Determined to reconnect with his past and reverse the fading of his individual roots, Pink returns to the era in which both he and the first bricks of his wall were created. Vera Lynn, born Vera Margaret Welch in 1917, reached the height of her popularity as a singer during World War II. Much beloved by the European forces and especially by the British, Vera's optimistic songs provided a ray of hope even in the bleakest times. It seems quite appropriate that Pink recalls this cherished British singer in the time leading up to his darkest hours of insanity, recalling "how she said that we would meet again some sunny day." The line, an allusion to one of Vera's own songs entitled "We'll Meet Again," is seemingly optimistic in its reassurance that the dark times will eventually pass. The lyrics of Vera's song are as follows: "We'll meet again/ Don't know where/ Don't know when/ But I know we'll meet again some sunny day. / Keep smilin' through/ Just like you always do/ 'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away. / So will you please say hello/ To the folks that I know/ Tell them that it won't be long./ They'll be happy to know/ That as you saw me go/ I was singing this song. / We'll meet again/ Don't know where/ Don't know when/ But I know we'll meet again some sunny day." (Many thanks to Bradley Stapleton for the lyrics). While Pink bid farewell to his own "blue sky" in the first half of the album, his allusion to Vera's song in which "blue skies drive the dark clouds far away" seems to suggest that he is finally parting with his former nihilistic tendencies in the hopes that he will rediscover the innocence that he once feared to be lost. Yet there is more beneath the surface than a simple optimistic allusion.

Just as many celebrities represent the values of their respective nation in the eyes of the citizenry, many of those living through WWII looked upon Vera Lynn as both a symbol of England's pre-war innocence as well as the collective voice of hope for the country. She was the voice of a generation sacrificing themselves for a righteous cause, a beloved nation, and personal integrity. With so much significance behind the very name and figure of Vera Lynn, it's interesting that Pink undercuts the allusion's external optimism with the question of "what has become of you?" Although Vera once sang that "we'll meet again some sunny day," both she and the pre-war innocence that she represented disappeared for the most part from the public consciousness after the war. And so Pink's continuing strain of nihilism weakens the superficial hope offered by Vera's song, once again reaffirming his ideas of expectation and loss. Keeping in mind that Pink's first lesson in life ("In The Flesh?") was that of the disappointment that always follows futile hope, it's interesting to note that Pink comes back to this lesson of failed expectations in this, his first song after regressing back to the past. Vera's heartening assurance as well as the confidence that England would be returned back to her former, pre-war state are once more empty promises in Pink's eyes. The innocence of both the nation and Pink was ruined by the deaths of countless brothers, sons, and fathers. By this reading, one can assume that when Pink asks if anyone else "feel[s] the way I do," he is referring to that sense of hopelessness beginning with his first realization that this, the pain of life, was not "what [he] expected to see." [Side note: Waters further explores this theme of post-war devastation in Pink Floyd's succeeding album "The Final Cut: A Requiem To The Post-War Dream." I highly recommend it.]

This same theme of hope and dejection is further conveyed in the movie sequence for "Vera" in which young Pink wanders through a train station in the desire that his father has returned safely from the war. It must be remembered, though, that the sequence for "Vera" is not an actual memory from Pink's past. Chronologically speaking, Pink would have been a very young baby when the last soldiers returned from the war. And so the movie sequence is not so much a historically accurate return to the past as it is Pink's symbolic regression to his life's first pain (and subsequently his first brick), that realization of failed expectations. Cinematically speaking, it's only appropriate that "Vera" marks the beginning of Pink's reversion to the origin of his suffering being that the movie itself began with Vera Lynn singing "the Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" even before introducing Pink as the main character.

After emerging from the smoke of the previous song, young Pink roams across a train platform full of expectant loved ones. The faces gathered by the train burst with joy as the soldiers dismount and find their respective families. Sons embrace their parents and fathers their children as Pink wanders through the crowd and smoke, tugging on the uniform of one unaccompanied soldier (an action reminiscent of the playground scene in "Another Brick In The Wall Part 1). Upon realizing that the man is not his father when the soldier turns around, Pink drifts back from the joyous crowd with his head held low in dejection. Though the sequence and song's message are short and simple, they are nonetheless powerful. Pink's desire to "meet again some sunny day" with his father is shattered, reinforcing the idea that pain, not hope, prevails. Now that he has symbolically relived this original suffering, it is up to Pink to either dwell on the pain or progress in his journey.

(For more information on Vera Lynn, visit the following links: http://home.mchsi.com/~ttint/%20http://www.theiceberg.com/artist.html?artist_id=1117

http://l.swazzo.tripod.com/veralynn.html or simply go to www.google.com and search for "Vera Lynn.")