And pour le journée qui s’en vent a return of our occasional series Rainy Days and Songdays – Five Bastille Bangers.
We’ll start en homage to the definitive chanteuse Edith Piaf at her gravestone in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
And a shoosh from a pilgrim at her headstone (it’s the same in any language).
At les enchants mechants being dragged around by Pere and Mere looking for Francophile Oscar Wilde’s site.
Non, Je ne regrette rien
The cemetery is more of a town than a graveyard and has its own streets but is well worth a visit.
And be sure to leave yourself plenty of time because the gatekeeper will ring a great big bell in your ears to tell you time is up.
Mais Non, Je ne regrette rien.
Je t’aime – moi non plus
These days, of course, pre-pubescent boys can find the female form online, on TV and on any newsagent’s shelf.
But back in the day it was rarer, not saying right, but rarer.
And the least said about our gang of four post-school Riviera campers visiting a shop near the Moulin Rouge to see a certain short film the better.
Now when Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin brought out Je t’aime – moi non plus in the Seventies it caused a revolution in buttoned-up Britain.
But we still learned more French from that record than any lesson Wee Jimmy Young gave us.
Tous les visages de l’amour
And for the monlingual English-speaking world, of course, we know this classic as She.
Which the suave Charles Aznavour crooned and sent les femmes into a tizzy.
L’homme intelligent rhymed his Tous les visages de l’amour song in French as well as English.
Something the Irish National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, or the Soldier’s Song, also accomplishes, more of which later.
Toi, paree de mille et un attraits/
Je ne sais jamais qui tu es/
Tu changes si souvent de visage et d’aspect.
Or She May be the face I can’t forget/A trace of pleasure or regret.
Oooh, la, la Blondie
Take a forgotten Sixties doo-wop song, turn the protaganist from female to male, make him French and you have a hit… pretentious, moi?
Mais non, Debbie Harry was keen to broaden her international appeal and pretty much created a niche with French lyrics in English songs.
And not being a linguist she does seem to have a knack for it…
Denis Denis, avec tes yeux si bleux, / Denis Denis, moi j’ai flashe a nous deux, / Denis Denis, un grand baiser d’eternite. / Denis Denis, je suis si folle de toi, / Denis Denis, oh embrasse-moi ce soir, / Denis Denis, un grand baiser d’eternite
And came back for more on Sunday Girl, sounds much more sultry and sensuous as la fille du dimanche and even more so in the full French version.
La Marseilles
Et little would Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle have known in 1792 that his peasants’ song would become the most rousing national anthem of them all.
Mais oui, there is the Stars and Stripes, the Soldier’s Song, Land of our Fathers and the Internationale.
Now we expect that the Marseillaise will be sung with gusto around the world but perhaps even more so this year.
As cette annee marks 230 years since the French Convention adopted it as the First Republic’s anthem.
While some of the songs we’ve picked here may have a Pariscentric feel, La Marseilles is truly panFrench.
With De Lisle writing it in Strasbourg, with its original title Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin.
And it being popularised by Marseillaise volunteers marching to the capital.
Whether French or not we all recognise the stirring cri de coeur so it burns my eyes to see AI want to translate it into English.
Better preserve some things for humans to create like Rainy Days and Songdays – Five Bastille Bangers.
