The song “We’ll Meet Again” has turned up many times. Three instances are particularly significant and memorable.
The song was written by Hughie Charles and Ross Parker and sung by Dame Vera Lynn (who now is 100 years old) in 1939. It evokes a world that was about to embark on a horrific war. The people leaving from the ports and train stations knew that there was a good chance that they would die or be grievously injured. They also knew that the Nazis were close to winning. Singing about smiling through and meeting again some sunny day is poignant when you think about the darkness and evil that they were up against, and where the world was headed if they failed.
It’s a song about faith and defiance. Here are the lyrics:
We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far awaySo will you please say hello
To the folks that I know
Tell them I won’t be long
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singing this songWe’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny dayWe’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
‘Til the blue skies
Drive the dark clouds far away
So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know
Tell them it won’t be long
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singin’ this songWe’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day
The second time and third time that the song pops up prominently its meaning is spun around a bit. Both its use at the end of “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” and as the final cut on the last Johnny Cash album released during his lifetime both suggest that the message is that we’ll meet again…but not in this life.
The use in Dr. Strangelove is great, but I always found it a bit unfortunate that it stole the thunder of the song. Vera Lynn, not Slim Pickens, should be most closely associated with “We’ll Meet Again.” Instead of a song that that perfectly captures the spirit that drove the heroic resistance to the Nazis by the British, “We’ll Meet Again” was hijacked for what, in the final analysis, is just a movie. And a dark one at that.
Then comes Johnny Cash. At the end of his life, Cash made a series of record with hip hop producer Rick Rubin. “We’ll Meet Again” ends “American IV: The Man Comes Around.”
It was brilliant to end the album in that way. Cash was a deeply religious man. The first song on the album — the title track — describes judgement day. The man coming around is God, and he means business. This rather frightening and apocalyptic prospect is bookended by “We’ll Meet Again,” which suggests that perhaps there is hope for reunion with loved ones after the judgement.
The subtext of the album is that Cash was ill and nearing the end. What is described as “the whole Cash gang” sings the refrain. His family, perhaps, is saying goodbye and that they will seem him in heaven. Of course I don’t know, but I bet that that choosing to cover the song and its placement on the album were done with great care. It’s great that Johnny Cash was able to sing himself off stage.
Above is Vera Lynn singing the song at what may be an RAF reunion. Below is Slim Pickens headed to his last roundup. Here is the Cash version.
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