SOUNDTRACK: Songs That Got Us Through WW2 (1993).
My dad was in World War II. He was a Navy man, and he worked on airplanes. He was stationed in the South Pacific. When I was growing up, he listened to a lot of big band music (while most of my friends’ parents were listening to folk music).
This collection of songs is a favorite of mine whenever I’m feeling nostalgic for my parents. Although not every song on this disc was one I knew, the majority are greatly familiar. My dad even had a lot of these records on 78 vinyl (and I have begun a small 78 RPM collection of my own).
When I think of a lot of these songs and what they meant to the people back home they go from being upbeat fun dance songs to being songs that people held onto during such a tough time. There hasn’t been a lot of documentation about what families hold onto during our current wars (emails I gather are pretty important), and I suspect that with popular culture being fragmented so much, there aren’t really any unifying songs like in WWII. I’m not sure if that’s a shame, but it does mean less that nostalgia like this isn’t as likely 60 years from now.
[READ: July 19, 2009] “Kinds of Killing”
Normally I don’t write about book reviews. However, since I enjoyed William Gass’ The Tunnel, and I am fond of his writing in general. In fact, Gass is such a powerful writer, and he spends such a great deal of time honing his words, that anything he writes is worthy of a read. And since this book review was something like 8 pages long, it seemed worthy of a few words. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 