Too much music, too little time! :D

Hi everyone, I’ve had quite an interesting day, music-wise today. I was listening to vintage French variety shows from the 60’s to the 80’s on the “Prise 2” channel. Aside from long lost beloved DJ’s/announcers, I came across some songs I hadn’t heard since then! Just nice memories attached to them so that was cool. The first song that surprised me was Cult Hero’s “I dig you”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMRL-VMQ2E0

That was a “song” my sister’s boyfriend enjoyed. I must say it’s not much of a song, but I quite enjoyed the music, mostly for being an energy-booster. The second song retrieved from my memory bank was the Payola$ “China boys”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0f8anHFYoM

The Payola$ were a pretty good Canadian band from Vancouver, mostly known for “Eyes of a stranger” back in the early 80’s. Now, the biggest surprise of them all, was a song I heard in a fashion segment called “Deeper (than I wanted to go) by Billie Newton Davis, which is a song written by our own Michael! I was thrilled and stunned at the same time to just hear that out of the blue on an old show! Unfortunately, I can’t find it on YouTube, darn. Anyway, that was quite a fun afternoon and hope the station does that again! Thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, well I’m bringing you a mix bag today, but with a running theme: the joy of singing. I was just listening to our Michael’s interview on the BBC this morning and he was explaining the appeal of Motown music. He was saying how, even though many songs might be sad, the melodies are so catchy, you can’t help but get caught up in the wave and sing because it makes you feel good. I also spent some time with my daughter yesterday, as she was showing me her latest musical find. Though I was raised on it, I failed to grasp her attraction to vintage French Quebec country music, but she explained it was the simplicity and just the joy of singing it. In that spirit, here’s a very very early favorite, the Sesame Street gang singing “Sing”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhbsb_tkGL0

I know I’m a big sap, but that song is nice and fuzzy… :D So anyway, the conversation with my daughter evolved into 80’s music and my mind started wandering. I was thinking back of mine and my hubby’s early days and this song came to mind, Huey Lewis & the News “Stuck with you” video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J08ZwySCoJ8

lol I remember the video and man, do I love this song! Aside from the “The power of love” video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaXTcR4dtE

…which brings back other memories, I particularly loved the 2 following ones from Huey Lewis & the News, “Heart and soul” video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TdaXhpjHws

…and in the spirit of upcoming Halloween, “Doing it all for my baby”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpdZvewjwJs

Incidentally, those are all included on a fabulous compilation of  theirs “Greatest hits and videos” which obviously includes a DVD. All right, keeping with the joy of singing theme, I plucked a few from the random player in my brain, first, Jo Dee Messina’s “Bring on the rain”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUvOqP7HlA8

I love Jo Dee’s voice, but especially the message in this song… Another one of my favourite country songs, Faith Hill’s “Breathe”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCmsZUN4r_s

Well as long as we’re breathing, here’s Toni Braxton’s “Breathe again”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRFEz2MjZgg

Nice segway huh? XD Now here’s one of my all-time soul favourites, miss Gladys Knight & the Pips with “If I were your woman”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Nc4MW4yr0

Ah man, just hearing the first few notes and that bass line, I get goosebumps! Of course, if you’re gonna talk about soul,you can’t forget about the mighty queen, Aretha Franklin’s “Natural woman”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEWuAcMWDLY

All I can say is thank God for “Murphy Brown”! :D All these and the following songs are reasons to abuse my repeat button and annoy my neighbours! Okay, digging deeper in my soul memories, here is probably my favorite song from Diana Ross, “Missing you”, which was written as a tribute to Marvin Gaye:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVlbbk4SPC4

Listening to this song again is like finding a long lost friend… I don’t love everything Diana sang, but this song is the perfect mix of the sweetness and the soul in her voice, talk about the joy of singing! All right, the next one was, as memory serves,  my first soul “coup de foudre” as far as singing goes, Dorothy Moore’s “Misty blue”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMONGMDEerI

I sang that song before I even understood all the words… :D Okay, in keeping with the theme and in closing, here’s another tiny little indulgement moment. In 2002, our Michael said when he recorded this song, that he loved to sing everything about it. He said that in some songs, he can’t wait to get to the the chorus or the hook, but he loved everything about this one, “Only a woman like you”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FidpNgVoAOA

Who could argue with him? :D Well that’s it for now folks, hope you enjoy and thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, well today being a very special day, I will make an exception to the fact that this blog is for discoveries mostly. I’m starting a sort of a journey or quest to a very special goal, so I thought I’d share links related to this theme. The first one, since today is the 35^th anniversary  of Jacques Brel’s passing, God rest his soul, here is the studio version of the live link I posted recently, “La quête” or “The quest/The impossible dream”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKCmB_13zFw

Also, as I had found in my recent research on Mr Brel, the song “Madeleine”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvIRGWBhQJ8

...though it’s named after a woman, it’s about hope and expectations. In the song, he spends an entire evening musing over this lovely woman who’s too good for him and she’s just not coming, but he’s willing to come back all week and bring her lilac and wait for her, God bless him... :D Anyway, so to close up my expectations theme, I think I’ll throw in a bit of the instigator of my goal, our Michael with “Go the distance”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi37qcUNtpY

And yes, I hand-pickd that particular video... :D That’s it for now, thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi all, well I’m at it again, searching for one song and coming up with at least 10 more... :D Today I just wanted to share this one song I’ve discovered on my French pop radio. It’s called “On leur a fait croire” by Alex Nevsky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XASYGn_2nc

I just really enjoy the music, because it has a really nice polished throwback feel and the guy’s voice isn’t bad. I’ve checked out his album “Himalaya mon amour” and some of the songs are in the same vein. I was also checking for a parody of the Daft Punk song “Get lucky” by my favourite French/Canadian soul artist Corneille and I’ll start with that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3HhrgMvZOU

It's a radio ID for the afternoon rush hour show "Les Grandes Gueules".  The “original” version plays far too often for my taste and is suspected to be a copyright infringement but I won’t go into that. I just wanted to hear Corneille’s voice... :D So as I was checking suggestions, I caught a few new songs, either known or thought (by me)  to be excerpts from his new album “Du nord au sud” scheduled to be released on November 18^th. It seems to be shaping up to be a cool, dance oriented and very infectious sounding album. Here are a few of them.

Corneille “Les sommets de nos vies »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnodm0azW4w

Corneille « Le récit « :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZGhgLlIms

Corneille, « Le soleil donne/Tropical sun » (partially in English) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJjbSGzhw5U

…and this really cool variation on Sting’s “Englishman in New York”, “Africain à New York”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVoZFBummpI

That’ll be it for now, until I actually get it, hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi all, a fan on the forum brought this guy Marck Wilkinson to my attention recently so I looked him up. He was born in England but is considered to be an Australian artist, according to Wikipedia. He was first brought to public attention thanks to this song featured in a Nescafé commercial:

Mark Wilkinson “Middleground”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTY_G6iuu6c

I thought he had a nice voice so continued searching and found this cover:

Mark Wilkinson “Fast cars”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5LxwVdkxhY

That’s the Tracy Chapman song, very nice rendition, I approve! :D He apparently has 2 CD’s out, last one called “Let the river run” just released last August and is apparently touring the U.S. as I write this. Just an interesting voice I wanted to share. He kind of reminds me a bit of Amos Lee. My daughter introduced me to Amos Lee's first selftitled album, must have been in 2005. Here’s the first song that really struck me, “Arms of a woman”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th4SwSpaRWU

Ooh, great song, great voice, lots of soul, inspired by Otis Redding and Bill Withers among others, so you can't go wrong there! :D  I’d definitely recommend his first album: it has a wonderful quiet soulfulness that’s simply amazing. I’m not familiar with his other 3 albums frankly, but this one, to me, is just perfect. Hope you enjoy those suggestions, thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, doing research on YouTube this week, I stumbled upon  a new-to-me video from this lovely French stage actor named Laurent Bàn. The video is “Bring him home” from “Les miserables”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axbk5wSbQ0Q

I first discovered Laurent quite accidentally, when I reluctantly watched the French translation of the 2004 movie  “Phantom of the opera”. I say “reluctantly” because French translations are not my favourite. This actually turned out to be an improvement for me, because though I appreciated Gerard Butler’s acting, I don’t care for his singing in POTO. Laurent’s voice however, is beautiful and nuanced, with the sensitivity and subtlety of a stage singer. Sadly, and I mean sadly, Andrew Lloyd Webber couldn’t decide on which translation he preferred, so the French soundtrack was never released. From what I understand, Laurent has been in many musicals, some established, some not. Here he is with “La musique de la nuit” (Music of the night):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6FH9oJE0Xg

Get a load of that lower register! :D Oh, here’s another one showcasing his lower register, “Moi, je” as Le Vaniteux in Richard Cocciante’s “Le petit prince”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=893ndiQH2Hs

Now here’s a fantastic demonstration of his range in “S.O.S. d’un terrien en détresse” from the rock opera “Starmania”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXKEakg6SNI

Phew, I wonder how many octaves that covers! And if you think that’s good, you should hear it by an operatic baritone! Unfortunately, for me, it’s not on YouTube, but I assure you that hearing a baritone starting from his deepest chest voice into his falsetto head voice can give you chills, well it does me anyway... :D “Starmania” was originally staged in the late 70’s as a rock opera but reworked into a classical one in 2008.  Okay, here is Laurent in the role of Gringoire with “Lune” from the musical “Notre-Dame de Paris”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2D1JAsLgbE

...and here, from the same musical, in the role of Phoebus with “Déchiré”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7osV0y_BaJ8

He’s also played in “Hair” and more recently, in “Zorro, le musical” composed by the Gipsy Kings, if you can believe that! It took me years to find where that beautiful voice came from, but I finally found his solo CD called “Ante” on myspace.com a few years back, if you enjoy his voice. That’s it for today, hope you enjoy and thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi all, tonight I want to share a song I’ve heard for the first time today, it’s called “Come back” by the Five Stairsteps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwwuSt4qIo

It’s just one of those cool 60’s soul slow dancing songs à la “Ooh baby baby”, though part of the Chicago soul sound, hm-hmm good!  :D I’m not that familiar with the Five Stairsteps and the only song I really know is “Ooh child”, sung here by Daryl Hall & John Oates:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RY0uS6KPRc

They sang it on their 2008 album “Our kind of soul”, saying that once more, it was a way to come full circle. H&O had opened for the Five Stairsteps many years ago. That’s it for today, thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Et maintenant, part quatre. For my closing arguements, I want to attempt a short list of my straight-to-the-heart favourites not previously mentionned, because there are too many. When I decided to research Jacques Brel, for some reason, it felt like discovering a new artist and his music felt like a living timeless entity. I think it’s probably due to the fact that the first CD I borrowed was a live one and I first got to know him as a passionate performer who gets into the skin of the song, whatever emotional output it called for. In some of Mr Brel’s songs, I just want to get caught up in his enthusiasm wave like in ”La valse à mille temps” and “Les prénoms de Paris” or “Bruxelles”, or even  this  tango about a bad experience haunting him for life, “Au suivant”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNBzzjHs8vc

It’s a fun song to listen to. Speaking of which, here’s a jazzy-flavored one called “À jeun”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvIY8ApVADQ

That was the story of this poor guy who finds out his wife cheated on him at her funeral and he’s anything but sober. :D Another favourite drinking song is “L’ivrogne”, though he’s seriously heartbroken in this one and he mentions my name in it... :D   If you believe his lyrics, the poor guy has been mistreated by an  abundance of women like “Mathilde”, “Madeleine”, “La Fanette” etc, which inspired him to write an LP full of memorable songs, none the less. I love his colourful  descriptions of sweet songs like “Les vieux” (The old ones), though he seemed daunted with the concept of growing old, which would explain why he wrote songs like “Vieillir” or “La...La...La...”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKukJgZwss0

My fave sweet and tender songs that come to mind are “Dors ma mie, bonsoir”, “La tendresse”, « Quand maman reviendra », « les amants de cœur » and « Fils de… », all with different themes.

Mr Brel also seemed to enjoy creating evocative and/or atmospheric songs like : “Marieke:, “Une île” and “Il neige sur Liège », or this one called « Les cœurs tendres », which was in the movie “L’idiot”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DolQ0jEum7A

For some reason, it sounds very familiar... Speaking of movies and familiar sounds, here’s another blast from my past, “La chanson de Zorino”, from the animated “Tintin et le temple du soleil”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lgXCcvlgpQ

Wow, I’ve always loved that song and  used to know all the lyrics to it, both this one and “Ode à la nuit” also written by him were from the same movie and just gorgeous...  It’s kind of a surreal feeling to listen to it now, after all these years, knowing Jacques Brel wrote it, recognizing the chords and song structure... I guess it was in the stars that I’d get to know him, especially since I recently discovered by accident that he shares his stars with both my husband and our Michael too... :D All right, let’s try and wrap up this puppy with 3 more. Not from a movie, but his own ambitious adaptation of “Man of La Mancha”, Mr Brel’s version of “The impossible dream”, the song « La quête”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2kn0Q3UHOc

If that doesn’t make you want to climb mountains or fight windmills, I don’t know what will! Lol Now this one figures as a welcome to his web site, which is wonderfully  set up to support my philosophy that Mr Brel is “alive and well and living...” around the world. The site has a terrific montage of various, multilingual renditions, it’s the eternal “Quan on n’a que l’amour”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMg97Wr_4M

In closing, when asked if he was happy, Mr Brel said that his life was joyous, but he didn’t know how to define happiness, so in that spirit, here is his favourite song, in 1958 at least, “Je ne sais pas” (I don’t know):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7EAg9P0Bk4

Thank you all very much for letting me share my archeological dig in my new rapidly blossoming interest and I hope it sparked a little something in you too. Thank you all for reading and God bless, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Welcome to part trois... Here are the lyrics and my best effort at translating in English:

« Ne me quitte pas » by Jacques Brel

Ne me quitte pas (Don’t leave me)

Il faut oublier  (we must forget)

Tout peut s'oublier (all can be forgotten)

Qui s'enfuit déjà (what already flees)

Oublier le temps (forget the time)

Des malentendus (of misunderstandings)

Et le temps perdu (and wasted time)

A savoir comment (to know how)

Oublier ces heures (forget these hours)

Qui tuaient parfois (that would sometimes kill)

A coups de pourquoi  (with strikes of « whys”)

Le cœur du bonheur (the heart of happiness)

Ne me quitte pas X4 (Don’t go away X4)

Moi je t'offrirai (I will offer you)

Des perles de pluie (pearls of rain)

Venues de pays (coming from countries)

Où il ne pleut pas (where it doesn’t rain)

Je creuserai la terre (I will dig the earth)

Jusqu'après ma mort (‘til after my death)

Pour couvrir ton corps (to cover your body)

D'or et de lumière (of gold and light)

Je ferai un domaine (I will make a realm)

Où l'amour sera roi (where love will be king)

Où l'amour sera loi (where love will be law)

Où tu seras reine (where you will be queen)

Ne me quitte pas X5 (don’t go away x5)

Ne me quitte pas (don’t go away)

Je t'inventerai (I will invent for you)

Des mots insensés (nonsense words)

Que tu comprendras (that you’ll understand)

Je te parlerai (I will speak to you)

De ces amants-là (of those lovers)

Qui ont vu deux fois (who have seen twice)

Leurs cœurs s'embraser (their hearts ignite)

Je te raconterai (I will tell you)

L'histoire de ce roi (the tale of this king)

Mort de n'avoir pas (dead from not having)

Pu te rencontrer (been able to meet you)

Ne me quitte pas X4 (don’t go away X4)

On a vu souvent (we have often seen)

Rejaillir le feu (the fire burst again)

D'un ancien volcan (from an ancient volcano)

Qu'on croyait trop vieux (we thought too old)

Il est paraît-il (there is it seems)

Des terres brûlées (burned lands)

Donnant plus de blé (giving more wheat)

Qu'un meilleur avril (than a  a best April)

Et quand vient le soir (and when evening comes)

Pour qu'un ciel flamboie (for the sky to inflame)

Le rouge et le noir (the red and the black)

Ne s'épousent-ils pas (do they not marry)

Ne me quitte pas X4 (don’t go away X4)

Ne me quitte pas (don’t go away)

Je ne vais plus pleurer (I will cry no more)

Je ne vais plus parler (I will talk no more)

Je me cacherai là (I will hide there)

A te regarder (to watch you)

Danser et sourire (dance and smile)

Et à t'écouter (and listen to you)

Chanter et puis rire sing and then laugh)

Laisse-moi devenir (let me become)

L'ombre de ton ombre (the shadow of your shadow)

L'ombre de ta main (the shadow of your hand)

L'ombre de ton chien (the shadow of your dog)

Ne me quitte pas X4 (Don’t go away X4)

As I’ve mentionned before, I haven’t heard a rendition that conveys to me the same inescapable finality as Mr Brel’s who weighs every word. JMO Again, thank you for reading, sincerely, Sylvie <3