PJ Harvey - Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife Lyrics






What was sent to the soldier's wife
From the ancient city of Prague
From Prague came a pair of high heeled shoes
With a kiss or two came the high heeled shoes
From the ancient city of Prague

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From Oslo over the sound
From Oslo there came a collar of fur
How it pleases her, little collar of fur
From Oslo over the sound

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From the wealth of Amsterdam
From Amsterdam he got her a hat
She looked sweet in that, in the little dutch hat
From the wealth of Amsterdam

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From Brussels in Belgium land
From Brussels he sent her laces so rare
To have and to wear, oh those laces so rare
From Brussels in Belgium land

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From Paris city of light
In Paris he got her a silken gown
T'was end in town, oh silken gown
From Paris city of light

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From the south of Bucharest
From Bucharest he sent her his shirt
Embroidered and pert, that Rumanian shirt
From the south of Bucharest

What was sent to the soldier's wife
From far off Russian land
From Russia there came just a widow's veil
From a death to be wed in a widow's veil
From far off Russian land





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PJ Harvey Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife Comments
  1. P.... B....

    Memorial Day in the States

  2. L.... ....

    i love this heartfelt song

  3. E.... l....

    This video looks like it was filmed in 1995 ? Strange that it was released in 1997 because this how Polly looked in 1995

    E.... l....

    wow you can tell the difference of how PJ looked in 1995 to 1997 I can't tell the difference of pics of my self from a 2-year gap of over 20 years ago, let alone some grainy crap quality video

  4. g.... g....

    Fucking Beautiful................

  5. J.... R....

    she never uses chords? this is garbage.

    J.... R....

    What? I take it you know nothing about music

  6. m.... ....

    I m in love with Polly.

  7. d.... ....

    im totally unfamiliar witht his song and the original version/writer but when i was like 12 i downloaded a coldplay album on frostwire and for some reason this recording was on it titled "prague" and i loved it and for years i thought it was a coldplay song and didnt understand why i couldnt find it on any album. did PJ harvey upload that frostwire .zip to promote their own single?

    d.... ....

    lmao i came here to see if anyone else had commented about that and your comment was the first (i had the exact same experience)
    i think it was only a pj harvey fan, because that was around 2008-2009 or something, no way it was actually pj harvey lol

    d.... ....

    This song was written by the German composer Kurt Weill ( prounounced VILE) many, many years ago & has been covered many times, by many different musicians. The musicians who cover this song should acknowledge it's source however.

    d.... ....

    DUDE. ME TOO. I downloaded a Coldplay album when I was like 13 and this was on it Randomly and I loved it. That's so weird. 😂 I burned it on a CD and recently found all my old mixed CDs and was listening to this one and this song came up and I remembered. Lol

    d.... ....

    ?? This song performance was one from an entire album of songs made specifically in tribute and acknowledgement to Weill called, 'September Songs'. And each artist filmed a video for their song in the same studio. There was a vhs/dvd release of all those songs/videos at the time. Not easy to find anymore, if it ever was easy to find (doubtful).

  8. O.... A....

    Ok. I love Marianne Faithfull, she has one astounding voice. But, her interpretation of this song is far less appealing. Too kitschy and cabaret. Good, but this rendition is far more heartfelt and moving.

    O.... A....

    +Osa Amna I really like this version too. But the Cabaret one is probably a lot closer to Brecht's original vision, given that he LOVED Cabaret and had his roots in that scene. He would also be opposed to anything trying to be as popular as this. Oh and of course massively opposed to anything attempting to move the heart of the audience (rather than the head)!

    O.... A....

    Fairly certain we can’t say precisely how this wartime composition (1942? we don’t know) — which was set, after-the-fact, to a Brecht poem fragment — was meant to be heard or performed

    Though you have your facts right, in that it WAS in a cabaret setting — where the most peculiar unsentimenal contrasts between animal and sexual and intellectual and musical — once worked their extraordinary maygic, and might well again come what may

    if we refused to be sentimental and just thanked g-d life
    could all be over sowquickly pa
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ujxZO3Bx14

  9. J.... K....

    kiiitos

  10. D.... S....

    Much too sentimental, terrible orchestration! It seems they wanted to vary (he singing and the accompaniment) from one verse to another, the result is frankly tasteless.

    D.... S....

    Are you on drugs?

  11. l.... ....

    The orchestration isn't bad, but...I gotta say it...PJ Harvey can't sing!

    l.... ....

    Have you heard any of her other songs? She has an incredible voice mate

  12. P.... D....

    my favorite video ever!

  13. l.... a....

    «Weill vivait à New York, Brecht s'ennuyait à Los Angeles, ils décidèrent de s'y retrouver pour écrire cette histoire d'un soldat allemand durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, faisant parvenir à sa femme restée au village des cadeaux de chacune de ses étapes. De Prague, il lui envoie des chaussures à talons, d'Amsterdam un bibi, de Paris bien entendu un déshabillé, d'Oslo une étole, et finalement de Russie un voile de veuve" Marianne Faithfull

    l.... a....

    lena ache

  14. F.... ....

    When is this from? Guess 94 because she has the same hairstyle as i the duet with Bjork?

  15. b.... ....

    @horrorflesh So a nightgown means using one's sex? Get outta here. Polly isn't running around popping and locking it for her cash, please get some perspective.

  16. M.... ....

    What is not mentions is that this clip is from the movie September Songs. It's a great film to watch. The highlight is Lou Reed doing the title song. Anyway, this clip looks like it was filmed directly off a TV screen. The sound quality is not so great either. There has to be a better quality clip somewhere.

    M.... ....

    THEE; OF BELGIAN LACE!

    Of all the luluv’d plastic people
    The Maharal of Prague
    I think would reed thissteeple of
    September Sog-Magog

    [hey thugga olam chai 57 elu79]

  17. j.... n....

    looks/sounds like this was part of a bigger musical....pretty cool

  18. A.... ....

    anybody know the tabs?

  19. J.... L....

    effing fantastic, long live the sex goddess........
    pure talent!

  20. H.... L....

    This is a true meeting of genius and beauty- the pens Weill/Brecht and the voice of PJ Harvey.Oh I love her to give it a go and do a full album of Carbaret style songs.

  21. J.... B....

    Brilliant job PJ. Lovely on the raw stage floor.

  22. L.... ....

    I find this to be a brilliant take on the song. They brilliantly scruffed it up.

  23. P.... ....

    i don't think so. i listen coldplay music and they don't play song like this. coul be simply an error on limewire.

  24. S.... J....

    mainstream? do you even know the meaning of mainstream? if she were we'd hear her music all over top 40 stations et al. she is not mainstream. she is however an acclaimed artist that is highly respected but that doesn't equate to being mainstream.

  25. j.... ....

    Hahahaha! WTF! Who says that?

  26. l.... w....

    Are you suggesting that for the Brecht/Weill song "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" that Tom Waits falls into the category of "mainstream pop" and therefore has less value than William S Burroughs for his version of the same song? It seems to me that this reasoning is a bit wrong-minded. It is music. The interpretation of music. And both are brilliant and powerful.

  27. J.... G....

    I know the meaning of Pathos. Get off it PJ Harvey is mainstream pop and can't even come close to the Marianne Faithful' interpretation.

  28. l.... w....

    No it's not - it's quite different. Both are sublime. Both make you feel the pathos of the lyrics, the sadness of Brecht, of Weill.

  29. J.... G....

    The Marianne Faithful version is much better!

  30. P.... B....

    Kudos to PJ Harvey for doing this great
    Weill-Brecht song. An even better version is done by Marianne Faithful on "Lost in the Stars."

  31. b.... ....

    I didn't expect that this song may sound nice in English. To me, it's much better than German original.
    There's also quite good Polish version, but it's much faster and more rock ;]
    Search for Kazik Staszewski - "Ballada o kobiecie żołnierza", if you're interested.

  32. B.... M....

    I absolutely love how anti-Nazi this is.

  33. T.... ....

    I presume wikipedia or some search engine can tell ;)

  34. i.... ....

    I'm tremendously impressed by the quality of all the cuts on
    this CD. My very favorite is 'Lost in the Stars' , but many others,
    like this one, are powerful in their lack of sentimentality.
    Brilliant! Wasn't Weill a genius? !!

  35. N.... ....

    Does someone have a guitar tab for this song? I can't find it on internet.

  36. J.... L....

    This is a beautiful song, even better Pj Harvey is in it............dark and beautiful.Lovely.

  37. A.... ....

    Says the guy who puts that he's 19 on his profile....your a liar and a idiot.

  38. b.... ....

    a wittle creepy but good

  39. F.... ....

    This song sounds rly good played fast with punk muzic