Vera Lynn is angry.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/85476 /Dame-Vera-s-anger-at-BNP-for-using-White-Clif fs-song

Her solicitor Nigel Angel said: "The songs were included without Dame Vera's permission.

What's it got to do with her? The song doesn't belong to her, she did not write the song, so why does the BNP need her permission?

[Oneeyedvic]

What's it got to do with her? - Obviously her song is being used by a political party - it's got a lot to do with her as it could be seen as her endorsement.

why does the BNP need her permission? - no but she performed it - and therefore may have the copyright to it. Copyright law is pretty complex, but in the same way that Frank Sinatra did not write My Way, he (if still alive) would be able to sue me for copying it.

I presume that the BNP have purchased the rights to her song though, so she probably can't do a lot - but she does want to make it clear that she is not endorsing them.

[Gromit]

Not sure if this is the album or not. Sounds like if from the Express story

http://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Cliffs-Dover-Var ious-Artists/dp/B00005NBSR/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8& s=music&qid=1235058916&sr=1-3

If the recording is of Vera Lynn then she is quite right to object. If the recording is by another artist then she has no case. However, she can object to the use of her name by this 'political party'. If the BNP do not represent her views, and it sounds like they don't, then they should take her name off the promotional packaging.

I am sure if the Labour Party started using AOGs name when promoting the wonderful things they had done, they you would object.

[craft1948]

I thought New labour was full of AOGs

[stewey]

Interestingly, the music and lyrics to this song were written by two Americans, and was performed by numerous people, including Glenn Miller, prior to it being 'adopted' by the British during WW2.

[jake-the-peg]

She is culturally stongly linked to it in the same way as say Judy Garland is strongly linked to Somewhere over the rainbow.

She obviously feels that should the BNP start to try to associate themselves with it she could be associated with them by proxy.

For some strange reason she doesn't want to be associated with a bunch of incompetant racist thugs

Can't imagine why

[Octavius]

The song includes reference to a bird which is not native to Britain and is most definitely the wrong colour for your average BNP activist. The BNPmembers should be objecting.

[dot.hawkes]

I think there is a deeper reason why the BNP have used the song, it is traditionally a patriotic song that was meant to bring a country together, I they's used George Fornmby's when i;m cleaning windoiws it wouldn;t have been as pertinent, by using this song i think they are insulting the patriotism of those who sang it the first time around, and possibly this is why dame Vera is angry.

[dot.hawkes]

And though i am not very up on what the BNP are about , I know that the song was sung during a time when the allies were fighting an oppressor who , if I have the BNP correct, held similar agendas.

[flip_flop]

Blimey - is she still alive?

Talk about milking a career out of a song sung over 60 years ago.

[dot.hawkes]

If she was dead would you have been happier flip flop?

[jake-the-peg]

Interesting quote

According to Paxton, fascism is

a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

Remind anybody of some of the views often expressed around here?

[flip_flop]

Noooooo, I was merely expressing surprise she was still alive.

Wasn't that pretty bloody obvious from the statement "blimey - is she still alive?"

Perhaps I should have said

"Blimey - is she still alive?. This should in no way be inferred in any way shape or form that I would rather the good Dame be dead or injured or disabled or diseased or in any way incapacited either physically or mentally, so help me God".

Better?

[Mr Veritas]

It's obvious tha the BNP knows nothing about musicians,writers,arrangers and conductors.
The CD they are pushing has "Hutch" Hutchinson the most respected black singer/pianist of the 1930's on it.
Also on the disc is Joe Loss(Jewish) songs by Irbing Berlin (also Jewish)
Flanagan & Allen (Bud Flanagan was Jewish)
All the above are racial groups that the BNP would either erridicate or deport.
No doubt the BNP will wangle out of the above as they always do.
Here is the full track listing for the CD:~
The White Cliffs of Dover- Vera Lynn; This is the Army Mr Jones - Irving Berlin; Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line - Flanagan and Allen; Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer - The four Vagabonds; Beneath the Lights of Home - Deanna Durbin; Coming Home - Lou Preager; Ma I Miss Your Apple Pie - Ambrose; I'll Never Smile Again - Joe Loss; The Home Coming Waltz - Ivy Benson; Its a Pair of Wings for me - Nat Gonella; Long Ago and Far Away - Geraldo; All Alone in Vienna - Vera Lynn; The Nearness of You - Leslie Hutchinson; Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters; Obey Your Air Raid Warden - Tony Pastor; She'll Always Remember - Glenn Miller.

[fredpuli47]

The song itself 'The White Cliffs of Dover' was written by Walter Kent (born Walter Maurice Kaufman) who wrote the music and the lyricist Nat Burton (born Nathaniel Schwartz) both of whom were Jewish.

Bandleader Ambrose [Benjamin Baruch Ambrose] was Jewish too.

Do the BNP have a thing about Jews? I thought the people who supported them moved on and were now exercised by more recent, distinguishable, immigrants and minorities, rather than Jews. Jews are British (and white) !

[spermatid]

wow she is not dead yet, that's marvelous news for us all.

[Kromovaracun]

Frank Sinatra did not write My Way, he (if still alive) would be able to sue me for copying it.

I really wouldn't put it past him. That man just will not stay in the damn ground.

[anotheoldgit]

Kromovaracun

Frank Sinatra did not write My Way, he (if still alive) would be able to sue me for copying it.

Are you quite sure about this? Surely only the persons holding the copyrights to the record of Frank Sinatra singing 'My Way' are able to sue anyone for coping the song?

An artist is only entiled to any royalties forthcoming for the playing of their recording by a third party.

Regarding the putting together of a compilation of various songs, I would persume that permission would have to be first obtained from the holders of the performing rights.(composer, lyricist & publisher.)

[anotheoldgit]

Sorry Kromo, should have been addressed to Oneeyedvic.

[Oneeyedvic]

An artist is only entiled to any royalties forthcoming for the playing of their recording by a third party.

Yes, so if I purchased the song and then put it on a compilation (which would be sold to a third party), Frank Sinatra would be able to sue me.

As I said, copyright law is not simple and I may be completely wrong on this.

As indicated in the article that you linked to, her solicitor does not think there is much of a chance - so it seems to me more about publicly distancing herself from the BNP rather than actually suing them.

[123everton]

They should have this song as track 1 on volume 2 of the compilation.
All about damned foreigners taking our jobs and molesting our women by our very own 1930s answer to Jimi Hendrix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5wbImA