Vera Lynn Classic or Dud

what about everybody hating Vera Lynn?

My partner's mum was from that era and used to say scornfully "sweetheart of the forces? silly old knocker!"

I can't remember what context it was said in, it might have been because she was on Songs Of Praise or something!

she strikes me as somebody who looked like an establishment shill even at the time

this was in an era when people clearly despised the Conservative party. Maissky said in his dairies when he made an ad hoc address to some working class Londoners sheltering in a tube station they belted out a rendition of The Internationale to pay tribute to him. Communism was still respectable to many of the chattering classes as well. I don't think the lumpen masses liked establishment shills back then.

not in the same lame manner they seem to absolutely fucking love them now, anyways!

too beered up to research now but no real showbiz career outside of that song, just an empty propaganda puppet basically

My grandad always said everyone hated Vera Lynn.

My mum wasn't a teenager until after the war, but her generation had zero interest in any UK entertainers or entertainment, it had to be American or nothing. Vera Lynn? Forget it.

I'm just remembering another reason I hate that song. It was mockingly sung by a load of bluenose bastards last day of the season '01 when Trevor Francis managed them and they relegated Town

cunt team, cunt manager

Vera Lynn is why skiffle had to happen

For a time I was in the backing band for a Vera Lynn tribute act who played at the Canadian Legions on Rememberance Day etc. We'll Meet Again is a drag - her worst song- but her broader repertoire had good songs in it imo. Or at least they were fun to play. During her career the song she was most associated with was not WMA, but "Yours" btw. I don't much like her voice though.

Good pub quiz trivia is she was first British act to reach #1 in the US.

The only other Vera track I know is her only UK #1 "My Son My Son" - it is about as bad as We'll Meet Again, not unpleasant to listen to, but infested with a malignant 1950s UK torpor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BTeKk36-Ys

Of all the surprisingly good LPs I own, "Vera Lynn In Nashville" is perhaps not the most good but is perhaps the most surprisingly good.

BREAKING: Entertainer Dame Vera Lynn, who lived in Ditchling, has died at the age of 103, her family have said.

— BBC Radio Sussex (@BBCSussex) June 18, 2020

Will maintain my position that she was generally a dreary presence in the audio world, however I'm currently listening to recordings from the mid 30s and it turns out she could be a pretty decent guest singer with British dance bands before she went solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOFH0FdIsoA

https://www.expressandstar.com/resizer/LrZipS9A_Jz4feABu3N9FxuCVEY=/1000x0/filters:quality(100)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/expressandstar.mna/USGRDPCIC5ELZMRYZIE6XCWSP4.jpg

Back in the news! Dame #VeraLynn up for 2 Classic @BRITAwards & Dave Brock of @HawkwindHQ - playing Camden @RoundhouseLDN as part of @DesertFest this Sunday - together here at an anti-heroin concert in Crystal Palace, 1985. @thetimes pic.twitter.com/OKGJR3AGxg

— News UK Archives (@NewsUKArchives) May 2, 2018

haha Ditchling!