K = so many choices...

K is one of those letters, for song titles, that leaves me at a loss when I'm sifting through the dust and cobwebs that others call 'the top of my head'.  I actually went to one of those sites that lists songs by the first letter of the title, and goodness knows they had quite a few:
 

Karma Chameleon- 'comma, comma, comma chameleon'

Key Largo

Killing Me Softly With His Song (I didn't care much for this one.  I wondered why she didn't just get up and walk out...)

Knowing Me, Knowing You - (ABBA - colorful eighties - what's not to like?)

Kodachrome - (I took myself off my high school alumni association.  The opening line of Paul Simon's song says it perfectly about the sort of nonsense they were teaching there.  We spent a lot of time excavating the writers' personalities through their books.  None of it was valid.  So when I first heard the first line - 'When I look back at all the cr@p I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all' - I couldn't stop laughing.  And I still love it)

Kookaburra - this one nearly made the cut

 

But I found myself looking back to the First World War, the sacrifices families made during that time, and the utter devastation that those young men went into.  My grandfather was a WWI vet, and I remember him speaking of crossing the battlefield of Verdun.

 

"Planes flying overhead, suddenly - BANG! here and BANG! there..."

K-K-K-Katy...



     My father and uncle fought in World War II, my mother was a plane spotter in the little town of Arlington, Vermont, people knitted blanket squares (Mom sincerely pities those who got hers) and they all rationed. And they put up and did not whine.  I don't know if I could have been so stoic.

     So, going back to the First World War we have two songs written during that time and sung during both times.  I remember singing the first one as a little girl.  I didn't know it had anything to do with a war.  I just thought it was fun: 

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,

You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;

When the m-m-m-moon shines,

Over the c-c-c-cowshed,

I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,

You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;

When the m-m-m-moon shines,

Over the c-c-c-cowshed,

I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

 

HERE'S A VIDEO OF A ONE MAN 

BARBERSHOP QUARTET SINGING IT 

 

 

My mother has always been a singer, my grandfather was a musician in the army and continued, as a hobby, with a band as a trumpeter.  I think her whole family was very musical (I have spoken of my breathtaking ability on the Kazoo, too...) and she sang this song a lot.  It was written in World War I, but  they sang it in the forties, too, when the boys were all over the world.

 

 

THIS VIDEO  was uploaded for Remembrance Day, and it speaks across the ages. Since the link doesn't seem to want to translate to the text, I am posting it here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06CUZn4Fc2U

Enjoy the music video, and remember those who went off to war.  I only wish they had had songs like these for the soldiers who were sent into the hell of Vietnam and came back home to be called murderers.