Here's to You (song)

"Here's to You"
Single by Joan Baez and Ennio Morricone
from the album The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti
Released	1971
Recorded	1971
Genre	Folk
Writer(s)	Joan Baez (lyrics) Ennio Morricone (music)

"Here's to You" is a song by Ennio Morricone and Joan Baez, released in 1971 as part of the soundtrack of the film Sacco e Vanzetti, directed by Giuliano Montaldo. The lyrics are by Baez herself and the music is by Ennio Morricone.

Background

The song is a tribute to two anarchists of Italian origin, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti who were sentenced to death by a United States court in the 1920s. The consensus of critical opinion has concluded since that the ruling was based on abhorrence to their anarchist political beliefs rather than on any proof that they committed the robbery and murders of which they were accused.^[1][2] The case is known as the Sacco and Vanzetti Affair.

The lyrics for Here's to You make use of a statement attributed to Vanzetti by Philip D. Strong, a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance who visited him in prison in May 1927, three months before his execution.^[3]

If it had not been for these things, I might have live out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have die, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as we now do by accident. Our words—our lives—our pains—nothing! The taking of our lives—lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler—all! That last moment belongs to us—that agony is our triumph.

Use in other media

The song is also used in the 1977 quasi-documentary film Deutschland im Herbst, accompanying footage of the 1977 funeral march for Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe who had committed suicide in prison (see German Autumn). Besides the film Sacco e Vanzetti, the song also appears in the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.^[4][5]

The song became known for its appearance in the Metal Gear Solid series where it was featured in Metal Gear Solid 4,Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, where it is featured within the game's story as a character's favorite song,^[6] and soundtrack to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Covers

In the United States and worldwide, the song became a veritable human rights movement in the 1970s. In 1972 the German songwriter Franz Josef Degenhardt sang the song under the title "Sacco und Vanzetti" with five verses. The Israeli singer Daliah Lavi sang it in English, French and German.^[7] Swedish singer-songwriter Agnetha Fältskog recorded the song in German and released it as a single in 1972, entitled Geh' mit Gott. In 1997, Nana Mouskouri interpreted it with Les Enfoirés starting with a classical rendering that develops into a blues song, intermittent with versions of Georges Moustaki in French and finally in English.. In 2011, Bandista covered the song with the name "Selam size" in their album "Daima!".

For its appearance in the end credits of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the song was arranged by longtime series composer Harry Gregson-Williams and sung by Lisbeth Scott.

Hayley Westenra and Ennio Morricone perform Here's To You on the album Paradiso released 2011 and nominated for the Classic Brit Award 2012.

Corsica-based band L'Arcusgi used Here's to You music in their 2011 song Alba Nova (in Corsican A New Dawn).

Lyrics

Here's to you, Nicola and Bart
Rest forever here in our hearts
The last and final moment is yours
That agony is your triumph.^[8]

References