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To English fans: Liberty Bell March theme, actually popular in G.B.?

posted 10 years ago by kevin-bergin
4 replies | jump to latest

I only ask because it's John P. Souza.

[–] Noddy_Comet 10 years ago

No, it was just some cheap, out-of-copyright music the BBC secured for a what was a low-budget comedy show that nobody expected to amount to much. It could have been anything. Although it's fair to say that it is now synonymous with Python.

Make tea, not war. 🌈

[–] kevin-bergin 10 years ago

That's interesting. Funny how music means different things in different countries.
I have a friend from Germany and she swears the music from the U.S. Air Force anthem (Off we go into the wild blue yonder) is used over there for a kitchen cleaning product.

[–] Noddy_Comet 10 years ago

That wouldn't be at all surprising. Popular culture has a way of re-appropriating traditional or classical pieces of music. Dvorak's Symphony No.9 (New World Symphony), for example, is forever associated in the UK with a leading brand of bread.

Make tea, not war. 🌈

[–] arthur_pewtey 10 years ago

Souza is very well known in the UK, and his military marches were popular fare with military marching bands.

His music would have been considered "safe" and slightly old-fashioned fare - popular on the BBC Light Music programmes which would have been the target of humour by sophisticated young graduates in the 1960's.

The BBC would have been able to secure copyright clearance on music used for their TV programmes provided they were not particularly expensive or contentious. Monty Python had a relatively low budget (i.e. not funded by the BBC) for their first film and certainly intentionally choose library music available from de-wolfe who specialise in providing such music.

Both Souza and the library music would have been seen as unfashionable and no doubt chosen because it was then considered "cheesy" - the context being the height of musical fashion were bands such as The Beatles/Who/Rolling Stones.

Liberty Belle is now indelibly stamped in the UK as associated with Monty Python.