Great French Songs

[David]

Jacques Brel- Ne Me Quitte Pas.

This incredible song shatters me. The pain, the emotion!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wmKcBm4Ik

Don’t Leave Me

Don’t leave me.
We can forget
Everything can be forgotten
Look, it’s gone already
Forget the time
the misunderstandings
& the moments lost
We must know how
Forget those hours
Which killed at times
With each thrust of why
The heart of happiness
Don’t leave me now

Me, I’ll  offer you pearls of rain
That comes from a place
Where rain never falls
I will mine the earth until the day I die
To cover your body in light and gold
I’ll make a place for us
Where love is king
Love is law
And you are queen.
Don’t leave me.

Don’t leave me
I’ll invent for you
Nonsense words
That you’ll understand
I’ll speak to you
Of those lovers there
Who have seen two times
their hearts all ablaze
I’ll recount for you
The story of that king
Dead for not having
the chance to meet you
Don’t leave me

How often has the fire of an old volcano
Erupting, burn the land
Then in that place more wheat grows than in the best April

And when evening comes
So that the sky is ablaze

The black and the red
Can the night be brilliant without both?
Don’t leave me.

Don’t leave me
I’ll no longer cry
I’ll no longer speak
I’ll hide right here
Just to look at you
Watch you dance and smile
And listen to you
As you sing and laugh
Let me become
The shadow of your shadow
The shadow of your hand
The shadow of your dog

Don’t Leave Me

[David]

Charles Aznavour –  Emmenez Moi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yUx4K3wMFQ

Around the docks, where burden and boredom
bend my back down
here come the ships their bellies heavy
with fruits.
They come from all over the world
bringing along
vagabond  ideas
tinged with blue skies
and mirages

trailing a peppery scent
of unknown countries
and everlasting summers
where people live half-naked
on the beaches.

I who saw nothing all my life
but the northern sky
would like to wash this grayness
going about.

Carry me away all over the world
Carry me away to wonderland
It seems that misery
would be less hard under the sun

In the bars at dusk
with the sailors
as we talk about girls and love
with a glass in hand

I loose my sense
and suddenly my thoughts
carry me away,
on a wonderful summer day,
to the shore

where I see love, arms outstretched
running madly to meet me
and I throw my arms
around my dream

As bars close and sailors
go back on board
I still dream till morning,
awake in the harbour

Carry me away all over the world
Carry me away to wonderland
It seems that misery
would be less hard under the sun

One glorious day, on an old tub creaking
from hull to deck
to earn my leave I’ll work
at the boilers.

Following the road that leads
to my childhood dreams,
on faraway islands,
where nothing matters
but living,

where languid girls
capture your heart?,
or so I’ve been told, by weaving
intoxicating
flower necklaces

I’ll run away, leaving my past
with no remorse whatsoever
with no luggage and a free heart
singing ever so loudly

Carry me away all over the world
Carry me away to wonderland
It seems that misery
would be less hard under the sun

[David]

Francis Cabrel –  Je t’aimais, je t’aime,Je t’aimerai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qREJkeCioVI

My naked child  on the rocks
The wind in your undone hair
Like spring on my journey
A diamond fallen from a box
Only the light could
Undo our secret landmarks
Where my fingers caught on your wrists
I loved you, I love you and I will love you

Whatever you to do
Love is everywhere you look
In every nook and cranny
In the smallest dream where you linger
Love as if it was raining
Naked on on the pebbles

the sky claims it knows you
It is so beautiful, that its surely true
it that never comes close
I saw it  caught in your nets.

the world has so many regrets
So many things that we  promise

there is only one for whom I was made

I loved you, I love you and I will love you

Whatever you do
Love is everywhere you look
In every nook and cranny
In the smallest dream where you linger
Love as if it was raining
Naked on the pebbles

We will  fly away from the same dock
Our  eyes in the same reflections
For this life and the one after that
You will be my only project

I’m going to hang your portraits
On all the ceilings of all the palaces
On all the walls that I will find
And just below, I will write

That only the light could….

and my fingers caught  on your wrists
I loved you, I love you, I will love you

[David]

From Quebec

Mes Aïeux -Dégénérations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aul1nqWrCA

Degeneration

Your great-great-grandfather, he cleared the land

Your great-grandfather, he worked the land

And then your grandfather, he made the land profitable

And then your father sold it, to become a civil servant

And you young boy , you don’t know what to do

In your tiny one-bedroom apartment, way too expensive and cold in the winter

You get urges to become a land-owner yourself

And you dream at night, of having your own little plot of land

Your great-great-grandmother, she had fourteen children

Your great-grandmother, had nearly as many

And then your grandmother decided three was enough

And then your mother wanted none, you were an accident

And you young lady, you change partners all the time

When you do something stupid, you get out of it  with an abortion

But sometimes in the morning, you wake up in tears

After you’ve dreamed at night, of a large table surrounded by children

Your great-great-grandfather, lived in dire misery

Your great-grandfather, only had pennies

And then your grandfather, a miracle! He became a millionaire

And then your father inherited it, he put it all in RRSPs (Retirement Savings Plans)

And you youngsters, owe your butts to the  government

No way to get a loan from any bank

To resist the urge to commit robbery

You read books that talk about voluntary simplicity

Your great-great-grandparents, they knew how to party

Your great-grandparents, were swinging hard  at parties

And your grandparents, knew the  yeah,  yeah period

Your parents had the disco,  thats where they met

And you my friend, how are you spending you evenings?

Turn off your TV, you shouldn’t stay stuck inside

Fortunately, in life, certain things refuse to change

Put on your nicest clothes… Because tonight we’re going dancing

[David]

Also from Quebec.

Les Cowboys Fringants – Les étoiles filantes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqyOmn-23LI

The falling stars

If I stop for a moment
To talk to you about life
Just like that, peacefully
In a bar on St-Denis street ( a street in Montreal with lots of bars and night clubs)

I would tell you the memories
Well etched into my memory
At that time when aging
Was still illusional

When I was annoying little girls
Not far from the swings
And my bag of marbles
was a real treasure

And those snowy winters
Building igloos
And coming home with frozen feet
Just in time for Passe-Partout ( An old Quebec children’s  tv show like sesame street)

But at the end of the road, tell me what will remain
From the small school and the playground
Where  the paper planes don’t fly through the wind anymore
We tell ourselves that good times finally  pass away

Like a falling star

If I stop for a moment
To talk to you about life
I realize  that often
We don’t choose but we submit
And the dreams of small bums
vanish or are repressed
In this crude reality
That puts us into the mold

The thirties, the potbelly
The brats, the mortgage
The happiness and the sorrows
The good moves and the failures

Work, do  your best
don’t tear out, get out
And hope to be a little happy before dying

But at the end of the road tell me what will remain
Of our little passage in this wild  world ?
After existing to win time
We’ll tell ourselves that  we were after all

Just falling stars

If I stop for a moment
To talk to you about life
Just like that peacefully
Not far from St-Louis square (a  park in an old run down part of Montreal)
It’s because with you I feel good
And I don’t want to worry anymore
Cause you know looking too far
Is not better than looking back

Despite the old bitterness
And the loves that pass by
The friends we loose in the fog
And the ideals that break down

Life hangs on and is reborn
As springtime come back
In a breath of fresh air
That soothes the broken hearts

So if tonight if you want to stay
With me the night is calm & we can walk
And even if everything lasts  only for a short time
I’d like you to be here for a moment

My falling star

But at the end of the road  tell me what will remain
But at the end of the road  tell me what will remain

only falling stars…

[Jung Roe]

David, Francois Hardy sounds great!  I haven’t had a lot of exposure to French music, but in high school French 8 class our teacher often played French pop music, and had us sing along to the lyrics in French.  That was the best part of the class.   I can’t remember all the artists, but one that I do is Nana Mouskouri.  Really enjoyed them.  These bring back those memories, thanks!

[Jung Roe]

Mes Aïeux has a kind of celtic and gypsy flair to the music, cool!

I liked Francis Cabrel too, a nice new age feel to it.

[David]

Thanks for your reply Jung, I had a French class like that too in junior high. I found the class tough, the music our teacher played us was the only thing that I liked.

I like Nana Mouskouri as well. She has an incredible voice and wow is she ever versatile. She speaks many languages fluently. I think she is Greek but you would’t know it when she sings in French.

Celtic music was & I think still is very popular here. I really like bands like Mes Aïeux & Les Cowboys Fringants for their mix of old folkloric music and biting modern  lyrics. They are great musicians too. Many Irish Catholics emigrated to Quebec in the 17 00’s & 1800s and they made a huge cultural impact particularly through music that is still felt today. Many people here have English last names but they may hardly speak English at all.

I really like Francis Cabrel as well  What beautiful romantic lyrics. He has had a long career & wrote many incredibly great songs.

[David]

Here is one of Françoise Hardy’s most well known songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLAHhE2KM8

[David]

Here is a great cover of Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good by a popular  singer song writer from Montreal named Coeur De Pirate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6W_tuQUM8

[Howard]

Hmm! Why do I think of this song?

Tar and Cement – Verdelle Smith

https://youtu.be/-qYwiZzd228

The town I came from was quiet and small
We played in the meadows where the grass grew so tall
In summer the lilacs would grow everywhere
The laughter of children would float in the air

As I grew older I had to roam
Far from my family, far from my home
Into the city, where lives can be spent
Lost in the shadows of tar and cement.

And every night I’d sit alone and learn
What loneliness meant
Up in my rented room above the world
Of tar and cement.

Each day I’d wake up and look at the sky
Think of the meadows where I used to lie
Then I’d remember all of that’s gone
You’re in the city, you better push on
Get what you came for, before it’s too late
Get what you came for, the meadows can wait.

And every night I’d sit alone and learn
What loneliness meant
Up in my rented room above the world
Of tar and cement.

Many years later, tired at last
I headed for home to look for my past
I looked for the meadows, there wasn’t a trace
Six lanes of highway had taken their place
Where were the lilacs and all that they meant
Nothing but acres of tar and cement.
Yet I can see it there so clearly now
Where has it gone?
Yes I can see it there so clearly now
Where has it gone?

Where are the meadows? (tar and cement)
Where are the lilacs? (tar and cement)
And where is the tall grass? (tar and cement)
The laughter of children? (tar and cement)
Nothing but acres (tar and cement)
Acres and acres

[David]

Howard, what a great song. Thanks for posting it. At first I thought that Verdelle Smith took Hardy’s  song changed the lyrics and made her own English version. But no, originally it was an Italian song by Adriano Celentano, Luciano Beretta and Miki Del Prete.

Here is the English translation of the original Italian song:

The Boy From Gluck Street
this is the story
of one of us.
and this boy, by chance, was born in Via Gluck.
in a house outside the city
where people are quiet and hardworking

Where there was grass, now there is
a city
and that house
in the middle of green fields, by now?
where can it be?

this boy from Via Gluck
he enjoyed playing with me
but one day he said to me
“I’m going to the city”
and he was crying while he said it.
I said “my dear friend
aren’t you happy?
you’ll finally live in the city.
there you can find all the things you don’t have here.
you can shower without going
down into the courtyard!”

My dear friend said to me
“I was born here,
in this street
now I leave my heart.
How do you not understand
that you who stay are the lucky ones?
you can run barefoot through the fields
while i’m downtown breathing the cement.
but there will come a time when I return
back here
and i’ll hear my friend, the train
that whistles like so:
‘wa wa!'”

The years pass
and 8 years is a long time.
Though the boy has come a long way
he does not forget his first house.
now, with the money to buy it
he returns, but doesn’t find the friends he had
just house on top of house
asphalt and cement
Where there was grass, now there is
a city
and that house
in the middle of green fields, by now?
where can it be?

Ehi, Ehi,

La la la… la la la la la…

Eh no,
I don’t know, i don’t know why
why they continue
to build houses
and they don’t leave any grass
they don’t leave any grass
they don’t leave any grass
they don’t leave any grass

Eh no,
if we are progressing like this, who knows
how we will end up
who knows…

Here is a video of Hardy singing the original Italian version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbx8ylWZTzQ

[Howard]

Adriano Celentano — (1966) IRagazzo Della Via Gluck (TarAnd Cement)

https://youtu.be/RnArOI6Y-Tk

[Howard]

Joe Dolan

https://youtu.be/hQfroKviQKI