However irregular it is to do two posts in one day, I found another song that belongs in the category of "songs the fighting forces listened to during WWII." However, as it's the exact opposite of upbeat, I didn't think it quite fit into the previous post. This Youtube video presents "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," first sung by Judy Garland in 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis. Although the song isn't connected to WWII in the film (since the film takes place between 1903 and 1904), I believe it was interpreted at the time as an address to U.S. soldiers.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
WWII Week! (part 2 & 1/2)
Dear Muse,
However irregular it is to do two posts in one day, I found another song that belongs in the category of "songs the fighting forces listened to during WWII." However, as it's the exact opposite of upbeat, I didn't think it quite fit into the previous post. This Youtube video presents "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," first sung by Judy Garland in 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis. Although the song isn't connected to WWII in the film (since the film takes place between 1903 and 1904), I believe it was interpreted at the time as an address to U.S. soldiers.
However irregular it is to do two posts in one day, I found another song that belongs in the category of "songs the fighting forces listened to during WWII." However, as it's the exact opposite of upbeat, I didn't think it quite fit into the previous post. This Youtube video presents "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," first sung by Judy Garland in 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis. Although the song isn't connected to WWII in the film (since the film takes place between 1903 and 1904), I believe it was interpreted at the time as an address to U.S. soldiers.
WWII Week! (part 2)
Dear Muse,
It's one thing to sing songs that encourage people to go to war (see previous post). It's another thing to keep their spirits up when they're in the middle of fighting. The following WWII songs were created, I think, for that purpose.
Memorable World War II Songs, part 2
Songs for the Fighting Forces
1. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" - The Andrews Sisters, Songs That Got Us Through WWII
One of the biggest hits the Andrews Sisters ever had - and for good reason. You just wanna DANCE when you hear it!
2. "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Kay Kyser, V-E Day 50th Anniversary Musical Memories
3. "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" - Irving Berlin, Broadway: The American MusicalThis lighthearted criticism of life in the army has rather an interesting history. Irving Berlin actually wrote it long before WWII, as part of his 1918 show Yip, Yip, Yaphank. Having been drafted into the army that year, Berlin made the song his personal protest against "the indignities of Army routine"(see Wikipedia article). He later adapted it for his 1942 play This Is the Army, a morale-booster for WWII combatants. In both the play and the Warner Bros. musical movie that came out a year later, he sang the song himself. If "Hate to Get Up in the Morning" could illustrate WWI and WWII Army life equally well, what does that say about Army morale overall?
To be continued!
Monday, January 14, 2013
WWII Week! (part 1)
Dear Muse,
Goodness, it's been a while since I talked about anything musical! My silence owes mainly to the fact that I was out of sorts for most of the past month - but that's not much of an excuse. Still, that's what brings me to today's topic.
While I was stewing in gloom a few weeks ago, around Christmas, I turned to music to try and lighten my spirits. On a whim, I decided to give myself a bit of historical education with World War II songs. I was surprised by how good some of these are (albeit propagandistic)!! But I won't shove them in your face all at once - just a few each day for a week.
By the bye, I finally discovered a way to attach music files to my blog posts - hoorah!! So, if you remember my post about "3 Songs That Poke Fun At Love," feel free to revisit it and finally listen to those songs that I wasn't able to attach to the post before.
1. "Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)" - Gracie Fields, The Original Hits, Vol. 4
2. "Captain of the Clouds" - Dick Powell, Swing Out To Victory!
Goodness, it's been a while since I talked about anything musical! My silence owes mainly to the fact that I was out of sorts for most of the past month - but that's not much of an excuse. Still, that's what brings me to today's topic.
While I was stewing in gloom a few weeks ago, around Christmas, I turned to music to try and lighten my spirits. On a whim, I decided to give myself a bit of historical education with World War II songs. I was surprised by how good some of these are (albeit propagandistic)!! But I won't shove them in your face all at once - just a few each day for a week.
By the bye, I finally discovered a way to attach music files to my blog posts - hoorah!! So, if you remember my post about "3 Songs That Poke Fun At Love," feel free to revisit it and finally listen to those songs that I wasn't able to attach to the post before.
Memorable World War II Songs, Part 1
Heading Off to War
1. "Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)" - Gracie Fields, The Original Hits, Vol. 4
This is the best version of the song that I know of. Vera Lynn sang it too, but Gracie Fields is much more lively and upbeat, so her song would be more uplifting for those women (and men) off to the war front. (It also features in the film The History Boys - check it out!)
Source: queenmarystory.com via Ariel on Pinterest
Source: queenmarystory.com via Ariel on Pinterest
2. "Captain of the Clouds" - Dick Powell, Swing Out To Victory!
This song certainly seems geared to send fighter pilots off with smiles on their faces! A real pick-me-up refrain, but it seems heavily propagandistic as well. I wonder what that peace-loving soul, Antoine De Saint-Exupery, would have thought of it?
Source:archives.blogs.delaware.gov via Ariel on Pinterest
When I was researching this song, I ran across something odd. According to a sidebar from a Dick Powell blog, Dick Powell recorded the song on Jan. 28, 1942. But a few weeks later, the James Cagney film Captains of the Clouds was released. Coincidence? Was the song recorded first to promote the film? I'll have to check out this movie and see...
Anyway, you can listen to the songs in my attachments below! We'll continue this WWII thread tomorrow!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
The Anti "Feel-Good" Musical
Dear Muse,
Next to Normal comforts me.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're probably thinking: "What drugs have you been on?! It's a musical about a dysfunctional family where the dad's depressed, the son's dead, the daughter's bitter and alienated from her parents, and the mom's driven to the brink of suicide by the ghost of her son, who she can't bear to let go even though he died 16 years ago!! How is that the least bit comforting??"
Well, how should I put this...? I relate to it. It's something I feel like I understand well.
Not that my parents neglect or abuse me, or that either of my siblings is dead and come back to haunt the family like some grim spectre, or anything like that. Nor are we destitute. Compared to a lot of other families out there, mine is financially well-off. And I have yet to see a family whose members love and support each other to the extent that mine do.
But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Problems arise in my family from time to time, and whenever those problems bubble to the surface, it just seems natural for me to identify with Next to Normal characters like Natalie (the teenage daughter) or Diana (the mother), or compare my life to the lives of the characters in the musical. Next to Normal further convinces me that just because a family is stable in certain aspects, it doesn't mean it's completely stable in others.
I don't think I'm alone in believing that about my family. Every family has issues, and everyone has been involved in a family feud at least once in their life. Every teenager or young adult has, at one point or another, echoed the thoughts of Natalie when she states:
"I wish I could fly,
And magically appear and disappear;
I wish I could fly -
I'd fly far away from here."
- "Superboy and the Invisible Girl"
This musical accentuates that you don't need to be underserved or impoverished to deal with family strife. According to Next to Normal, it's all too clear that even well-off families hide emotional clashes and nervous breakdowns behind their pristine white-picket fences.
Somehow, that's cathartic. Goes to show that, if you're suffering, you're not alone in the world. Other people feel your pain. Realizing this pain in a musical like Next to Normal is a good thing.
Ben Brantley's review of the 2009 Broadway premiere of Next to Normal described it not as a "feel-good" musical, but rather as a "feel-everything" musical. I totally agree with that statement, and celebrate the musical more because of it. Sometimes, when life - or family - gives you crap and you want to feel better about yourself, you don't need a "feel-good" song sung by people who obviously are much happier than you are at the moment. You need an anguished song, a yearning song; a complicated-feelings-song from people torn between two or more points of view. You need to hear a messed-up character tremulously wail a "feel-everything" song, so that you can think either "at least I'm not that guy!" or "someone out there feels what I'm feeling!" Eventually, you'll end up with a buoying dose of schadenfreude and increased optimism about your family's capability to overcome obstacles. (It's got to be better than that of the Next to Normal family.)
By touching upon the emotional mountains and valleys of a middle-class family, Next to Normal comes across as one of the most personally touching musicals I've heard in a long time. Maybe, in its comparison to more unrealistic musicals out there, it's one of the most normal.
'Till next time,
Ariel
P.S. I think the song "Just Another Day" best illustrates the idea of "feel-everything." Give this Youtube audio recording a listen and see what you think. Can you relate any aspects of the song to your life?
Next to Normal comforts me.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're probably thinking: "What drugs have you been on?! It's a musical about a dysfunctional family where the dad's depressed, the son's dead, the daughter's bitter and alienated from her parents, and the mom's driven to the brink of suicide by the ghost of her son, who she can't bear to let go even though he died 16 years ago!! How is that the least bit comforting??"
Well, how should I put this...? I relate to it. It's something I feel like I understand well.
Not that my parents neglect or abuse me, or that either of my siblings is dead and come back to haunt the family like some grim spectre, or anything like that. Nor are we destitute. Compared to a lot of other families out there, mine is financially well-off. And I have yet to see a family whose members love and support each other to the extent that mine do.
But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Problems arise in my family from time to time, and whenever those problems bubble to the surface, it just seems natural for me to identify with Next to Normal characters like Natalie (the teenage daughter) or Diana (the mother), or compare my life to the lives of the characters in the musical. Next to Normal further convinces me that just because a family is stable in certain aspects, it doesn't mean it's completely stable in others.
I don't think I'm alone in believing that about my family. Every family has issues, and everyone has been involved in a family feud at least once in their life. Every teenager or young adult has, at one point or another, echoed the thoughts of Natalie when she states:
"I wish I could fly,
And magically appear and disappear;
I wish I could fly -
I'd fly far away from here."
- "Superboy and the Invisible Girl"
This musical accentuates that you don't need to be underserved or impoverished to deal with family strife. According to Next to Normal, it's all too clear that even well-off families hide emotional clashes and nervous breakdowns behind their pristine white-picket fences.
Somehow, that's cathartic. Goes to show that, if you're suffering, you're not alone in the world. Other people feel your pain. Realizing this pain in a musical like Next to Normal is a good thing.
Ben Brantley's review of the 2009 Broadway premiere of Next to Normal described it not as a "feel-good" musical, but rather as a "feel-everything" musical. I totally agree with that statement, and celebrate the musical more because of it. Sometimes, when life - or family - gives you crap and you want to feel better about yourself, you don't need a "feel-good" song sung by people who obviously are much happier than you are at the moment. You need an anguished song, a yearning song; a complicated-feelings-song from people torn between two or more points of view. You need to hear a messed-up character tremulously wail a "feel-everything" song, so that you can think either "at least I'm not that guy!" or "someone out there feels what I'm feeling!" Eventually, you'll end up with a buoying dose of schadenfreude and increased optimism about your family's capability to overcome obstacles. (It's got to be better than that of the Next to Normal family.)
By touching upon the emotional mountains and valleys of a middle-class family, Next to Normal comes across as one of the most personally touching musicals I've heard in a long time. Maybe, in its comparison to more unrealistic musicals out there, it's one of the most normal.
'Till next time,
Ariel
P.S. I think the song "Just Another Day" best illustrates the idea of "feel-everything." Give this Youtube audio recording a listen and see what you think. Can you relate any aspects of the song to your life?
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Random association
Dear Muse,
I think there is a case to be made for listening to songs in places that totally have nothing to do with the song at all.
For example: Whenever I listen to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream", I think of how I played it over and over on my ipod walking along the highway from the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg to Selestat, earlier this summer. (I spent an internship in Normandy, France, and for a little over a week after the internship ended I traveled counter-clockwise around other French regions.) Does it really matter that it has nothing to do with Alsace?
I think there is a case to be made for listening to songs in places that totally have nothing to do with the song at all.
For example: Whenever I listen to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream", I think of how I played it over and over on my ipod walking along the highway from the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg to Selestat, earlier this summer. (I spent an internship in Normandy, France, and for a little over a week after the internship ended I traveled counter-clockwise around other French regions.) Does it really matter that it has nothing to do with Alsace?
 |
| The castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg is seen in the background. |
"Do whatever makes you happy," no matter how random it is. Right? What do you think?
'Till next time,
Ariel
 |
| This didn't actually happen. It would have been funny, tho'. |
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