I can think of three.
1/ yes - Veveys theme
2/yes - montreuxs theme
3/ Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water which namechecks Lake Geneva and Montreux of course
At a loose end and cannot sleep or search but anyone know of songs which refer to Switzerland as country or it's cities?
this is probably a bit weird but there is actually an afrikaans song about switserland in the spring= lente in switserland...
sorry, that's the only one I can remember...
A song about.... Switzerland
Come away, come away with William Tell
Come away to the land he loved so well
What a day, what a day when the apple fell
For Tell and Switzerland
Come away with Tell to the mountainside
Looking down to the pass where the tyrants ride
Set a bolt to your bow and down they go
For Tell and Switzerland
We are simple peasant folk
We will not fell a foreign yoke
Our freedom song will echo on
We’ll fight for what is right.
Hurry on, hurry on there’s a pungent cell
Hurry on, hurry on there’s a noose as well
What we must face from the jaws of hell
For Tell and Switzerland.
We lived our lives, we loved our friends
We never wanted more
We had the skill to plough and till
But not the art of war
But now the tyrant from the plains
Steals up to take our lands.
Instead of spade we wield the blade
Our life is in our hands
Follow on, follow on with the leaders feel
With a thrust of a pike and a clash of steel
Follow on with the fight till the tyrants reel
For Tell and Switzerland
Give ‘em one for the day they bared the grain
Give ‘em two for the night that Fritz was slain
Give ‘em three, give ‘em four and hooray for more
For Tell and Switzerland
The shepherd’s crook, the reaping hook
Has taken on a warlike look
With blades we’ve beaten from the plough
We reap a harvest now.
Come away, come away with William Tell,
Come away to the land he loved so well
Fit a bolt to your bow, and away we go
For Te-e-e-ell, and Switzerland.
and listen and watch it here ...
[.ram file realPlayer required]
Ahhh... That brings back some memories of my childhood
During the Tour de Suisse bike race last week, I discovered that there is an official Tour de Suisse song. It has one verse in each of the three main languages: French, German, and Italian. Unfortunately, quick searches using Google, YouTube, and the Tour de Suisse website didn't show anything. The main chorus line can be translated to something like "Let's do the Tour de Suisse!". Great stuff.
Whatever list would be incomplete without "Le Ranz des Vaches" (Calling all Moos ), the inofficial Romandie Anthem.
History and text en français
More links and media , in English.
Above Ranz/Kuhreihen induce the Swiss Disease (2nd paragraph)
In Bob Dylan's "Foot of Pride" there is a stanza
They like to take all this money from sin
build big universities to study in
sing 'Amazing Grace' all the way to the Swiss banks
Some Swiss I have met lay claims to "Morning has Broken" saying the text was inspired by Switzerland... can't really find any proof of it, but beautiful song none the less
Interesting. I've never heard that idea before. I don't think most people realise how old both melody and text are anyway. I remember singing it at school and that quite a while before Cat Stevens recorded it.
Morning has Broken according to our friends on the Wikipedia
and the writer of the words, Eleanor Farjeon , the same source.
nod... i read the wiki entry before posting... but I wasn't able to find the original author's reason behind the text... just posted the cat stevens version because I think it is beautiful