Whistling Tunes

‘Games Without Frontiers’ was written and recorded by Peter Gabriel for his 1980 third eponymous solo album which is also often referred to as Melt.  The single charted #4 in the UK and it went to #48 in the US and it was Gabriel’s first UK Top 10 as a solo artist.  Peter Gabriel, producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham all whistle in this song and whistling is in the lyrics.  The track features Jerry Marotta on drums and percussion, David Rhodes on guitar, Peter Gabriel and Larry Fast on synth and synth bass and Kate Bush on backing vocals.  Kate Bush started this song off with the French lyrics “Jeux sans frontières”, that kept people wondering what she meant, and at this time, song lyrics weren’t readily available on the internet, so many people heard her singing, “She’s so popular.”  Other people guessed it was “She’s so funky, yeh?”, or “She’s a mountain babe?”  The song’s title comes from a European game show, Jeux Sans Frontières, that featured teams competing for prizes while dressed in bizarre costumes.  The British version of the show was called It’s a Knockout, a phrase that also appears in the song.  The teams represented towns and cities from each country, so the games had an inevitable element of nationalism.  While some games were simple races, others allowed one team to obstruct another.

The song reflects aspects of the Cold War, which was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which went on till 1991 when the Berlin Wall came down.  Gabriel used this song to make some social commentary about the childish behavior of the world leaders making life-or-death decisions on behalf of their countries.  Some of the names used in this song probably have no significance to the meaning, but others are thought to be players that may have been involved in the Cold War.  Andre could refer to Andre Malraux the French anti-fascist statesman and author who was an advocate for social change.  Red flag may refer to Malraux’s leftist politics.  Chiang Ching could refer to Chiang Kai-shek a Chinese leader of the Kuomintang who opposed the Communists – hence, the rightwing Blue Flag.  Chiang’s forces lost the civil war in 1949 and fled to Taiwan, where they set up a government in exile.  The name Lin Tai Yu, which appears in the song, belongs to a character from the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.  At the end of the first verse, “Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Brit; Adolf builds a bonfire, Enrico plays with it,” probably refers to Hitler and Enrico Fermi, as Hitler started World War II in Europe, while Fermi’s nuclear reactor enabled the nuclear weapons which ended the war in Japan.

Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières

Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane
Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again
Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Britt
Adolf builds a bonfire, Enrico plays with it

Whistling tunes, we hide in the dunes by the seaside
Whistling tunes, we’re kissing baboons in the jungle
It’s a knockout

If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers, war without tears
If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers, war without tears
Games without frontiers, war without tears

Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières

Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching’s is blue
They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu
Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games
Hiding out in treetops, shouting out rude names

Whistling tunes, we hide in the dunes by the seaside
Whistling tunes, we’re kissing baboons in the jungle
It’s a knockout

If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers, war without tears
If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers, war without tears
Games without frontiers, war without tears

Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans frontières
Jeux sans

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme today is to find songs that incorporate whistling.