Tunes for Tyrants with Suzy Klein...

[Richard Tarleton]

You still sound as if you believe that Vera Lynn was subject to a "ban" - she wasn't. We'll Meet Again, Yours, There'll be Bluebirds and her other songs were broadcast on the BBC throughout the War. (Others of her contemporaries were not so lucky - their removal from the airwaves were indeed in response to fears that sentimentality was undermining morale, as you suggest - and which the Conversation article also mentions. But these restrictions did not apply to Dame Vera.)

I think we can blame SK's script for any confusion here - I came away (knowing nothing more about the subject) with the distinct impression that the Beeb did stop playing her sentimental stuff in the early years and that she resurfaced in film..... I was expecting her to mention Lili Marlene, a German song recorded in an up-tempo version by Lale Andersen in 1939 but appropriated by the English speaking world and sung in a more seductive tempo by Marlene Dietrich.... I see from the Wiki article that Goebbels tried to ban it, something of a mirror image of what did or didn't happen to Vera....

Aside from the songs, John Culshaw relates in Putting the Record Straight how Vera nearly ended his career before it began, shrieking [sic] at him over the phone over an innocent mix-up and going to the boss of Decca (p. 57 )

[Nick Armstrong]

I think we can blame SK's script for any confusion here - I came away (knowing nothing more about the subject) with the distinct impression that the Beeb did stop playing her sentimental stuff in the early years and that she resurfaced in film...

That's exactly what SK said, in my recollection, I agree!

[Barbirollians]

It was sloppy if not deliberate . They took her programme Sincerely Yours off in which she sang and played other people's records . They did not stop her records being played which were considered as I understood it generally uplifting as her three biggest numbers all look forward to the world after victory.

[Lat-Literal]

Is it something about Vera Lynn? While I am generally supportive of the woman she is now in the record books as the oldest person ever to release a disc. However, my understanding is that the disc in question contained no newly recorded material. Unlike, for example, Pete Seeger's "At 89", the number in the title denoting his age then. Also, there's Tony Bennett!

[Richard Tarleton]

The bluebirds of which she sings remain something of a mystery - probably something that only bothers birders.

[french frank]

I think we can blame SK's script for any confusion here

So who wrote SK's script?

[Richard Tarleton]

So who wrote SK's script?

Er.....SK

[Serial_Apologist]

Er.....SK

"In the beginning was The Word"

[Stanfordian]

"In the beginning was The Word"

Presenting, script writing, wearing fur hats, playing piano, singing. Is there no end?... What about dancing! Or did I miss it?

[Serial_Apologist]

Presenting, script writing, wearing fur hats, playing piano, singing. Is there no end?... What about dancing! Or did I miss it?

You forgot about script reading!

[Boilk]

The composer who most caught my attention was Hugo Distler.

Must find out more about him and maybe get hold of some of his choral pieces.

I heartily recommend his first harpsichord concerto, here in a somewhat overly-reverberant acoustic:

There's a fine Thorofon CD with both harpsichord concertos, the Vienna Academy is conducted from the harpsichord by Martin Haseblock.

[Braunschlag]

Hiya Braunschlag,

In Berlin I can highly recommended a visit to the 'Stasi Museum'. Covert cameras as big as suitcases etc!

Reporting back - it was a super 5 day visit to Berlin. Stasi museum was very interesting, tucked away in a suburb, we were impressed by the detail and the way it was laid out, especially taken by the ‘odour samples’!
Not the most beautiful capital city but there’s a lot to see, and we much preferred the East Berlin areas.
Found a local kneipe which served us well and cheaply (€2.80 / 0.5l, and a home brew to boot).
A most enjoyable visit.

[Stanfordian]

Reporting back - it was a super 5 day visit to Berlin. Stasi museum was very interesting, tucked away in a suburb, we were impressed by the detail and the way it was laid out, especially taken by the ‘odour samples’!
Not the most beautiful capital city but there’s a lot to see, and we much preferred the East Berlin areas.
Found a local kneipe which served us well and cheaply (€2.80 / 0.5l, and a home brew to boot).
A most enjoyable visit.

Glad you enjoyed the trip!