 Keep the home fires burning
| This song was written in
1914 with music by Ivor Novello (right) and lyrics by Lena Ford. It
quickly became popular in England. Its sentimentality was
better suited to the Home Front than the Western Front.
This midi file and many others
sequenced from songs of the period can be found at Music
of the Great War
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You
can also hear a RealAudio version of a vintage recording by John McCormack
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They were summoned from the hillside, they were called in from the glen,
And the country found them ready at the stirring call for men.
Let no tears add to their hardships, as the soldiers pass along,
And although your heart is breaking, make it sing this cheery song:
Keep the Home Fires Burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away they dream of home.
There's a silver lining, through the dark clouds shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out, 'til the boys come home.
Overseas there came a pleading,
"Help a nation in distress."
And we gave our glorious laddies, honor bade us do no less,
For no gallant son of freedom to a tyrant's yoke should bend,
And a noble heart must answer to the sacred call of "Friend."
Keep the Home Fires Burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away they dream of home.
There's a silver lining, through the dark clouds shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out 'til the boys come home.
 In
the twenties, Ivor Novello, who was born in Cardiff in 1893, was a
huge star of the silent screen, but he began his show business career
as a composer, having his first song published in 1910, at the age
of seventeen. He went on to write songs for musical comedies and
revues in London. In 1914 he composed, Keep the Home Fires
Burning, which made him famous, literally overnight. After
entertaining the troops in France, in 1916 he became a pilot in the
Royal Naval Air Service and survived two crash landings. |
Read about one of
America's most popular wartime songs
Over There
|
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