Season 508 - The French Connection

[kolibri]

Welcome all to Season 508, bienvenue!

This week is dedicated to all things French. So, songs about France, chansons by the French (or Canadian French, Belgian, Mali French etc.) musicians or songs with lyrics containing words in French.

Original songs, collaborations and instrumentals are most welcome.
Song limit: 1 song per day or 8 songs per Season.

- Season starts Sunday, November 7 at 00:01 Hawaii time, and ends Sunday, November 14 at 12 PM Hawaii time.
- Please mention in the video that it's for Season 508.

Prize: a French ukulele - Motu sopranino, made of plywood in Île d'Oléron.


For inspiration: in 2012 there was the first French Season 21, hosted by Peewee:

21st Season of the Ukulele

21st Season of the Ukulele: LA FRANCE July 14th, Bastille Day, is next Saturday, so it’s France week, Ooh La La! Here are the parameters: A video of a single live take of a performance (doesn’t have to be the first take) with ukulele(s) front and center. No overdubs. Other instruments OK in...

forum.ukuleleunderground.com

Please remember that the bittersweet Season 507 has still a day to go.
Merci & au revoir!
Playlist

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

WOW that is a very generous and lovely prize!

 

[ukudancer]

Time to dust off my favorite Joyce Jonathan song!!! I'll record tomorrow.

 

[LimousinLil]

C'est "nickel," Ylle ... merci beaucoup! (I actually have a MOTU - a soprano - they're really interesting ukes; what a generous prize!)

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

The strange young man who comes to me
A soldier on a three day spree
He needs one night's cheap ecstasy
And a woman's arms to hide him
He greets me with a courtly bow
And hides his pain by acting proud
He drinks too much and he laughs too loud
How can I deny him.
Let us dance beneath the moon
I'll sing to you 'Claire de Lune'
The morning always comes too soon
But tonight the war is over
He speaks to me in schoolboy French
Of a soldiers life inside a trench
Of the look of death and the ghastly stench
I do my best to please him
He puts two roses in a vase
Two roses sadly out of place
Like the gallant smile on his haggard face
Playfully I tease him
Hold me neath the Paris skies
Let's not talk of how or why
Tomorrow's soon enough to die
But tonight the war is over
We make love too hard too fast
He falls asleep his face a mask
He wakes with the shakes and he drinks from his flask
I put my arms around him
They die in the trenches and they die in the air
In Belguim and France the dead are everywhere
They die so so fast there's no time to prepare
A decent grave to surround them
Old world glory old world fame
The old worlds gone gone up in flames
Nothing will ever be the same
And nothing lasts forever
Oh I'd pray for him but I've forgotten how
And there's nothing nothing that can save him now
There's always another with the same funny bow
And who am I to deny them
Tonight the war is over
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: David C. Olney

 

[YorkSteve]

The debut single from Adam & The Ants.

 

[Flatbaroque]

Thanks for hosting Ylle. Here's a Jacques Brel song. This is the English version of his " Le Moribond". I did sing the first line in the original French in fear you might ruthlessly eliminate me for not enough Frenchiness. The English version with lyrics by Rod McKuen is not as powerful / dark as Brel's but that is pretty common in English adaptions of his songs....except for Port of Amsterdam...that's pretty earthy.

 

[Charley B]

my French is nowhere near up to singing a whole song, so this one just has one French word in it

 

[pabrizzer]

 

[joo]

Thank you for hosting, Ylle.
Mine is completely NOT French at all. Although it has the words "French wine".

 

[LimousinLil]

Rebonjour, Ylle ... et un grand merci pour cette semaine! (And that's quite enough French!) The first song I thought of when I saw your theme was "C'est Magnifique!" (the Dean Martin version.) When I looked it up, though, it seemed to be rather lacking in lyrics, but, at the same time, I came across this French version, which was released in 1955 and sung by Luis Mariano. It is, then, a song about France, written by an American - Cole Porter for his 1953 musical, "Can-Can" - which has been turned into a French song; full circle!

 

[ukudancer]

From the 2006 Comedie Musicale, Le Roi Soleil. I looooooove the songs from this show. Anyway, this is me, my uke and very little effects. No amount of pedals is going to help my singing and rapidly degrading French language skills. But I am a huge Francophile, so this season is totally my jam.

 

[AlanDP]

I don't consider myself in the running for the awesome prize, because I already won an awesome prize from Ylle in a past season, but I have a few songs I can do. Because of the nearness of Louisiana to where I live, there's a lot of spillover in music between us. So here's something in Cajun French, or at least my attempt at it.

 

[UkeFoote]

"La Vie en Rose" by Luis Guglielmi for solo tenor ukulele. Thanks for hosting, Ylle!

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

my French is nowhere near up to singing a whole song, so this one just has one French word in it

two words, when he says MON amour! here i am, second up with this fantastic song, which i'm guessing is gonna be hugely popular this week, despite it being, like so many erasure songs, much harder to try and bring on uke, than it is just to sing along loudly to in the bath

 

[lizbrinker]

Bon soir, Ylle! And, thank you for hosting this saison magnifique. Here is another one from Cole Porter's 1953 musical, Can-Can. I have been on an album project at the Saturday open mic and this one came up many weeks ago. The album is Red, Hot & Blue, and came out in 1990 to raise money for AIDS research. All the songs on the album are Cole Porter pieces being covered by artists who were very popular in 1990. This one was covered by a group called Les Negresses Vertes.

I Love Paris
Cole Porter
1953

 

[pabrizzer]

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

A one minute song.

 

[mythinformed]

Thanks for hosting Ylle. This all fingers and thumbs twister and galloper of a song sprung to mind, It ain't perfect but It's a damn good one to practice and get those fingers moving.........

 

[caspet]

Coucou Ylle. Thank you for the opportunity to bring this song which has become one of my absolute favourites. It's extremely well known and liked in the Francophone world and features regularly in singing shows.

The song came to my attention (and that of a lot of non-Francophones) when video of a performance by a Kazakh singer on a Chinese tv show was all over YouTube.

It’s from the rock opera Starmania. I’ve since watched the entire musical, it’s available with English sub-titles on YT. It’s bleak, it’s dark, there’s no happy ending/s and the music is fantastic. It’s even more relevant today than in 1976. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starmania_(musical).

Here’s a link to the lyrics and a just slightly better than average translation https://www.abcsonglyrics.com/daniel-balavoine/sos-dun-terrien-en-détresse.html

En avant