Prog lyrics with reference World War 2 - Progressive Rock Music Forum

"Winkie" by Big Big Train from their 2016 album Folklore is about a stranded WWII bomber crew trying to be rescued.

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Blitz by the obscure UK prog rock act Bram Stoker is a doomy track about a man whose wife goes missing during a bombing raid.

"And now...on the drums...Mick Underwooooooooood!!!"

"He's up the pub"

Droxford wrote:

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So far from what I have heard, 'The Final Cut' must be the most personal statement from a rock musician about World War . Roger Waters father -Eric Fletcher Waters- being killed in action at Anzio on 18th February 1944, when Roger was a few months old. I know that the 1982 Falklands War and the accelerating Cold War tensions were also influences on the album, particularly on 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' .

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Hi,

My take differs from others and comes from a preview of THE WALL film that was about 15 to 20 minutes longer that got cut out ... and I think that it was done so they could keep up with the LP design of about 80 minutes for 2 LP's ... something similar or like that.

1. There would be no reason to even mention WW2 in the first two sides of TW up to and ending with Vera Lynn. However, I think that the connection is that the educational controls in the time just right after the war were not too different than all the stories about control and punishment coming from Europe and specially one place.

2. The story shows/states a missing father

3. TFC was likely, for me, the material that was taken out with a couple of things added (... like "not Now John" for example ... ) that kinda made a separation from TW. By this time, though, PF was no longer playing together or were doing anything as a group ... which makes me think that RW redid some parts of the material in the studio to make sure that there was a difference. But since the other members had no material for anything, RW felt fine using PF ... and I'm not sure the other 3 members would disagree since they would get a few nickels off it!

4. It looks like, if this was indeed a part of the original story, that the whole of TW would have been 3 LP's long ... which was, at the time, TOTALLY PROHIBITIVE, specially for a band like PF and the record companies who were not about to create a losing proposition ... and this, probably helped RW's anger towards a lot of record executives in general, and specially the ones that re-created PF later! Or the air raid creates all the bricks from the destruction ... which is now an illusion about freedom for the kids in school? So you kill people and destroy their homes so the kids can be free? .... very bad writing, or something is missing that helps clear this up better.

I do not doubt RW's story, but I think he is lying and not being truthful and honest about things, and actually say what the story was ... that it was too long, and he did not know how to cut it down ... and the record company wanted the WW2 stuff out (a downer and recreating too many bad memories for parents of the fans!) ... but some of it was already recorded ... and was kept ... but what does an air raid REALLY have to do with kids in a school? Ohhh wait ... the air raid means freedom for lunch? The story breaks down here ... and badly ... and it should have been ridiculed by the press, if they were not a$s kissers of a major band, who gave them free tickets and donuts ... not to mention drinks to come to the show!

From a literary story type of thing, TW is bad and no teacher would give you a grade better than C for it.

But as a rock album and we ignore the lyrics and sing-a-long ... yeah ... it's lots of fun! Still horribly written and poorly defined, specially for a band like PF ... but it already shows that there were some serious breaks in their ranks in terms of their creativity and ability to work together!

Edited by moshkito - August 01 2020 at 10:05

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Roads to Moscow is a masterpiece. My favourite song full stop.

dr wu23 wrote:

For Raff..... ;)

Thank you so much, Doc Heart

! I should have remembered this one, but the heat must have fried my brain LOL

.

Thank you . I am not familiar with 'Red Sector' , will search for it on Spotify.

Geddy Lee did a very moving interview about his parents, who were both concentration camp survivors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPxwSF4CGyo

rushfan4 wrote:

Rush's Red Sector A is about the holocaust and the concentration camps.

I think that Al Stewart's track 'Roads to Moscow' is so intriguing is that it deals with a lesser known aspect of WW2, namely a Red Army solider who gets captured by the Germans, escapes and rejoins the Soviet forces : When the War ends he is sent to the camps as a collaborator for letting himself be taken prisoner by the Germans. Just found this blog post here about the song.

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/story-of-stalins-war-al-stewarts-roads-to-moscow/

Just remembered that the same album 'Past Present & Future' had a song about the Night of the Long Knives - 'Last day of June 1934'.

<<I love that song as well , such vivid imagery. Al Stewart has written a lot of songs about war. The whole Russians and Americans album is about the cold war (Rumours of War is one of his best imo). There is also Fields Of France (WW1) from The Last Days Of The Century album and there is an album called Between The Wars although I'm not familiar with album.

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Droxford wrote:

Thank you to everyone for their responses. A lot of leads to chase up. Appreciate the contributions.

I have an interest in World War 2 poetry and have started to look at how World War 2 has been portrayed in lyrics.

My favourite (non-prog) track relating to World War 2 is Al Stewart's ' Roads to Moscow' from his 'Past, Present and Future' album from 1973.

I love that song as well , such vivid imagery. Al Stewart has written a lot of songs about war. The whole Russians and Americans album is about the cold war (Rumours of War is one of his best imo). There is also Fields Of France (WW1) from The Last Days Of The Century album and there is an album called Between The Wars although I'm not familiar with album.

You could close your eyes, spin around, and almost point to any album between 1969-1976 and there will be a WWII theme somewhere.

Dachau Blues - Captain Beefheart

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021

rushfan4 wrote:

Rush's Red Sector A is about the holocaust and the concentration camps.

What I read in a Rush biography is that it's supposed to be a futuristic depiction of a concentration camp and not specifically about the holocaust.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - July 03 2020 at 18:51

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