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More about Joël: As some may know, he was with Brassens in TV shows and on his LPs, playing the second guitar, from the early seventies until … October 1981.
Below is the text I … tried to sing in the video above. I must say that Ray Brown, Pierre de Gaillande and Carol Evans kindly helped me to get to that first English version and I am very grateful to them. Many thanks to Paul too, whose further suggestions of improvement, received … a few days after the recording, unfortunately, are given below as well.
Hope some of you might thus be tempted to have a go at the adaptation. But the thing to do, in the end, is to listen to … THE REAL THING.« Bad luck » on Le Pont des Arts ?
LOVE … and PADLOCKSChorus :
Is it just bad luck that the padlocks
That cluttered up the whole railing
On the « Arts Bridge » ( where wind’s blowing ),
Having become heavy like rocks
(So tightly had they all been bound !) …
Suddenly pulled the handrail down ?
1)
From « High Up » aren’t we thus told
That insults like those won’t do,
That imprisoned love is a sight one should not behold ?
True love scintillates like gold
And accumulates « value »
From the open air where « it can breathe » as people do !
Chorus
2)
It’s not as bad as a threat,
Just a wink from a free dove,
A piece of advice about the space each lover should get.
No true love thrives in a net,
No lid should be screwed above :
Life is only fulfilled when we wed Freedom to Love !Paul’s suggestions for the chorus and first verse :
Is it just bad luck that those padlocks
Which cluttered up the old railing
On the « Arts Bridge » ( where wind’s blowing ),
Having acquired the weight of rocks
(So tightly had they all been bound !) …
Suddenly pulled the handrail down ?From « High Up » are we not told
Insults of that sort won’t do?
That a love in chains is a sight one should not behold ?
True love sparkles just like gold
Ever growing in « value »
From the open air where « it can breathe » as people do !… And REAL THING : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2chOaLrkZKA
My top of list would certainly be much similar to Paul’s … with at least four more: The Bantam Cock, Grandad, The Lodger, Sister Josephine (alphabetical order, of course). And I’d find it hard to stop there … 😉
2015 now … and it’s clear ( considering the growing number of viewers of this topic) that the interest in Jake and Georges is bigger than ever.
I am sure the people who love the songs written by those two extraordinary artists can get interested in what was recently produced by a very close friend … of Jake’s great French pal.
So I hope the following link to an English version of Joël Favreau’s “cadenas” will help them a little bit to move in that direction:
https://youtu.be/2yj-FvEaerMYou know what … ?
Of course you do.
And I’m sure you also know WHY I’m happy !
Yes, I have received my copies, am absolutely delighted to see that fabulous artist made so PRESENT again and glad to discover an introductory note as informative and interesting as could be wished .
Many thanks to all who have contributed to this brilliant achievement !
” The bearded frog 😉 “Well, I don’t think you are, Ian.
If I can give an example ( in another currency, though … ) I will tell you that I, for one, occasionally feel the need to convert the 1 euro 50 we are too often charged in our cafés for a little cup of coffee … not in “yesterday’s francs” but in the ones we used before 1960 … thus reaching the extravagant price of 1000 “ANCIENS FRANCS” !! Disgusting, isn’t it ?
Now, changing the subject, I am glad to say I’m back in Frogland ( with an appropriate limberjack from Monterey … ) and I have at last managed to “do the deed” !
So my copies should reach my side of the pond quite soon now, I am spying the postman and, having read the enthusiastic comments of many a contributor to this forum, I can’t wait ! …” It is a wonderful thing that this will be available to a whole new generation of fans.”
I do share this point of view, Brian 🙂 .
And, just like you, I “will be buying not only a copy for myself, but also for various of my nearest and dearest who will receive it as a Christmas Present” !Quite right, Hugh. Many thanks, Phil. I appreciate the echoes of the preparation all the more as it won’t finally be possible for me to share that most tasty experience on 3rd and 4th ( on my birthday, then ! ) October with you.
So … I hope some links to videos of the event will be put on our favourite site 😉 !
Meanwhile, for those who, like me, have not managed to catch Phil’s interview live, the link he has given works perfectly well and they’ll find what they are looking for about 1h 48′ inside the programme .Well done William ! 🙂
This is one of the “strongest” songs I know … and I hope I’ll hear it live next time we meet.Hi John
You may remember that on March 29th my Stafford friends gave me the wonderful surprise to take me to Birmingham where you were offering a great “fake” performance, which allowed us to realise we share the view that Jake and Georges, those masters of that MAJOR artistic genre the “marriage” of music with short, meaningful and beautifully worded rhyming texts can produce, deserve to be better known in both English and French speaking countries.
Thanks to the link given on the home page of this website I have just had the further pleasure to hear you and Isy Suttie being interviewed on Radio 4. Some participants to the forum have stressed the fact that they expected more from the broadcast but I think that nothing else than an INTRODUCTION to the amazing richness of the “Jake and songs subject” could be given in a 28 minute conversation and that your interviewer, Isy and yourself did that very well indeed.
I particularly appreciated the choice of the “Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me” song by Matthew Parris, the way Isy … confirmed that statement in everything she said about JT and ( last but not least ! ) the “Wordsmith” song you wrote as an echo to “Laurie and Jake’s” blacksmith and toffeemaker and presented us as a … “conclusion” to the afore-mentioned introduction : just perfect !
Concerning your quest for information about Jake and the way he developed his art, perhaps you could add to the result of the conversation you have probably had with Ray Brown by now the benefit of a contact with Loïc Robinot ( cf. the mention I made of his 2012 book in my recent post to Richard O’Brien : http://www.jakethackray.com/forum/2-jakes-music/3486-shakespeare–brassens–thackray.html ).Hi Richard
Sorry about the late discovery of your post here.
One day away from your talk in Stratford I hope you have received more help from Judith and Loïc than from me.
Congratulations anyway on your English version of LE FOSSOYEUR. I’ll certainly try to have a go at it !
And I’ll be happy to send you some of my “Jake in French” attempts.
The theme you are due to treat tomorrow convinces me that I should start with Jake’s GRANDAD.
Little relief from the heavy atmosphere of actual burials can be expected from the songs that are directly connected to these events, even with hypotheses such as “si du fond de la terre on voit le Bon Dieu …” ( beautifully rendered in your own version, by the way ), but a bit of distance from the dark reality and the feeling of impotence it entails allows minds lile Georges’s and Jake’s to offer us the benefit of some sort of escape, thanks to their powerful sense of humour !
That idea is certainly illustrated in the above-mentioned title. IIt’s also the case, of course, with such songs as Georges’s own “GRAND-PERE” or “LES FUNERAILLES D’ANTAN” and “THE JOLLY CAPTAIN”, to mention only a few examples.I know two French versions of THE BLACK SWANN, Jonathan. One of them is by Jake himself.
It’s the one I prefer and it’s a pity it is not known on my side of The Channel.
It’s very good and I’m sure that if someone like Renaud had recorded it it would have been a big success.Apologies for the delay, Richard : I have been travelling these last weeks and have just come home … and across your interesting quest thanks to Pam Archer and Pierre Schuller.
As you may have seen in an article I wrote for Pierre and “AUPRES DE SON ARBRE” under the title « Brassens et la langue de Shakespeare » ( published last Autumn in the French magazine “LES AMIS DE GEORGES” – N° 135 ), « Le Fossoyeur » was first « tradapted » by Andrew Kelly thirty years ago and then by Joe Flood in 2011.
So, with what Judith has just mentioned here and your own very recent piece of work it has now reached the « class » of those songs by GB that can be sung in at least four different English versions !
It is quite certain that Jake knew « Le Fossoyeur » ( published in 1952 ) when he wrote his own « The Gravedigger ». And one may be sure that he knew Shakespeare ‘s « Hamlet » very well too. As for Brassens, although he didn’t speak English, he must have read a number of translations of Shakespeare’s plays as he was a very well-read singer-songwriter.
Now, had he studied « Hamlet » BEFORE writing « Le Fossoyeur » ?
That’s a good question and I’ll see if I can get elements of answer here or there.
Loïc Robinot, who was Colin Evans’s French assistant in the University of Cardiff between 1969 and 1972 and met Brassens on the latter’s first trip to Wales in 1970 ( and several times afterwards ), may have talked it over with him. Do read his excellent little book « Sur ma route, un certain … Georges Brassens » ( published in 2012 ) and get in touch with him.
I am sorry I can’t tell you more for the moment but if I do get hold of something more substantial be sure I’ll be happy to share it with you.
Best wishes,
MichelThanks for this Richard and thanks to you, Pam for attracting my attention to the presence of the matter on the forum.
I have just gathered the first elements of answer I can give and am going to type them there: http://www.jakethackray.com/forum/2-jakes-music…ssens–thackray.html .
Michel
