Between the Wars is the thirteenth studio album by Al Stewart, recorded with Laurence Juber. Its major theme is the period "between the wars", from 1918 to 1939. When released it was a critical success but a commercial failure.[citation needed]
Track listing
"Night Train to Munich" – 4:25
"The Age of Rhythm" – 4:00
"Sampan" – 3:37
"Lindy Comes to Town" – 4:24
"Three Mules" – 5:37
"A League of Notions" – 4:17
"Life Between the Wars" – 2:47
"Betty Boop's Birthday" – 2:05
"Marion the Chatelaine" – 3:41
"Joe the Georgian" – 3:31
"Always the Cause" – 3:18
"Laughing Into 1939" – 4:15
"The Black Danube" – 2:47
The 2007 Collector's Choice re-release has the following additional tracks:
"Life between the Wars": refers to the time between World War I and II and some of its influential figures. It is told how a certain Paul Gervaise is seeing a picture of Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald, when he reads the New York Herald. It also refers to English writer Somerset Maugham and mentions French fashion designer Coco Chanel who returns to London from a holiday with a suntan. In the end the song alludes to King Edward VIII whose intention to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson led to his abdication (Abdication of Edward VIII) as King of The United Kingdom that's why he is leaving Buckingham Palace. The song shows how personal interests became more important than traditions and institutions in this period of time.
"Betty Boop's Birthday": an instrumental. Betty Boop was a cartoon character popular in the 1930s; in 1933, she appeared in the short film Betty Boop's Birthday Party.
"Joe the Georgian": Tells of Soviet officers waiting in Hell for Joseph Stalin, the titular Georgian, to arrive. "We're sharpening our pitchforks/And we're heating up the ends," the narrator declares, adding that he hopes Stalin "likes the next few million years." The second verse invokes the metaphor of a literal "ship of state", referring to Vladimir Lenin as "the captain" who became sick, whereupon Stalin, the "mate", took over. Soviet historical figures Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin are described as already being in amongst those waiting in the "anteroom to Hell".
