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My Favorite French Singers (Final Part) Claude Nougaro: He wrote songs with a Jazz inspiration. He put lyrics on pieces of Jazz like “Dansez sur moi” (“Dance on me”) which is a cover of Neal Hefti’s Girl Talk. He played with words and twisted them. An exemple is the song “Je suis sous” (“I’m under”) in which he plays an alcoholic guy who is under the balcony of his ex-wife. He tells her, to sum up, alcohol is over and he’s not drunk anymore. He repeats “Je suis sous, sous, sous ton balcon” but in French, “sous” (“under”) and “saoul” (“drunk”) has the same pronunciation. It’s not easy to explain and we can’t translate in English. There is a funny video with Jean Yanne, the French actor (but I don’t remember who the third guy is): http://youtu.be/-BoR7V6oLKw One of my favorite songs is “Chanson pour le maçon” which is a tribute to the poet Jacques Audiberti. But I would like to make you discover “le Cinéma”, a song about fantasys we have when we love an inaccessible person: http://youtu.be/mmv16X-nT7k Georges Brassens: He was a kind of anarchist as Léo Férré but in a different way. His music wasn’t so radical. He had another kind of humor. He revealed the hypocrisy of the conservative French society in a more light language than that of Léo Ferré. When he told about flowers, in fact, he told about sexuality :D He made songs which became very famous in French culture as “The Bad Reputation” which is a song about people who don’t like it if you take a different road, way to live than they do, or “Les Copains d’abord”, a beautiful song about friendship. One of my favorite is “Le Temps ne fait rien à l’affaire”. I found a translation on Youtube but I think we can’t translate « cons » as « assh*les ». I think “Idiots” will be better: http://youtu.be/Fgwia2mwC2k Unfortunately, the current French music is not interesting. All the singers come from the same factories: “The Voice”, “La Nouvelle Star”, “La France un incroyable talent” but now, it’s everywhere like that. In the picture : Brassens with a cute cat. He loved cats, so it was a good guy :D
Jul 27, 2014 1:28 PM
Corrections · 5

My Favorite French Singers (Final Part)

 

Claude Nougaro: He wrote songs with a Jazz inspiration. He put lyrics on pieces of Jazz {or Jazz pieces, Jazz numbers} like “Dansez sur moi” (“Dance on me”) which is a cover of Neal Hefti’s "Girl Talk". He played with words and twisted them. An exemple is the song “Je suis sous” (“I’m under”) in which he plays an alcoholic guy who is under the balcony of his ex-wife. He tells her, to sum up {or "in sum", "in short"}, the (haze of) alcohol is over {or "has worn off"} and he’s not drunk anymore. He repeats “Je suis sous, sous, sous ton balcon” but in French, “sous” (“under”) and “saoul” (“drunk”) has the same pronunciation {or "are homonyms"}. It’s not easy to explain and we can’t translate it in English. There is a funny video with Jean Yanne, the French actor (but I don’t remember who the third guy is): http://youtu.be/-BoR7V6oLKw
One of my favorite songs is “Chanson pour le maçon” which is a tribute to the poet Jacques Audiberti. But I would (also) like to make you discover “le Cinéma”, a song about the fantasies we have when we love an inaccessible person {or "have an unrequited love"}: http://youtu.be/mmv16X-nT7k

Georges Brassens: He was a kind of anarchist as Léo Férré but in a different way. His music wasn’t so radical. He had another kind of humor. He revealed the hypocrisy of the conservative French society in a more light {or lyrical} language than that of Léo Ferré. When he told about {or "spoke of"} flowers, in fact, he told about sexuality :D He made songs which became very famous in French culture as “The Bad Reputation” which is a song about people who don’t like it if you take a different road, i.e. [1] way to live than they do, or “Les Copains d’abord”, a beautiful song about friendship. One of my favorite is “Le Temps ne fait rien à l’affaire”. I found a translation on Youtube but I think we can’t translate « cons » as « assh*les ». I think “Idiots” will be better: http://youtu.be/Fgwia2mwC2k

Unfortunately, the current French music is not interesting. All the singers come from the same factories: “The Voice”, “La Nouvelle Star”, “La France un incroyable talent” but now, it’s everywhere like that everywhere.

In the picture : Brassens with a cute cat. He loved cats, so it he was a good guy :D

 

 

[1] The intials "i.e." comes from the Latin, <em>id est</em>, and is used in English composition used to mean "that is".

July 27, 2014
Yes, it's a bit long! Sorry :D You're welcome!
July 29, 2014
...in four parts. I listened to the links. Merci.
July 29, 2014
Wow, that's some list of singers you have there... in three parts.
July 29, 2014
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