Games Without Frontiers

Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" came on while I was listening to Launchcast, and I thought, What exactly is the deal with that song, anyway? The "Adolf" part makes it sound like it's a metaphor for war, with international leaders as kids playing games at the beach, but who are all the other names?

(This is a step up from my previous question about the song, which was, What the hell does "She's . . . so frumpy-haired" mean? The repeated background phrase is really jeux sans frontieres—"games without frontiers" in French.)

The Web to rescue once again. Turns out that It's a Knockout was a silly British game show in the 1970s, and there was an international European version called Jeux Sans Frontieres. Amazon UK has an interview with Stuart Hall, the host of the show, with a link to a best-of video.

So the song might still be a metaphor for war, but if so, it's a much more concrete one than I'd thought.

Did everyone but me know this already?

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