Haf Found Bormann

Lyrics

(1)

Red out 2SW185 rocking horse
This is [...] 3600 leader copy
Nimrod leader reports (2)
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann
Captured resistance was in the form of two false Aztec gods
In fact Sudanese agents   (3)
We have eliminated
Arsenal-- spears containing modern razors
Arsenal with shells M14 issue
Captured
Confiscated
Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
Have found Bormann
Captured
Vials of stupid serum
Refer galley
Refer Paraguay
Refer Vatican
Refer P2 (4)
Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
Great glory to God
Have found Bormann

Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
18 degrees [...]
Nimrod reports
Have found Bormann
North north west [...]
Have found Bormann
Advise
Transmission ends

Notes

1. This song is originally from MES's play "Hey! Luciani," with Brix and Marcia Schofield assuming the role of Israeli commandos tracking down Martin Bormann, Hitler's personal secretary. While Bormann was reported killed at the end of World War Two, his body was never found and for years there were persistent rumors that he was living in South America; in 1967, Simon Wiesenthal claimed there was strong evidence that Bormann was living in South America. Nevertheless, Bormann's remains were found in Germany in 1972. 

Haf Found Bormann is based on George Steiner's 1981 novella (later adapted for the stage) The Portage to San Cristóbal of A.H. The novella descibes a group of Nazi hunters who find Hitler alive in South America in 1979, at the age of 90. The book caused a lot of controversy because the Nazi hunters try Hitler on the spot in the Amazonian jungle (it isn't specifed whether the San Cristóbal of the play is the one in Argentina, Bolivia, or Colombia), and he is given a lengthy speech in which he defends himself. Hitler claims that he got the idea of a "master race" from the Jews themselves and their doctrine of a "chosen people," claims the Final Solution was justified as a means free humanity the despotism of the Jews' God, and maintains that the state of Israel would never have become a reality without the Holocaust. George Steiner was himself Jewish and, while he was a critic of the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and was opposed to the idea of a Jewish nation, it is clear that he was not attempting to justify Hitler in his book. However, at the time many saw it as either just such a justification, or saw it as an unwitting concession to Hitler's ideas, with the critic John Leonard maintaining in The New York Times that "Mr. Steiner seems to suggest that we all need Hitler; he is history's bad dream." Because "Hitler is permitted the last word" in the novella (a decision which Leonard calls "obscene"), Leonard remarkably ends his review by stating that Steiner "makes me sick to my stomach." 

^

2. Martin remarks:
"The unreleased Janice Long session of the song has slightly different numbers at the beginning of the song: Instead of '2SW185' we have 'SW184' and '3600 is replaced by '3200.' This is probably of no interest at all except to confirm once again that MES (or in this case Brix Smith and Marcia Schofield) isn't aiming for accuracy with numbers in his song but simply creating an effect of some kind."

"Nimrod" is code name of the expedition in Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of Steiner's book.

^

3.  Dan: A "Sudan-Arab agent, in the pay of Bazdad" appears in "'The Confidence of Henry Glass Pants," the text read by Alan Pillay on the "Perverted by Language Bis" video.

^

4. Elements within the Vatican were instrumental in organizing "ratlines" after World War Two to help Nazis escape to South America. P2 (Propaganda Due, in English "Propaganda Two") was a secretive Italian Masonic lodge that was involved in all sort of deviltry, including embezzlement, bombing, and murder. The lodge's Grand Master, Licio Gelli, fought for Mussolini's forces in the Spanish Civil War, and in the 1980s Gelli himself fled to South America to avoid imprisonment for various crimes associated with P2, including bombing a train. P2 (not, in all cases, without justification) has been used as a catch-all coven of geopolitical baddies by various conspiracy theorists. Various ties have been suggested between P2 and the Vatican, although unwinding the Byzantine complexity of the organization's activities and ties would require a lot of study and would probably be hard to compress into a footnote.

Roberto Calvi was a banker with the Banco Ambrosiano, financed by the Vatican, and also a member of P2. The bank went bankrupt amid a fog of scandal (much of the money having been siphoned off by the Vatican bank), and Calvi was found dead, either via suicide and murder; it has been suggested that P2 was involved in his death. 

George Harrison wrote and recorded a song entitled "P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) on his final album, Brainwashed

^

Comments (7)

dannyno
  • 1. dannyno | 02/12/2013
Difficult, but this is what I hear:

"Red out to SW185 rocking horse
This is 3600
Nimrod leader reports
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann
Resistance - two false Aztec [ ] gods
In fact Sudanese agents we have eliminated
Arsenal - spears, containing modern razors
Arsenal with shells M14 issue
Confiscated
Vials of stupid serum
Refer galley
Refer Paraguay
Refer P2
Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
Have found Bormann
Great glory to God
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann
North north west [ ]
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann
Have found Bormann"
Martin
  • 2. Martin | 16/12/2016
The unreleased Janice Long session of the song has slightly different numbers at the beginning of the song: Instead of "2SW185" we have "SW184" and "3600" is replaced by "3200". This is probably of no interest at all except to confirm once again that MES (or in this case Brix Smith and Marcia Schofield) isn't aiming for accuracy with numbers in his song but simply creating an effect of some kind.
dannyno
  • 3. dannyno | 23/04/2017
"Sudanese agents".

A "Sudan-Arab agent, in the pay of Bazdad" appears in "'The Confidence of Glaspance", the text read by Alan Pillay on the "Perverted by Language Bis" video.
dannyno
  • 4. dannyno | 23/04/2017
Sorry, that went horribly wrong. Should be "The Confidence of Henry Glass Pants"!
bzfgt
  • 5. bzfgt (link) | 13/05/2017
Did you dictate that to your phone or something?
Mark Greenwood
  • 6. Mark Greenwood (link) | 13/03/2023
18 degrees - hyphen - abortion 19 (?)
dannyno
  • 7. dannyno | 09/08/2023
Version of the text appeared in the Omega Auctions catalogue dated 12 September 2023:

https://goauctionomega.blob.core.windows.net/stock/37007-1.jpg?v=63826060762800

Add a comment