disney fan but it goes beyond that because just as a human being,  I find this song on every level appalling. This man could have been one of the nicest guys in the world but after listening to  this song, to me he is nothing more than a troll. A dirty despicable little troll.  Man, I have never felt so much hatred towards a dead person before.

No you know what, I apologize. That troll is better than this man. Look I'm sorry about this rant but this song just lit quite the fire in me.  To think that people would do this makes me weep and I feel sorry for the people that he attacked with this piece of garbage.  In the end, I hope to never listen to this song again.  This is the only time that song  will appear on A Look at Disney.  Y'know I haven't gotten this heated over a subject like this since the Disneyphile article but I'd rather deal with that inane fan name than this waste of airtime again.  Let's end things on a lighter note with two good covers of this song. One from LL Cool J and the other from Barbra Streisand.

   

Ah, such nice covers of this song.  Sorry about that rant towards the end but this thing just angered me more than I have ever been angered by anything that I have talked about on A Look at Disney. What's your take on this song? Tell me in the comments.  Peace!  (I'm gonna need some)