Vera Lynn. She was not known too well in America or some of the junk-Eurotrash countries and backward countries of the world.
She wouldn't be a familiar name to the fine, fine music-thieves in Turkey, Sweden, Holland or Brazil, etc., so don't count on them generously offering full albums: "just for fun...and leave me a nice comment so I'll feel like I'm God, or I'm relevant, or I'm in show biz.").
Vera made a name for herself on British radio during World War II. Like Betty Grable in America, whose cute, All-American pin-up pictures boosted morale for American soldiers, Vera Lynn's singing warmed the hearts of both soldiers, and the civilians who never knew when a bomb might destroy their homes.
At a time of great stress and uncertainty, sex symbols were not what was needed. What were soldiers fighting for? Country. Home. The girl they left behind or the girl they wanted to marry. The American GI's chose Betty Grable as their sweetheart, not Jane Russell. Rather than a saucy Marie Lloyd, the British soldiers wanted a girl who could put a steak and kidney pie on the table: Vera Lynn.
For "The Greatest Generation" living in the U.K., Vera Lynn was an enduring symbol. Hitler and Mussolini were not invincible. Vera Lynn assured the nation: "We'll Meet Again." The soldiers would return to their sweethearts. "I'll Be Seeing You...in all the old familiar places." Both songs had a gentle, melancholy optimism...a far cry...more of a whisper...from World War I marches like "Over There," and songs sung by bombastic battle-axes like Florrie Forde.
After the war, she continued to enjoy a respectable following, and usually with more songs that had an element of bitter nostalgia via minor key melodies. In 1970, two years after Mary Hopkins' twittery rendition of "Those Were The Days," Vera covered it, and covered it well. She also sang the wistful "There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World."
Into the 80's and 90's, Vera Lynn made tasteful re-appearances for songs and interviews, and like the Queen of England herself, was as much a reassuring figurehead than someone with actual power. She certainly didn't have the power to compete with the new wave singer/sluts in leotards and big hair and big busts -- the type bouncing around on MTV.
Vera Lynn, who was a comforting presence that suggested war would be over, and romance would return, became, in a way, a symbol of something else: peace in old age. She had all her marbles. When interviewed, she was always graceful, gracious and articulate. She seemed to even defy mortality. "Vera Lynn is still alive..." maybe this death thing isn't so final?
As you know, she died the other day at 103.
Plenty of her hit songs would be a likely cliche for a tribute: “Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart,” “As Time Goes By…” or "It Hurts To Say Goodbye."
The latter is the choice, because it DOES hurt to say goodbye, even if, as people LOVE to say, "her work lives on...she's alive in our hearts."
Her song below has a slightly different flavor of heroic agony than the others mentioned. It's not as sad and wistful as her other ballads. It's not nearly as gentle. Vera Lynn was not given enough credit for having an expressive, powerful voice, but she had one, and she uses it to its full extent here:
1 comment:
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