Willard Bond Video

Apologies in forgetting to include the video URL in this weeks shownotes. Hopefully this makes up for it. Also if you noticed the Flanders Field track cut out early, please download again, all is now fixed.

Colin

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For immediate release.

In Flanders Fields - YouTube

words by Lt.Col. Dr. John McCrae
music and video by Willard Bond

Toronto singer/songwriter Willard Bond has put together a sweet, simple interpretation of the classic poem of Remembrance, using no more than what the average platoon might have handy in a muddy trench - two voices, a guitar and a pump organ.

The video was kept just as simple, and it hits like a bullet. A soldier's story told in a locked-shot, from sign-up (nice haircut!) to grave, told with clarity, grace, and sadness. The creative use of imagery and motion, a strong ending and some decent acting combine to make this a great clip.

Nothing more need be said about Dr. McCrae's fine poem of the 1915 trenches. But there was room for further musical interpretation. Bond wondered from time to time what the proper treatment should be for the music to compliment such rich words; the idea struck while watching some old film of soldiers in World War One. Willard noticed that while the soundtrack was thick with symphonic orchestras, choirs, and sometimes synthesizers, only smaller instruments were ever actually seen near the front.

So that was to be the way; no marching bands, orchestras or choirs. Just a couple of Corporals with portable instruments, a feeling of loss, hope, and the strange irony of singing in the mud. And the video does a great job of complimenting this approach with respect and intimacy.

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