Caros audiophiles, 2 weeks ago I chose a new song by a new group for a new year/decade.
This week it's one of my all-time favourite songs by one of my favourite non-English artists.
Françoise Hardy has been since 1962 an icon of French music, chic fashion, beauty and sensibility.
Probably the first foreign song I ever heard was her first 45rpm Tous les Garçons et les Filles (if you don't count Frère Jacques!) but the song I offer here is from 1965 when she visited London to record an LP in English - after all, this was the early days of Swinging London, the place to be, the land of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones!
Everyone apparently fell in love with the charming girl with a guitar, including the Beatles and the Stones, and Bob Dylan, and a young David Bowie, she epitomised the perceived ideal of a French girlfriend.
She mostly wrote her own songs, personal, but universally appealing to young lovers, and shy romantics. Instinctive, sincere, ingenue, melancholic, fragile, but also independent and proud, classy, quite sophisticated and knowing. I love the beautiful timbre of her voice.
Impossible of course to do justice through just one of her songs,there are so many: Tous les Garcons et les Filles, Voilà, Comme, Je Changerais d'Avis, Message Personnel, Revenge of the Flowers...
This particular song is Dans le Monde Entier, but I prefer the musical arrangement of the English version, All Over The World.
I still own and treasure the original 45rpm disc, with its stylish Vogue logo. And the b-side, Another Place, is equally fantastic, in the days when the b-side was not just a lazy remix.
The video is not the best visual quality but it is quite fun to see what was happening in London's Piccadilly in 1965.
This week it's one of my all-time favourite songs by one of my favourite non-English artists.
Françoise Hardy has been since 1962 an icon of French music, chic fashion, beauty and sensibility.
Probably the first foreign song I ever heard was her first 45rpm Tous les Garçons et les Filles (if you don't count Frère Jacques!) but the song I offer here is from 1965 when she visited London to record an LP in English - after all, this was the early days of Swinging London, the place to be, the land of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones!
Everyone apparently fell in love with the charming girl with a guitar, including the Beatles and the Stones, and Bob Dylan, and a young David Bowie, she epitomised the perceived ideal of a French girlfriend.
She mostly wrote her own songs, personal, but universally appealing to young lovers, and shy romantics. Instinctive, sincere, ingenue, melancholic, fragile, but also independent and proud, classy, quite sophisticated and knowing. I love the beautiful timbre of her voice.
Impossible of course to do justice through just one of her songs,there are so many: Tous les Garcons et les Filles, Voilà, Comme, Je Changerais d'Avis, Message Personnel, Revenge of the Flowers...
This particular song is Dans le Monde Entier, but I prefer the musical arrangement of the English version, All Over The World.
I still own and treasure the original 45rpm disc, with its stylish Vogue logo. And the b-side, Another Place, is equally fantastic, in the days when the b-side was not just a lazy remix.
The video is not the best visual quality but it is quite fun to see what was happening in London's Piccadilly in 1965.
All over the world
people must meet and part
there's someone like me
feeling a pain in their heart
some may meet again
under that same bright star
if maybe some night you come back from afar
who cares if tonight i don't know where you are
Are you thinking of me now
missing having me around?
if you have forgotten me
my world will come tumbling down.
All over the world
others are sad tonight
there's someone like me watching the sun's fading light
all over the sky there is the same warm glow
here under that star i'm wanting you to know
wherever you are that i still
love you so.
A proxima,
po
Lovely to be reminded of the Swinging London, the place to be in the 60's! What a fabulous time it must have been! Anyway, loved your description of Françoise Hardy's songs. So accurate, so true. I can't say I "love" her, but I can understand why you do. Great video too. There's a dreamy quality to it that I love. And it reminds me of Picaddilly ... thanks for always bringing me (us?) something unexpected and/or new. Bjs. pcp
ResponderEliminarAgain po a great mixture of text & music. I too loved Françoise H - the 'timber of her voice' and her apparent fragility. Didn't heard anything in English up until now,though. Surprisingly there is no characteristic French accent:)
ResponderEliminarHello PO
ResponderEliminarFirst of all you write beautifully with a wonderfull skill to express your feelings - congractulatiosn :)
Beyond subscribing both first commentars, I would like to tell you it was also for me a great surprise to hear her sing in English. I also love this singer and think that nowadays we are loosing this abbility to make good music cause modern music is becoming more like a chaotik and disagreable mixture of sounds more a more apart from what I call music. They are looking to be original but all they can do is sound pollution and should be obliged to hear all the old singers as well as classic music before daring to publish their rubbish. Perhaps they would reform their style and compositions - get better inspiration, if I make myself clear :)))
Maria BCC
Thanks Maria BCC for your comments. I share some of your cynicism with a lot of current pop and rock music, it usually sounds like a tired copy of what we grew up with. But actually younger musicians are generally very aware of and influenced by the great artists of the past. It's difficult to be original. So much emphasis on visual style to be noticed. But I think this has always been so. Many older people at first hated Elvis, rock & roll, the Stones, for example. So maybe we are just getting older and more sophisticated in our tastes? po
ResponderEliminarHello PO you just said what I had thought while I was writing my comment but with a new detail which I found very beautiful - that we are getting more sophisticated and exigent as we grow older :) anyway I am enjoying a lot every bit of this new phase of life because I don't feel old at all and at the same time experience gives me much more self confidence and a sense of freedom so strong that I feel sometimes I could fly away :) I wonder how old you are but I gess we are more or less the same age (at least spiritually or psicologically or mentally - I don't know exactly which :)
ResponderEliminarThanks for having answered me :)
Maria BCC
Dear flying Maria, BCC must stand for Becoming a Cirrus Cloud?
ResponderEliminarA much older friend once told me that you don't start to feel old until 70; before then you consciously feel more or less the same as 20. As for me, spiritually I'm a bit agnostic, psychologically still 'waving not drowning', mentally sharp most of the time with a bit of selective amnesia/alzheimers around the edges. In some respects more exigent/demanding, but also more laissez faire - a combination of time running out and wisdom perhaps? po
Dear Philip,
ResponderEliminarI would like you to explain me better what you mean with the 1st question about the cirrus cloud which I don't quite understand - perhaps because I don't have such a good practice of every day English :) in portuguese a cirrus cloud is one which anounces bad weather and if I understood well you are perhaps asking me weather I am struggling in order to avoid future problems? Please tell me exactly what you meant so that I'll be able to answer you :)
Your friend then must be right because although being almost half a century old (from the point of view of one of my nephews :) I still feel 18 and wonder where all these years had gone :)))!!!
As for the rest, you still sound for me to be a very fascinating sort of man, a rare type, who doesn't only talk about the usual subjects which I can't find interesting at all such as cars, football or politics but and at the same time you have a very rare quality in a man: a very fine sense of humor mixed with a relaxed attitude before life which I envy and find very healthy when as it seams to be also your case, you are not at all futile (does this word exist?) because beyond being able of expressing your inner feelings you also can speak about philophical subjects which are what I prefer. One thing I find a pity is that you are agnostic - because from my experience, the spiritual side of human nature is the most important and what has granted me to overcome every storm or crisis of my life allways finding a way out, upwards that is to say, to see life through a hiher perspective, from above because I allways felt our loving God allways carries me in His arms when I can't get up alone :) You should try this - just make silence within yourself and talk to Him. With time you are going to hear His answers :) - (I am speaking of Jesus and am a convict Catholic believer, this is important to explain because only if you believe in a God Who is a Person and able to hear and answer you it makes sense to try do communicate with Him. For me there is no richer or deeper faith than this :) I mean I respect all others but I can't understand an abstract of cosmic idea of God - besides, the Universe itself is His creation and something which cannot be confounded with Him Who is hiher above but at the same time cares for every one of His creatures, listens and answers them. For this purpose He came to us and sharing our fate, even to point of giving His life for our sake, He made it possible for us to know and love Him - reading the Gospel helps deffinitivelly - there you find His astonishing way of living and attitude before life.
I am only sharing this life experience whith you because I have the feeling you would benefit from it and hope you don't feel I am trying to convince you of anything, which I would hate and sincerely hope not to have sound fanatical. I just feel that precious life experiences must be shared :)
Now I must rush to my work but be curious to know what you think about all this :)
Maria BCC
Dear Maria BCC, thank you, but you give too much significance to your cloud. I was referring only in a light-hearted way to your sensation of flying and freedom. Anyway I believe a cirrus cloud is very high and thin and looks like cotton candy; it is the cumulus cloud that generally brings rain.
ResponderEliminarAs for the rest, I am happy for you that such strong convictions sustain you in your life.
But you give me too much credit - I can be most superficial and talk about football, indeed I assure you, I can be profoundly shallow. But here I talk about music, and I am pleased that you find a connection with my choice. Best wishes, po
Dear Philip
ResponderEliminarYou made me laugh - it was very funny the way you explained - and now I've also learnt a lit bit more about clouds (in English) which is always useful especially for a translator like me :))) And you are right about my comment because it was too long for the purpose of this subject (it only happened because I love writing and got enthusiasmed) so thanks for the hint.
And of course I hadn't expect it to be otherwise, concerning the fact that you are a normal person who is also able to do small talk :) I only meant: it is so good that here I find the chance to change opinions on interesting subjects with people who have brains and culture :)
best wishes for you too,
Maria BCC