We don't all remember the war

[seashaken]

I've just been for a walk and passed a pub with a notice up about a lunch with entertainment for the over 60s. The entertainment is a crooner singing a selection of wartime favourites. Now I'm 66 and the cultural movements that informed my youth were hippies, glam rock and punk. For people 10-20 years older than me it would've been Elvis, mods and rockers, the Beatles and there can't be many people in the target age group with clear memories of the war, many wouldn't have been born. Obviously I realise the audience will be self-selecting and anyone who prefers Led Zeppelin will give it a swerve, but I did find it depressing that this is still considered appropriate entertainment for people my age. I don't want to find myself in a care home in 20 years time being forced to listen to Vera Lynn.

What's really funny (not) is that many of the First World War songs were old hat then, eg It's a long way to Tipperary.

I've had this discussion with Day centres for the Elderly staff : I honestly think people just don't think. When I explain to one person that the average age of the group of people in front of her were all teenagers in the mid / late 1950s, and so would probably prefer Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones she looked at me as if I was crazy.

It seems to me that people look back fondly at the music of their youth, i.e., whatever you like between 14-18 really stays with you for life. So what @seashaken observes would resonate with me.

If I think of my parents, then both grew up with very different music experiences as part of their early life. My father was in a very conservative religious family, and apart from whatever was on radio or marching bands (Northern Ireland) had little music in his life. My mother grew up in Kenya, and then later Southern Rhodesia. Even though others in England might have been exposed to Elvis and the Beatles, that totally passed her by. She loved music, but the music of generations before and some classical.

I know what you mean! I'm 35 but I bet when I'm in my 70s they will still think people that age remember the war! Even the oldest people now would have only have been tiny children during the war. We should definitely remember it of course but don't just assume anyone over 60 was there!

I'm 65. I get annoyed when people think I should be interested in The Beatles. They were before my time. 90 year old dad remembers the war but the music he likes is from the 1950s, 1960s.

Maybe they could do Vietnam war time classics - protest songs from the 70s - Joan Baez, Bob Dylan etc? Even so, I'm 60 and the 80s were more my musical era.

My 80 year old mum loves 'War Songs'

It was covered in my dementia training when I first went to work in a care home a few years ago. We were reminded that not everyone living in our care would be of Vera Lynn generation and to mix it up a bit! Decent care homes shouldn't be stuck in the war years.

It seems to me that people look back fondly at the music of their youth, i.e., whatever you like between 14-18 really stays with you for life
This kind of bugs me.
Sure I still love the bands I went to see as a teen but I get pissed off with every hairdresser, cafe, restaurant, gym, etc when the 50 + demographic is in assuming we want to listen to hits of the 80s.
I dont want be stuck in some time warp listening to heart 80s radio!
Talking to my friends, you would think no music had been made after 1989!

I think popular culture is still stuck in this idea that the war was within living memory for a lot of people, but at least some care homes etc are ahead of the curve. I remember reading something a few years ago saying that people working with older people were now starting to use music for the 60s for reminiscing as obviously for the younger end of people needing care, that is now the 'music of their youth'. It's sad to hear that apparently they haven't figured that out in a lot of place - it will literally only be memorable for the very oldest ones. My grandfather died at 93 four years ago and he was only 10 when the war kicked off and only just old enough to be enlisted before the end.

Except for Yellow Submarine.

Yellow Submarine and Obladi Oblada were in school song books in the 80s and 90s.

I think people generally just have a very warped sense of time and how long ago things were. It's like during lockdown when it was all "they fought in the war, all you need to do is watch Netflix". i.e. don't kill old war veterans by leaving your house. Highly unlikely that most of those old people we were meant to be protecting fought in the war- maybe about 1% of them did.

I do it as well- when someone told me that 1939 was closer to 1980 than now is to 1980 I was like nah, that's not right because 1939 is the extreme olden days and if that's right then I'd be..... oh wait... I am that old.

I had a door to door charity person sign me up for a good cause last night, he asked my date of birth for the form which is 1978 year and he said, 'don't worry it is not that old (I know), I actually had someone born in 1944, now that is old!' I mean he was about 22 but I think at that age I did have an idea about what existed culture wise and fashion, music etc. In each generation! I didn't think early 40s (just) was old either. I think there is a bizarre ignorance that exists if you are not 'youth' now and literally no common knowledge!

That sort of gap for a young adult today would be a parent/grandparent gap - hard to credit them not seeing a difference!

Yellow Submarine and Obladi Oblada were in school song books in the 80s and 90s.

And sung in primary school playgrounds in the late 60s/early 70s.
If you can remember the 60s... you were a small child.

Over 60s wartime?! My 90 year old nana was 13 when the war ENDED so was unlikely even then to be going out dancing to Vera Lynn

I'm 57 and even my parents weren't born until over a year after the wat ended

The UK's obsession with WWII is unhealthy.

I'm late 50s and the entertainment on our holiday this year was all Motown and 60s hits and Abba etc and I just want the 80s or 90s or even some hits from today.
When he did play the Killers one night , everyone got up and jumped about , it was great! I wished they would realize that not everyone likes very old music

Chuffin' hell, Motown is now 'very old music.'

85 years?
nope
77 years. Plenty of people (5% of uk population currently) still alive that remember the war. Over 80s aren’t all banged up in nursing homes - they’re very much part of their community for over 60 lunches.

given a lot of over 60s are still working the % in the room of over 80s would have almost certainly been higher.
maybe they did elvis Presley the week before ?

Well bloody hell your parents were young then…if they were born even in 1946, then they had you at 20? Or less?

Chuffin' hell, Motown is now 'very old music.'
Well to be fair Motown started about 65 years ago.
Edwin Stars War is 52 years old.
In music terms that's about tow generations.

My Nan was born in 1925 & died in 2017 at 91, so a teenager during the war.
She went out dancing to Glenn Miller Big Band & Swing music but thought stuff like Vera Lynn was for 'boring older people'.
Even as a 90 year old she still hated Vera Lynn. She thought her music was depressing.

Before she died she listened to a variety of music for example anything on local radio, a bit of Westlife, a bit of Elvis, possibly Robbie Williams.
At her funeral we played a Hayley Westernra track she liked, an Elvis song among others.

My parents were young adults during the war, so I know quite a lot about it. I also remember a lot of the words to all these old songs, as many of them were still being played on the radio and tv when I was a small child.

I wouldn't go to an evening of it though. DH is a little older than me, so his musical journey started with the Beatles, mine is rooted in 70's pop and glam rock when I was at school, followed by everything the 80's threw at us when I was a young adult.

We went on a coach trip tour of WW1 battlefields in Northern France and Belgium. At one point they got us singing along to A Long Way to Tipperary and a few others. I was surprised to find I actually knew all the words - they must have soaked in by osmosis through old films etc.