Customer Reviews

Words & Music of World War II

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this item primarily for historical purposes, to have on my shelf the actual words and sounds of the period. I think the editors had a different purpose in mind, perhaps to weave the important historical speeches with the music of the day in order to achieve a more narrative perspective with some entertainment value added. The "excerpting" of tunes and speeches was a bit overdone, I think, especially when one knows what the rest of the speech was, and I found myself waiting for the real point of the speech which came, as usual, toward the end. What you hear on this disc are primarily the oft-quoted preambles to speeches. Also, the riveting words of Mr. Churchill to the United Kingdom and the Empire were given less representation than they should have been.

Technically, the two disc set was remarkably clean and the digital processing successfully eliminated the surface noise and degradations of time on these historic recordings. Very well done.

If you're looking for an important historical record, look elsewhere, but for a "mass market" overview of this terrible time this set serves its purpose well.

This is an excellent product, and my students get to hear the actual voices and sounds of some of the most important moments of WWII.

This collection of speech and song excerpts gives listeners a sense of the Second World War and how it effected popular culture. As the editors admit, it is rather light-hearted, with humorous songs mixed with news broadcasts and narration. Although it is not an archive of material from 1939 - 1945, the CDs provide a series of audio snapshots of WW II.

I thought I was buying a CD of WWII music. When I got two disks with speeches and music interpersed I was not sure what to expect. I found it strangely moving -- the serious excerpts, the forward moving narrative through the war and the music of the time was very interesting. I am not sure I will listen to it a second time, but was glad I heard it once. Both the speeches and music were clean - no noise, an reasonable fidelity.