Hi everyone, I’m thinking I should write shorter posts for a while - for which you may be glad - and spend less time blogging so that I can concentrate on other things (like my singing lessons which start again today). Whether I can achieve this remains to be seen, as you lot may be So Gorgeous that I simply can’t leave It alone. Maybe it’s because summer’s ending that I feel this way. A season we’ve enjoyed, sitting in the garden soaking up the sun, but now dowager Autumn stirs from fragile slumber, starts to clear away the summer’s spread, soon laying lace upon the bare table. I’d like to string it out a little bit longer, before the fuel bills go up and the alcoholic members of Mrs Dilo’s family return to their self-defeating ways of getting through the winter. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”?? Arse. So, here are Helno and the lads of Les Négresses Vertes with their hymn to summer Voilà l'été:
And here they are again in the no less summery but more flamencoy Sous le Soleil de Bodega:
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Singing lessons? Does this mean you're planning to be a folk singer? I'd like to help you choose your costume if you are.
ReplyDeleteNot glad, but I respect your need to scatter the maundy money of time more widely across the hungry canvass of your creativity.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the song, and picked up the chorus quite quickly.
Bonjours , Sir Gadjo Dilo ,
ReplyDeleteLes Négresses Vertes !! You surprise me !!
It is not completely the autumn but it is not any more the summer . The euphoria is diluted in a oceanic air , just like amber with the liking of the tides . More advertisement of any concert of lime pit air under the tree of gold (Maritime pine), or of chamber music on a mole of stopover .
Great fun!
ReplyDeleteI have resolved this year to try to remember how to love autumn.
Have a great time with the warbling. I may find myself diverted by the small intrusion of an accountancy course. Would you like to swap?
ReplyDeleteBananas, no, it's classical stuff, Schubert lieder and the like. And I've already got the costume: Max Wall's old penguin suit.
ReplyDeleteBrother T., mmmm, nice, absolutely. The song is indeed quite catchy, and one feels one might actually will summer back if one chants it enough times.
Monsieur Crabstix, ah, vous êtes un poète grand! (Is that right?) I'm a huge fan of LNV, though they were better before Helno topped himself on smack, the silly arse; what a great voice he had for that kind of music.
Kevin, glad you enjoyed it. I actually do like autumn - in fact I have no beef with any of the seasons - but this year it's arrival felt symbolic.
Madame, thanks, I will. Accountancy, eh? Swap? No, sorry. I was kicked out of a job as a trainee accountant when I was 22 years old.
Un grand merci Gadjo ... j'ADORE les Négresses ... all my favourite kinds of music (almost) rolled into one. If they had Fela on sax I'd be doing a Meg Ryan. Helno was beautiful. Such style. Such a voice. Such teeth. A sort of French Shane McGowan with impeccable dress sense. I am waiting for that 1950's spiv look to come back into fashion in UK. You see it a lot in Paris even now, especially around the flea market at Clignancourt. Mickey Pearce where are you now?
ReplyDeleteNow THAT was good fun!
ReplyDeleteSinging lessons! A man of varied pursuits!
Pearl
It may be soon Daphne. I saw a couple of youths on today's train dressed as though they were auditioning for 'Guys and Dolls.' If we've hit Runyon can the 50s be far behind?
ReplyDeleteDaph, great that you like them too! Helno was so perfect at what he did that it's such a terrible waste he threw his life away. Did spiviness ever entirely leave Paris? I seem to remember meeting a Mickey Pearce or two there.
ReplyDeletePearl, glad you like it. And varied pursuits, yes; talents... that remains to be seen. I do enjoy it though :-)
Kevin, are you sure they weren't England cricket supporters on their way to the latest ODI, the dress-code for this match being 1950s Hollywood gangster movies??
No Gadjo, at the ODIs at Old Trafford this year the dress code has been wet suits and sou'westers
ReplyDeleteKevin, ah yes, I hear that kids in Manchester are born wearing wet suits and sou'westers - another example of the wonder of evolution!
ReplyDelete