Charlie and his Orchestra - Blue Skies are around You

Quick video I put together, using songs from 1942 from the Axis side.
Charlie and his Orchestra (also referred to as the "Templin band" and "Bruno and His Swinging Tigers") were a Nazi-sponsored German propaganda swing band. Jazz music styles were seen by NSDAP authorities as rebellious, but ironically propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels conceived of using the style in shortwave radio broadcasts aimed at the United States and particularly the United Kingdom. British listeners heard the band every Wednesday and Saturday at around 9 pm.

The purpose of the band was to stir pro-Nazi sympathy, draw attention to World War II Allied losses, convince listeners that Great Britain was a pawn for American and Jewish interests, and carry German dictator Adolf Hitler's messages in an entertaining form. The songs stressed how badly the war was going for the target audience, and how it was only going to be a matter of time before they would be beaten.

Copyrights are Non-existent on this music. Pictures where compiled from Open source photo's. please comment, might add more !

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Joseph Goebbels
• Axis
• World War II
• WW2
• Music
• Propaganda
• Jazz
• Blue Sky

[greendaisy1]

nazi propaganda

[drkkrobot]

duh :) but its great to learn from history or ones doomed to repeat it . also some of these tunes are funny :)

[peejay1975]

Indeed propaganda. However, the orchestra is playing the song quite well.

[spritz0]

This is a true "lost classic"- please add more Charlie, etc... absolutely 5*****

[deathontheroad666]

Is this the correct name of this tune? I can't find this

[deathontheroad666]

:D

[danzwoot]

@FreiTilsit A popular myth. It simply wasn't called Jazz but modern rhythm music. In the 20ths real Jazz bands like Sam Wooding performed in Europe. Bechet complained about racism in the US.

[DestroyaDoll]

@jaguarjaguarjaguarja -- I realize how trite it sounds, but...if one does not learn from history, one is doomed to repeat it. People who stick their noses up, and plug their ears, upon the mere mention of "Nazi" are being willfully ignorant. You don't have to *agree* with what a group, from any time period, believed/did in order to learn about them. How silly it seems to be willing to learn all about one sides motives, but nothing about the others. People are people,and we are all similar.

[FreiTilsit]

@colourfulwithaU, yes, negro jazz was called, entartete musik, "degenerate music", and rightly so from a European standard. However one could argue that many Deutsche tango's and Hans Albers's style swing had what some people today would call a "jazz" sound, yet these styles do not emulate negro rhythms at all.

Do some research besides watching "Swing Kids"....man.

[colourfulwithaU]

@FreiTilsit

Instrumentation is hardly what makes a genre itself. What about cultural influence and historical origin? Jazz comes from blues, which comes from *AFRICAN* slaves in America singing their troubles away, and their singing style comes from their home continent. The music today is an almost indistinguishable mix of African and European influences, but jazz in the Nazis' day was a 'black music'; there is a reason the Nazi party looked down on jazz. Research, man.

[FreiTilsit]

The German people had all of their patents, copyrights, technology and industry stolen from them after the war by the allies.

[FreiTilsit]

@drkkrobot, and the lesson to be learned is to never stab your brother in the back to save an outsider who hates both you and your brother.

[FreiTilsit]

@colourfulwithaU, I didn't know the Africans had tubas, trombones, trumpets, flutes and the such....

[colourfulwithaU]

Nazis playing music spawned in Africa and grown in America? The irony, it hurts!