Posted on 09/22/2009 7:11:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For a generation of Britons who lived through World War II, Dame Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" will forever conjure up the pangs of wartime separation. "We'll meet again," she sang to soldiers on the front lines and to their families across the Channel. "We'll meet again/ Don't know where/ Don't know when/ But I know we'll meet again/ Some sunny day."
The songstress appears to have kept her promise. Last week, at age 92, Lynn became the oldest artist to top the British charts with We'll Meet Again — The Very Best of Vera Lynn, an album featuring 24 songs that evoke wartime Britain. Lynn, an East London plumber's daughter who went on to be known as the "Forces' Sweetheart," spoke with TIME about her music's resurgence 70 years later. (See the top-selling albums and singles of 1989.)
Were you expecting modern listeners to embrace your album like they have?
No. One never expects things like that. They just happen, which is very nice. I certainly didn't expect it to go to No. 1. I thought the songs were suitable for that time and that there would be new songs that would come along to take their place.
Why do you think your album is striking a chord with so many people in 2009?
It's a bit of nostalgia and what's going on in Afghanistan at the moment, I suppose. With our boys going away once again to fight, it sort of got people interested in the music of the earlier period. And the schools have been teaching about the Second World War, and that causes an interest.
You held off competition from the Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon and South London rapper Jamie T to reach No. 1. Do you listen to any of them?
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Remember how she said, we would meet again...some sunny day.
Vera Lynn singing, “Give me something to remember you by.”
always tears me up.
Lili Marlene too.
Time to GO!
I’m positively delighted to know she’s still alive.
I do not know her by her face. I only know her by her voice, and whenever I hear her sing I’m reminded of that old feeling...
...Not the love of a spouse—cyborg is more than words can say—but instead the nostalgia of merely the thought of an old romance back in a day long gone by.
I imagine every Limey who went off to war in WW II has only the finest memories of this lady...who promised to meet him again, some sunny day.
All of us who were too young to go to war remember her, too.
“Does anyone her remember Vera Lynn?”
For the few that might not get it. This is from the Pink Floyd album and movie- “The Wall”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PR3Dp75MVM&feature=fvw
Funny that I used to listen to that song and had no idea that it referred to a real person. Just figure that out in the last year or so. At the time I was Youtubing it and found this amazing live performance by her to troops in WWII. She was really something great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Drw4aZhdT8
Just found what I believe is a really recent interview with her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsIOl4SuG4
My first thoughts as well. Great song on a great album.
what a beautiful voice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdGX_FcvVoE&NR=1
I gotta get to work can’t sit and listen :(
The Pig. That’s what set me off. Then Rogers whipping up the Chinese with Anti-American comments.
Up to that point, I was a huge fan.
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