El Fusilado – Chumbawamba – Notes

Activity type : gap fill.

Grammar : Past Simple.

Time: 15 mins.

Note: From Chumbawamba’s 2008 album The Boy Bands Have Won, this track features guest vocals by Ray Hearne, Barry Coope and Jim Boyes. The song is based on a true story:

Wenseslao Moguel was captured while fighting in the Mexican Revolution in 1915 and without trial sentenced to face the firing squad, ‘las sentencias al paredon’. After being shot by the squad, and despite receiving the ‘tiro de gracia’ (shot at close range by the captain), Wenseslao somehow survived. He managed to escape and spent much of his life touring the U.S.A. with the ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ travelling museum.

The conservative Porfirio Diaz became dictator of Mexico in 1876; he made the country wealthier, but the poor people became poorer. Franciso Madero started the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which was also led by other famous people like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. In the next 10 years the country was in chaos. There were many presidents who ruled for a short time and all kinds of people fought against each other. The revolution officially ended with the Mexican Constitution on 1917, the first to have notions of welfare and workers' rights.

1) Revise the Grammar rules for the Past Simple.

2) Explain the background to the song, then play it. Students listen for verbs in the Past Simple.

3) Give each student a copy of the worksheet, and ask them to write the Past Simple form in each gap.

4) Play the song again, students listen and correct.

5) Correct.

6) Follow up: Students write a newspaper report on the events portrayed in the song.

Note: The full title of Chumbawumba’s album is:

The Boy Bands Have Won, and All The Copyists and The Tribute Bands and The TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture To Be Shaped By Mimicry, Whether From Lack Of Ideas Or From Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try To Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother’s Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don’t Just Regurgitate Creative History, Or Hold Art And Music And Literature As Fixed, Untouchable And Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try To ‘Guard’ Any Particular Form Of Music Are, Like The Copyists And Manufactured Bands, Doing It The Worst Disservice, Because The Only Thing That You Can Do To Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It’s Over, Then It’s Done, and The Boy Bands Have Won.

This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2010 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Claudia Cantaluppi, Como

El Fusilado – Chumbawamba

Listen close to this crooked mouth For my story I will tell–o I (live) ______in Mexico by the name of Wenseslao Moguel–o (leave) ______my home in Santiago The heart of the city of Merida (serve) ______with my brothers and sisters all For the army of Pancho Villa

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado

The Federales (capture) ______me (bind) ______up my arms with wire Officer (come) ______he (say) ______“Take your aim – Steady your guns and fire!” Bullet holes all across my chest (rip) ______up my shirt and my body–o Heart (beat) ______on through the silenced guns To the rhythm of life inside me–o

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado

(fall) ______to the ground, the officer (come) ______One last shot to the head–o (hear) ______through the pain as he (walk) ______away And (leave) ______me there for dead–o All went quiet so I (crawl) ______away I (not be)______giving up to the glory Ten good shots I (take) ______them all And (live) ______to tell my story

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado.

This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2010 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Claudia Cantaluppi, Como

El Fusilado – Chumbawamba – Complete

Listen close to this crooked mouth For my story I will tell–o I lived in Mexico by the name of Wenseslao Moguel–o Left my home in Santiago The heart of the city of Merida Served with my brothers and sisters all For the army of Pancho Villa

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado

The Federales captured me Bound up my arms with wire Officer came he said “Take your aim – Steady your guns and fire!” Bullet holes all across my chest Ripped up my shirt and my body–o Heart beat on through the silenced guns To the rhythm of life inside me–o

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado

Fell to the ground the officer came One last shot to the head–o Heard through the pain as he walked away And left me there for dead–o All went quiet so I crawled away I wasn’t giving up to the glory Ten good shots I took them all And lived to tell my story

Stand me straight against the nearest wall Line up your bravest soldiers oh Ten good shots I’ll take them all They call me El Fusilado.

This worksheet is to be used for educational purposes only Activity © Tune into English 2010 – www.tuneintoenglish.com Worksheet written by Prof. Claudia Cantaluppi, Como