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From: maz59
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  • shes englands version of dinah shore!

  • Wonderful song, wonderful artist! And, in the middle of it all, wonderful humor! 2:09 makes me laugh aloud every time I check it out - couldn't happen anywhere but in England!!!

  • Beautiful expression of wartime spirit during our darkest times. I wasn't born until 1960 but people's memories were still fresh as I grew up. I can sense some of their feelings.

  • This should be a world war 1 song not 2 but whatever

  • @Torogami sorry, not sure what you mean - Vera Lynn sang it during WW2 about the blackout in WW2

  • God Bless Dame Vera on this Remembrance Day, 2011! She fought the War in her own way and was a major contributor to our victory over Naziism!

  • Being a Somerset lad in !st Bn S.L.I. in the 50's and dad landing on D.D +6

    all I can say is did we fight for what ?

    Time the real Brits over 100yrs birth + say enough is enough..no more selling

    our birthright to outsiders. Wake up lads, you owe it to your Dads/grandfathers.

  • Love this song. I am fascinated by WWII era because even through all the scary, rough and dangerous times, people were still determined. I am awed by the English perserverance and determination during this time. I wish people now had that spirit more often.

  • God bless Vera Lynn she gave hope with her songs in a time of great fear and trial

  • People today have absolutely no conception of the sheer awfulness of the total blackout regulations in operation in Britain during WW2. Not a single light was permitted to be shown anywhere at night - not even in the heart of London - the streets were totally blacked out although later in the war vehicles were allowed tiny slits in their headlights & people were allowed to carry faintly lit torches. People became totally disorienated in the blackout at night even outside their own homes.

  • Talking about bananas....children growing up in bomb ravaged, severely rationed WW2 wartime Britain had either forgotten what bananas looked like or had never seen any at all in their young lives and when these fruit became available again in the UK after the war had ended they had to be told to skin them first before they could eat them. People had to get used to streets fully lit again at night after almost six years of total blackout at night as this song implies.

  • In the Spanish here, the verb "apagarse" means "to go out," but the song is about the lights going back on. Great Britain maintained blackout conditions through much of the war as a defense against the blitz when bombs were "falling from the skies above." The song was a prayer for that day when the war had been won and they no longer needed live in fear and the dark. "Encenderse" would be appropriate here meaning "to go on" as in light.

  • When the lights go on again all over the world

    And the boy are home again all over the world

    And rain or snow is all that may fall from the skies above

    A kiss son't mean "goodbye" but "hello to love"

    When the lights go on again all over the world

    and the ships will sail again all over the world

    Then we'll have time for things like wedding rings and free hearts will sing

    when the lights go on again all over the world

  • In Spanish :

    Cuando las luces se apagan de nuevo por todo el mundo

    Y el muchacho se casa otra vez en todo el mundo

    Y la lluvia o la nieve es todo lo que puede caer de los cielos

    Un beso no signifique decir "adiós" sino "hola amor"

    Cuando las luces se apagan de nuevo por todo el mundo

    y los barcos navegarán de nuevo por todo el mundo

    Luego tendremos tiempo para cosas como los anillos de boda y corazones libres cantarán

    cuando las luces se apagan de nuevo por todo el mundo

  • Apart from the devastating bombing raids and all kinds of shortages and all the pain and grief in Britain during WW2 about the most depressing and irritating aspects of life in this country during that terrible time was the blackout. On a really dark night with no moon or even stars the outside world was really scary. My great grandad had to use the outside loo one dark night and instead of walking to that he ended up face down in a fish pond, totally disorientated in the total darkness.

  • DAME VERA is wiith OUR Lord,here or there. She KNOWS I acknowlege her ROOTS! But,truthfully, she is ROOTED in LOVE, not Nationality, but the TRUTH, of ETERNAL

    Love!

  • Thank you dear God, for giving us "the greatest generation" who put the lights back on all over the world.

  • My Mother in Scotland WWII era did not know what a real banana looked like! Had never eaten one when she was a little girl. Simple things you take for granted!

  • @MrDesertRatAZ

    And here, I raised two![Bananas]

    Just kidding. My kids ! Hullo. They don't see this "Channel"

    They DO have recognition,enough, I hope!

  • What a wonderful era. Can you imagine if the ragheads had hit New York in 1947? They'd be extinct and the oil would be in the hands of civilized men. Jesus, I want my Grampas' America! But the day will come. Never doubt it.

  • Unless I've said this already, I'm on the verge of tears when I hear this song for whatever reason. In other words, it's enough to turn a hard man into a softy, wolf into a puppy, and a lion into a kitten.

  • @Eddy2730 And the Lion, will lay down with the LAMB!

    THEY fought,so that we can have a CHANCE! Do not waste it!

  • Vera Lynn with her morale boosting songs was a brilliant beacon of light and hope in those dark and fearful days in the Britain of World War Two. It was a truly dreadful time in which to have lived, the like of which the people of the Britain of today have absolutely no idea, yet in spite of everything the British people kept up their morale and stayed remarkably cheerful no matter what was happening all around them in the Blitz and all the deprivations of wartime rationing and shortages.

  • Wonderfull song. I love Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields. I recently sang a ww2 song would you please take a look.

  • Thank you Great Britain! Thank you Allies for that exceptional and victorious commitment against Nazifascism!

    What wonderful songs and hopes!

    From Italy

  • vera lynn did for england what kate smith did for america during ww2 God bless them for all they did for the servicemen wish we had that spirit now

  • What a treasure to all the world, God bless you Vera, where ever you are.

  • We are from Austria and we heard Vera Lynn's song. During WW2 we were little chrildren. My husband overcame the holocaust because he is Jewish. We are very impressed by some of these hopeful songs. We think it is necessary to spread hope again in these dark and dangerous times.

  • @hamerl

    yes, I agree, it is so needed to spread hope.

    Many spread cynicism and hate - I am very glad your husband survived. It was a terrible time.

    Never again!

  • @hamerl So glad your husband was one of the lucky ones . Makes me wonder now why we dond sing songs like this also as our Boys are fighting abroad, you know?

  • @hamerl there are no dark and dangerous times now, not yet anyway

  • @hamerl May God bless and keep you for all of your trials these are songs of hope and I love them dearly. My Dad inlisted at age 17 to the Amry air corps and came home safe after the war. We are living in dangerous times and these songs tell the story

  • @hamerl May God continue to bless you, My dear Mother made us always watch the world at war when we were Kids so we would never forget those days. We are living in bad times now and I am glad she had the insite to make sure we saw those things and the terrible things that happen to people like you.

  • this song is a classic:)

  • the devestarion in europe - yes including germany - what a waste. i guess we never learn.

  • Oh my, I wish I could get through one Vera Lynn wartime song without crying. No, I wasn't even born yet (my mother is a WWII baby), and I am not British, but her beautiful, soul-feeding songs are just as relevant and touching today as they were then. When I see newsreels and movies, and read books about the suffering and sacrifice the average Britsh civilian endured, much less her soldiers, I am humbled. I am an American, but I stand in awe of Great Britain. Bravo...

  • She needs a bigger funeral than Michael Jackson when her time comes.

  • @Drever01856 - AMEN to that!!!

  • @Drever01856 - AMEN to that!!! Vera Lynn was a gift to Great Britain during WW2.

  • I was just learning to read toward the end of WW2. I remember having bad dreams about bombing. I can also remember being amazed when lights went on, I was too young to remember before they went out.

  • i was at my grandparents, and my granddad, who was just a teenager during the war, and is now loosing it a little DX XD, but when i started to sing this, his face lit up and he sang along with me XD shes as good now as she was back then :)

  • I can't listen to this song without crying. Especially the line 'and when the rain or snow is all that falls from the sky' ... keeping in mind that tens of thousands of Britons were losing their lives from aerial bombing, an especially poignant line.

  • another song that i could listen to anytime i must be an old sentamentalist but at 80 you must have memories

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  • Lovely voice ... so evochative and ethereal .

    The Brittish voice of the war just asGlenn Miller was for America ...

  • Dame Vera is a true English patriot. She could have battered Hitler in a fist fight!

  • I talked to my grandmother about her war time experiences as a Land Girl here in New Zealand during the War before she died last year. This song is especially poignant when I think of how she told me the countries fears of imminent Japanese air raids. When all buildings had windows blacked out, street lamps had blinkers, and cars could only have one head lamp pointing downwards! I hadn't realised the country was so close to invasion and can only imagine how frightening it must have been

  • My father served on a minesweeper in the Atlantic during WW II. He always said that when it was over, it was wonderful to sail past seaside towns and see all the lights on.

  • Great video to accompany the great Vera Lynn classic song

    God Bless

    David

  • I love this song.

  • Look at that moustache at 2:20!

  • We know, but let's just enjoy her beautiful music here. Music can be an escape from the ugliness of the world.

  • She's still around at 92, topped the charts with an album in 2009.

  • all we need is love

  • Good night Vera, wherever you are!!!

  • Dame Vera is in her 90s and i hope she lives for ever God bless her... but when her time comes she should be given a State Funeral... a True British person she has been a servant of our fighting men and women all her life and still is first to support our Poppy day appeals... God bless you Dame Vera..

  • to be honest,i think she gets a military funeral due to her war time efforts..and if not she deserves one!

  • @TyneBridge56 Uh, let us not talk about something sad as her death. She'll live for ever anyway. ♥

  • @TyneBridge56 she deserves more than a state funeral! sadly we can't give her nearly what she gave us. may she live to be 500 years

  • there will always be wars

  • Vera Lynn's greatest song with refernce to the blackouts all over the world because of the war and when they are lifted we have peace and thats exactly what happened

  • Thank God we live in a time of relative peace!

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  • The most evocative of all her songs. I'm wondering why it isn't on her latest compilation album.

  • Very nice. I love this version. Thanks!

  • I sent a letter to Vera, and I'm so excited to get a reply! I asked for an autograph, and I'll tell all of you if I do.

  • how lovely for you . she is 5 weeks younger than my Mum. I remember Mum singing her songs when i was young. where did you write to her at ?

  • so haunting and nostalgic, so poignant even today lovely posting

  • My favourite Vera Lynn song!

  • Dame Vera we are still waiting!..

  • Songs my grandmother used to sing to me when I was a todler...great to find them here now , thank YOU

  • A voice that will never be replaced when she is gone

  • God Bless Dame Vera! Back on the charts in 2009~!!!

  • Vera Flynn is a wonderful person for singing this. This is what the troops really needed to hear back then. She has a very beautiful and soulful voice.

  • I do remember when the lights went on in London. My sister's took my to Piccadilly Circus to see them, and what a sight that was after such a gloomy London previous to that!

  • Vera really knew how to put a song across. There is a tear in her voice.

  • yes, I agree with you

    I pray that the common link of being human, with feelings and fears, will cause us to love one another, so that wars will cease...

    realistically, though, observing the hatred of many, even in words on the Internet, I know that help from God is really needed...we just don't have that love naturally. Something took it away.

  • you know... i don't really believe that god excists... and even if he does, maybe he prefers to let us make our choices... all the hate comes from nationalisn, racism and xenophobia, not inhuman devils... and all he have to find out is who makes profit from hate and all these wars...

  • Yes I agree, It once said in the bible that Gog wanted us to love one another. So why are there these wars? Well, the bible also quotes that God wants human kind to have freedom, but then; we are not loving one another if were killing them are we?

    I am not saying God is not real, because none of us actually know that, but if he is why would there be war??

  • God wants us to love each other, but he has no control over us if we don't let him lead our lives. It says in the bible that you have to ask him to lead you in every decision.

    Plus, since Eve and Adam ate from the tree of knowledge, they became human. Humans are bound to make mistakes and it is human nature to be stubborn and greedy. That is why there is war. God is not to blame. Humans not accepting God and thinking they can do all this on their own is. Humans are...stupid to say the least.

  • Hmm, I see your point, but.... does it not say in the Bible that God made humans? If he made them, then why did he make them stupid?

    And why does he do nothing about war? Surely he has the power?

  • God made humans, but in the beginning he made them ignorant. Ignorance is bliss after all. And that's how they were in Eden until they ate from the tree of knowledge.

    Why doesn't he do anything about war? Because he didn't start the wars, we did. The idiotic people we elected into office did. The tyrants of the world who think they are superior than everyone else and want the world for themselves did. "You make the mess, you better clean it up."

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  • I do not agree with 'ignorant' and 'stupid' as descriptions for how God made us, as he said it was 'good' after he made humans,

    no, the answer to all you ask is to do with free will - that he gave humans free will.

    would you want your free will removed and to be a robot, programmed to do what you are told? Free will is from REAL love...if you are the parent of a growing child, as I am, you will understand

  • @maz59 Wow, what a very clear way of describing this. I totally agree.

  • @americatotallyrocks ...your point is the question of questions. Since the beginning most have asked what you have. Job's central question was why doesn't God stop the evil and suffering. God's answer to Job was that it is too complex for him to understand. It is something woven into infinity, and how His nature interfaces with humanity. The answer is unknown...for now.

  • And, Obviously you believe in God... not that I dont. I just sometimes wonder...why? there is always an explanation/excuse. Do you call it an explanation? Or an excuse? It could be both.

    But all I am saying is, why would God want to see his own creation dying? Why doesn't he talk to people, and tell them to stop??

    And one more thing, there are so many religions in this world. If God was real... then why would there be other Gods???

  • I'm actually still fighting whether I believe in God or not, but this is just my logical mind piecing things together from what I've learned in church and small amount of psychology class.

    God doesn't want to see his creations die. Also, God does talk to people. The only thing is that we don't listen. It's easy to tell what's right and what's wrong, and what's which one we want. We're selfish and we don't care so we pick and choose whatever. There are other Gods created by other people.

  • Thanks for the beautiful song, from the son of 1st Lt. Clifford C. Frederiksen, USAAF 441st troopcarrier, 302 sqn. Merryfield, England. This, and "White cliffs of Dover" were favorites of dad, and mom. I'm glad Vera is alive and well at 92, in the UK today!

  • i just hope that the value of human life someday will be much grater...

    that innocent people won't die for the sake of profit...

    people should live in freedom without fear...

  • amen analogyman

    I believe that praying

    'Your Kingdom come, Your will be done

    on earth as it is in heaven,'

    WILL be answered [when prayed from the heart]

    and it is nothing to fear for those who are forward looking, who trust in Him and love people.

  • May the next few years also be a time of renewal for the world.

  • well written, i agree.

  • that is sad about your mother and father...

    I believe that my grandad got shrapnel damage and footrot when he was in WWI and the Battle of the Somme, and also shellshock, which affected him all his days which were ended in a mental institution unfortunately.

  • This song reminds me of my parents, simple, hard-working people, who gave all to save civilisation. My mother's eyesight went after years of work threading metal filaments into tank lightbulbs, my father was blown up by a shell and suffered all his life from the pieces left in his body. They didn't know of all the horrors happening, but the call came and they answered, as so many others did.

    To hear the song and think of my parents and what they gave up for me - us - brings more than one tear

  • No one can ever win over a people that sings and make jokes in the midst of disaster like the British do!

    I wish I knew where that pile of rubbish was so I could find out what's become of it. Wandering about London it's easy to see where the nazis gave a helping hand in placing modern buildings among the old ones. Too bad these new structures don't always fit in. Guess they did their best, though, considering they had planned to make the whole island into a pile of rubbish.

  • What a beautiful song!

  • lest we forget

  • very moving video.

  • It made me cry. God Bless Vera Lynn.

  • me too im 31 years old but everytime i hear songs like this i cant help but get emotional, thinking of all those brave men and women of ww2, reminds me of my grandparents too. God bless vera lynn and the generation that sacrificed so much for us today. I'll never forget them

  • thanks so much love her .

  • thank you for all your very kind comments..

    and thank you 'Concorde' - it is good to read that

  • At the age of 92, Vera Lynn, makes me get up every morning and thank God for yet another day

  • I can only imagine the expressions of those who were present in this earth during the war years, listening to this song, a glimmer of light in the darkness of which was World War II. And the lights did go on again, but at a price. A price, ireplacable. Like electricity, my generation takes the "light" for granted and I fear the lights are flickering once more...

    Thank you for posting this song

    5 stars

  • Very much appreciate your nice work on this video. Vera Lynn conveyed every bit of hope that could be garnered in a world that was being shattered by warfare across the globe. We can never repay the sacrifice laid down by those of the Greatest Generation (all the Allies). Today's generation including those in power have no idea of the cost of freedom.

  • does anybody know what specific genre of music this is please? I'm trying to write an essay on her and the music...

  • Umm the closest i can get is probably "wartime"

    as most of her songs are wartime focussed- but i have heard it described as 'vocal jazz'... but thats a bit weird... sorry if that didnt help :)

  • I'd call it melancholy swing. During the second world war the music was sentimental and filled with hope. "I'll be seeing You," "The Last Time I Saw Paris," "I Left My Heart at the stagedoor Canteen," 'I Came Here to Talk for Joe,' "One Dozen Roses,""White Cliffs of Dover." The war was a cancer that dragged on and involved the entire nation. When it ended in 1945, the entire nation exploded with jubilation. The celebrating made winning a World Series look like a church picnic with no booze.

  • Beautiful music, memorable pictures, a great work of history. The most unexpected, and cute picture for me was of the couple kissing through the gas masks.

  • thank you for that comment KfromKansas - and thank God for your father and all the others [my husband's father was in Burma].

    Yes, it was different, and worse, in that Britain got bombed on home soil, and repeatedly, [my mom had to be evacuated, away from her family, when she was 9/10]. One of the pictures in the video is of a huge bomb crater just down the road from where she lived as a a girl.

  • What a wonderful collection of photos from World War II set to one of my favorite songs of the era. My 84 year old father fought in the Pacific theater and ofter tells me of the horrors he witnessed there. As a young child I remember listening to his old 78 records with him. He has always said that the British people got the worst of it and would not have survived with out the raw courage of the men of the RAF. Well done.

  • I have fondly remembered a bit of this song in my head from childhood but I never knew what it was or who sang it. Thank you Vera for being a light in the storm for so many. ... Not many hear the echo of the the famous announcement: "The lights have gone out in Europe" in reference to the defeat of the democracies by Hitler. This phrase sent chills up my spine when I was a child. Your song was the antidote.

  • Thank you very much. It has been many years since I last heard this song.

  • The Brits have gone through aadversity beyond the imagination of most Americans and they command our respect, admiration, and thanks for demonstrating guts and courage laced with humor -- we could use some of that here.

    Well done Brits and many thanks to Vera Lynn for her beautiful voice and songs --

  • My tribute to Britain- I agree with the comments above here.

  • maz59, you Brits have more fans than you know, here on the lonely side of the pond. (^_^)

    And I speak as one who has rebel blood coursing through her veins!

    Cheers dear!

  • Besides the music and her darling voice, it's worth watching for the pictures.

    I like the one where the house is going for 7/6 "As It Stands Or Offer"--grace and humour in adversity, it's why the world loved you, Brits! Well done.

    Thanks, maz59!

  • thanks for that lovely comment...

    sometimes it feels as though some in the U.S. are putting us down so that is encouraging.

    and thanks for the other comments from all :)

  • Que d'émotions, dans celle-ci aussi.

  • Vera Lynn is my great grandads cousin. I am so proud to be related to such a great singer :D

    She was very brave.. LOVE YOU Vera x

  • She was wonderful!

  • Absolutely beautiful rendition! Many thanks for posting.

  • Thank you for posting this. I enjoyed the pictures as much as the song. I appreciated the photo's of the decorated Anderson shelter at Christmas. I spent time in these shelters but never saw one decorated.

  • Wow- I just cannot imagine dropping bombs on England. :(

  • ok, have changed the rating option :)

    Yes, I do believe God intervened, as He did when the 'wind changed' and the Armada had to turn back, many years before.

    He still has a purpose for us.

    Thank you Sojourner.

  • i agree

  • I have always admired Churchill and your countrymen for what they endured prior to my country even entering that horrific war. I believe God intervened at Dunkirk and saved your great nation. Beautiful, beautiful video. Let us rate please! :)

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