[Vera Lynn]

La Littérature at Two Blowhards

Michael Blowhard discussed Taking Jackie Collins Seriously, generating several branches of discussion in the comments section. I mentioned one of my favorite pieces of sung poetry there:

I remember reading Pink Floyd’s Vera even when I did not know who Vera Lynn had been (was, to be precise), and I still can’t explain why the simple piece worked so well for me — it should be for the enormous context, not so much the text.

And (as I figured out years later) the context is — superficially speaking — the interwar bliss and the firestorm it ended in; Roger Waters’ father not returning from the war; and not meeting again any time soon. In other words, a universe in eight lines, before a big bang.

At first reading, I was ignorant of that: I took Vera for a co-ed, an old flame perhaps. Got a shock nonetheless. Here’s Floyd’s text:

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn
Remember how she said that
We would meet again
Some sunny day
Vera! Vera!
What has become of you
Does anybody else in here
Feel the way I do?

And here’s the beggining of We’ll Meet Again, the song Waters refers to:

We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where,
Don’t know when,
But I know
We’ll meet again
Some sunny day.

Keep smiling through
Just like you
Always do
Till the blue skies
Drive the dark clouds
Far away.

No it’s getting too long now — meet you at next post.

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