A KISS is Just a KISS – thoughts from a Classic Movie during the horrors and inequities of Wartime

The Pains inflicted during WWII
In those years of the second World War, the world wasn’t just involved in a military conflict. Rather, I say it was involved in a war of ideals.

These were such lofty ideals as human freedoms; freedoms of speech, thought, religion and the freedom to live together as humans.

I ‘m not writing this forum to preach about the purity of the thoughts of people on either side of the conflict, nor am I attempting to define or or demean the children of either side for their personal feelings about the warriors of the time who died and survived.

No, I’ll not be preaching to you or at you. Instead, I just want you to listen to a simple song of those times.

It’s a song that reverberated so strongly with a generation of warriors, wives and families at the time that it became a classic everyone knew the words to.

Yet today, after all these years, it is nearly unknown to most of today’s generation of music lovers.

If you are still wondering about this song, I’m talking about, that’s understandable. The song was almost haphazardly stuck into the middle of a classic black-and-white movie called Casablanca.

The movie itself has, stood the tests of time as a classic example of what people, normal everyday people, had to do and give up, just to survive in those horrendous times of WWII.

You see, people were often arrested or even shot just because of an errant word spoken  in front of the wrong person.

People were imprisoned for what was simply a suspected slight to the wrong person.

People were placed in front of firing squads for having the wrong documents with them as they traveled around the world.

And yes, some people were placed in gas chambers just because of their ethnicity.

But I will not beat on this much wounded horse anymore. We all know that the atrocities were real and the pains suffered by so many people were beyond unbearable.

Just a Song in a Movie
War! Love! Spies! Exotic Countries! Intrigue! What else can you ask for in a movie, regardless of when it was made.

I just want you, my fellow human beings, to read the short collection of words and then hear them sung, oh so lightly then, and by some other artists, since then.

Words that reflect a worlds feelings that even they did not know were unique and special reflections; of a generation’s acceptance of horrors of their times, and their individual battles for their freedoms.

Words, sung with feeling and for effect, of course, in a classic movie scene.

The words of a simple piano player, sung in a raucous bar full of people in a strange land, that if you listen closely, and consider the dangers surrounding everyone in the scene, can tear at your heart strings.

If you just take the time to see, hear and feel their power.

Lyrics of a song of its time
Too often, songs with great lyrics can become famous and especially popular just because of the popularity of the writers or the singers, and their popularity at the time.

This classic song is more poetry than just a song.

It is more a pained reflection of a time of world wars, confusing futures and savage devastations.

Read them as the Poetry they are;

This day and age we’re living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension.

Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein’s theory.
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension

And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed.

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo
They still say, “I love you.”
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date.
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate.
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.

It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

© 1931 Warner Bros. Music Corporation, ASCAP

Read my article on this classic movie, Casablanca and how much the song meant to a whole generation, not so long ago!

by Don Bobbitt, 2014

Click on the link below to watch the scene of “PALY IT AGAIN SAM! in Casablanca;

PLAY IT AGAIN SAM