La mer - Charles Trenet

For today's song, we stay in France with prolific singer-songwriter Charles Trenet's hit, <La mer>.  The song was (according to legend) first written on the back of a napkin on a train in 1943, but Trenet's buddies didn't think the song was that great and didn't swing enough, so it sat in a drawer until Trenet recorded the song in 1946, and ended up being his biggest hit.  The song en francais is an ode to the ocean, with the chord progession and instrumentation acting as the hypnotic ebb and flow-like quality of the waves.  Eventually the song was translated into English and called "Beyond the Sea", recorded by over 400 artists, most popularly by Bobby Darin in the 1950s (heard here).

Charles Trenet the man, like out previous entry Edith Piaf had a pretty interesting life.  He wrote over a thousand songs and became a pretty popular cabaret artist during WWII, but made some questionable performance decisions - he played for Nazi occupier audiences in order to keep his fame rather than decline and keep his dignity.  France soured on him after the war for some of these choices, so Trenet moved to America for a few years, where he was arrested for allegedly pimping underage boys (it also came out that Trenet was gay, something he never publicly admitted to).  He toured and sang well into the 1970s when he retired, only to come back a few years later for a tribute concert, retired again, released an album (eat your heart out, Cher!).  Trenet eventually stroked out and died in 2001.

Revieeeeeews:

Holly:

La mer (Charles Trenet): Oh, another song I know but by a different name! This Charles Trenet guy has a super smooth, creamy voice, and he rolls his ‘r’s so perfectly. The song itself is pretty dated, and a bit harp heavy. As you listen to it you think “oh, this is pleasant! Maybe a little on the cheesy side, but I can deal with it”. Then you get smacked over the head by the background choir. Whoa, they just kicked the cheese into high gear! Still, a pleasant song to listen to. 3/5

Kelly:

I LOVE this song.  Unfortunately for Charles Trenet, I love the Bobby Darin version of this song (I love Bobby Darin.  He reminds me of Kevin Spacey, who I also love.).  Anyway, I was actually really impressed with Trenet's vocal performance.  His voices is strong and smooth, and I like that he gives 'er towards the end of the song.  I agree with Holly, ugh, that harp.  When the choir came in my immediate reaction was "holy shit, who orchestrated the choir, Puccini??"  It's a little dramatic and heavy handed for the lighter orchestration and content of the song.   It's a nice song, but sorry Charles, other people did it better.  3.5/5

Listen here:

La mer - Charles Trenet

La vie en rose - Edith Piaf

Et maintenants, nous ecoutons un chanson francais avec <La vie en rose> par Edith Piaf.  I don't think there is a song more identifiable with the city of Paris than this song.  Piaf herself wrote the lyrics, the melody being handled by "Louiguy" (real name Louis Gugliemi), written in 1945 and recorded by Piaf in 1946.  Her friends told her it was a bad choice for her signature song, but audiences disagreed, making it a huge hit.  La vie en rose - which translates to "a life through rose-coloured glass" is seen to reflect Piaf's tumultuous life and became her signature song, along with it's B side <Non, je ne regrette rien>.  The song has been covered by, well, everyone, most notably Louis Armstrong and Grace Jones.

Now for a bit about Piaf's life.  Ouf.  Her life was a French soap opera, starting with her being born Edith Gassion (Piaf was a stage name, meaning 'sparrow') to a disinterested teen mom and sent to live with her grandmother in a bordello where she was raised by the prostitutes.  At age 14 Piaf began singing on street corners and by age 17 met and fell in love with a man who would become the father of her child that year.  Because history repeats itself, Piaf gave birth at 17 to a baby girl, but Piaf was disinterested in raising a child, so that child was neglected and died at age 2 from meninghitis.  Piaf was very unlucky with men as well - the man who discovered her and brought her off the streets and onto the stage was murdered (turns out he was mobbed up) and the love of her life, a married boxer died in a plane crash flying out to see her.  She married twice and was involved in a car accident where she suffered a broken arm and two broken ribs, which then turned into a morphine and alcohol addiction.  In October of 1963 at age 47 Piaf succombed to liver cancer after drifting in and out of consciousness for several months, her last words being, "Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.".  The Catholic Church refused her a funeral mass due to her questionable lifestyle but had a change of heart in 2013 where she was given a proper mass.

Now the reviews:

Holly:

 La vie en rose (Edith Piaf): This song just screams France and all the things that I loved about living there! Edith’s voice is immediately recognizable and, though dated, is just so powerful. Somehow that weird fast vibrato seems to fit her just perfectly. The orchestration teeters right on the verge of being cheesy, but stays on the right side of that line, and the melody is just awesome. I love this song. My favourite part is right at the end with Piaf is just singing ‘lalala’ over the melody. 5/5

Kelly:

Oh man, this song is so French.  A lot of people I've talked to didn't like Paris, but I loved it, and when I close my eyes and listen to this song, I'm walking along the Seine with my sister, checking out the book stalls, watching the women and their fashion, sipping coffee in a cafe.  One thing I really like about Piaf (and this song) is that maybe aesthetically her voice isn't great, but it is instantly recognizable.  There's no mistaking with her fast "sheep" vibrato and her nasal delivery that the singer in question is, in fact, La Piaf.  The melody of this song will stick in your head forever, and that's just fine with me.  5/5

Listen here:

http://youtu.be/0g4NiHef4Ks

Al Gurugu - La Nina de los Peines

Today the DeCaigny sisters visit Spain and flamenco music with La Nina de los Peines (which translates to "the girl with the combs"), but on her birth certificate she is known as Pastora Maria Pavon Cruz.  Cruz was born into a Gypsy family in Andalusia and began her singing career singing on street corners to help support her family.  She was known for the abrasive quality of her voice and powerful delivery and eventually garnered the attention of poets and even flamenco guitar phenom Andres Segovia.  In this day and age is is considered in Spain to be the greates female flamenco singer ever, and her rendition of this song is seen by flamenco efficianados as a must-own single, and that we can thank her for preserving many flamenco styles that would otherwise be lost to modern ears.

The song itself has no known writer and the title "Al gurugu" is a nonsense term to the effects of 'doo doo doo' or 'tro lo lo'.  I couldn't actually find a lot of info on it, so this section will be short.

This recording is backed by flamenco guitar and some claps for percussion.  

Reviews:

Holly:

Al gurugu (La Nina de los Peines): I’ve listened to this song quite a few times trying to wrap my mind around it, and what I think of it. I like the raw quality of the singing, and sometimes I love the ornamentations, and sometimes, to my ear, they sound completely over the top. I definitely like the aggressive, almost angry sound of the guitars and I like the way they interact with the voice, but I’m not sure. The overall effect is not my favourite. For some reason, all the things combined just don’t do it for me. Meh. 2.5/5

Kelly:

I was really excited to listen to this song.  Being a guitar player I really appreciate flamenco music and love how aggressive and erotic it can be.  I absolutely hate to say it, but this song really disappointed me.  I found Cruz's voice more grating than anything - I would have like the song much more if it was just the guitar and clapping.  But, the most distressing thing this song did for me is that I felt next to nothing.  I listen to music to feel - happiness, anguish, hatred, SOMETHING.  The first thing that popped in my head when I listened to this was 'null', which is not a great thought to pop into your head when listening to music.    Sorry "girl with the combs", I shan't be adding this to my collection.  2/5.

Listen here:

http://youtu.be/xK3oOPiPjMI

(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 - The Nat King Cole Trio

Aaaaaaaaaaand we're back!

We're currently on year 1946 with the song that has been massacred by so many high school vocal jazz groups - Route 66.  This Nat King Cole is the original version and the song was written for him by Bobby Troup who got the inspiration for the song while - surprise - driving Route 66.  The song was pretty popular as it captured the 'great American road trip' and ended up being covered by a bunch of other groups, including The Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode (??) and Chuck Berry.

It turns out that Nat King Cole started out as a pianist in a combo and played shows around the country.  As luck would have it, his singing voice was smooth like butter and he gained more and more popularity, but unfortunately he encountered a shit-ton of racism.  He moved into an all-white neighbourhood in LA and because the Klan was still an active organization in the area, Cole would wake up to burning crosses on his front lawn.  During one show in the deep south, 4 men rushed the stage to attack Cole and the band, knocking him over and injuring his back.  Cole understandible never played the south again.  Unfortunately for lovers of good singing he was diagnosed with lung cancer and given months to live.  Cole didn't slow down his performing and adulterating and passed in 1965 at age 45.

Go Holly Go:

 (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 (The Nat King Cole Trio): I’ve always liked this song, and this relaxed version is great. Nat King Cole has a smooth, kind of treble-y voice (see Kelly’s part of the blog for a better description!), and like so many of the songs we’ve heard so far, there’s a great sounding trumpet playing off of his voice! I have to admit, I didn’t know that the Nat King Cole Trio was the original version, and I was way more familiar with the Chuck Berry version, among a whole bunch of others. I like this song, and this version’s pretty good. 3.5/5

Kelly:

I, like my sister, was unaware that this was the original version, but I'm more familiar with the Stones version and the version we butchered in high school vocal jazz (doo BAH doo WEE doo BAP).  And as far as Nat King Cole is concerned I'm much more familiar with songs like Smile and Unforgettable, but this song shows how smooth his voice really is - like a tenor version of Lou Rawls (oh man, that would have been amazing if they had sung together!).  I really like this version because it's pretty simple, some great piano playing and some pitch perfect muted trumpet as well.  Sometimes you shouldn't mess with a song when the original sounds so great, and I'm inclined to think that for this version of this song.  4/5

Listen here:

http://youtu.be/qjejXfZYp9Y

Lili Marleen - Marlene Dietrich

For this song we head over to Deutschland for the strains of (alleged) songstress and actress Marlene Dietrich.  Dietrich had a lengthy career as a singer, movie star and cabaret performer and was known for her sultry, oppulent and exotic looks, as well as being very fashion-forward by wearing menswear, creating an androgynous look.  Born in what is now a district of Berlin in 1901, Dietrich initally wanted to be a concert violinist, but a wrist injury kiboshed that.  She began acting and got her big break in 1930's The Blue Angel.  She soon became one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, although her screen acting career didn't last a super long time, as her films became knows as 'box office poison'.  It is said that in 1939 the Nazi party approached her and offered her a boatload of money to move back to Germany and appear in a movie about the Third Reich, but she turned them down flat and applied for U.S. citizenship later that year.  She started a stage act where she toured North Africa, Italy and Iceland entertaining the Allied troops with American night club comedian Danny Thomas.  She successfully segued into a world tour cabaret act that took up most of the rest of her career.  She employed song master and hair wunderkind Burt Bacharach to arrange songs that would hide her limited contralto vocal range.  Dietrich pretty much ended her career after falling off the stage and breaking her thigh, became an alcoholic and addicted to pain killers and spent the last 11 of her 90 years bedridden in her apartment in Paris.

So the song Lili Marleen was born the same way a lot of German lieder was - it started out as a poem and was eventually set to music some time later.  Originally recorded in 1938, the song didn't make much of a splash until WWII when a radio station in Begrade, Serbia (at the time Yugoslavia) started playing it for the occupying German troops.  The song became a big hit for the soldiers in part due to its nostalgic nature (it's about a girl back home) and soon it became the theme song for Erwin Rommel's soldiers in North Africa.  It eventually became a big deal for the Allied troops (who were listening in) and English and French versions were recorded.  Marlene Dietrich recorded the song in 1944, and performed it in her subsequent cabaret act as well as in the movie Judgement at Nuremberg.

Thoughts:

Kelly:

Ohh, I really like this song.  It reminds me of all that Berthold Brecht/Kurt Weill/German Weimar cabaret type music that I really enjoy.  The accordion makes it so nostalgic - I can imagine Dietrich amble down the main strasse in Berlin, cigarette in hand, exchanging niceties with passers-by.  I can see why Allied radio picked it up as well, because with French lyrics it could easily sound like a French composition (and the French really seem to have the market cornered on nostalgie, don't they?)  The clarinet sounds good too, and although La Dietrich is no Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, I enjoy the husky quality of  her voice and her delivery.  I had no idea that she sang or was involved in performing for the troops, I thought she was just a moody actress, so that was a cool thing to learn.  It was also cool to learn that she was a woman after my own heart and was a gay icon, loving the active gay cabaret scene of 1920s Berlin.  Nice work, Dietrich! 4.5/5

Holly:

Lili Marleen (Marlene Dietrich): Ok, so Marlene Dietrich is not a good singer. Her voice is husky, yes, sultry, sure. But good – nope. I kind of like the background accordion playing. It’s got a really weird tone to it, and it’s almost played as a wind instrument would play some of those lines.  I also quite like the song itself. We seem to be in a long list of songs with great historical import, which this song also possesses. Taking into account that I like the song, and the arrangement, but not the singing, I’m giving this a 3.5/5

Lili Marleen - Marlene Dietrich

This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie

And now for a song that everyone probably knows the chorus to.  This Land is Your Land is one of those songs that feels like it's been around forever, a traditional folk tune that no one really knows where it came from - but we do know where it came from, and that was the mind of Woodrow Wilson 'Woody' Guthrie (with a little help from our friends the Carter Family).  Woody was a behemoth of American folk music and a mammoth influence on such greats as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and perpetual nice guy Pete Seeger.  Where Seeger wrote on his banjo 'This marchine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender', Guthrie had a placard on his guitar which said 'This machine kills fascists'.  Guthrie was born in a small town in Oklahoma and wrote many songs of his experiences growing up in the dust bowl during the Great Depression.  To the surprise of no one he was associated with many communist sympathizing groups, although was never a card carrying member of any of them.  Guthrie was married 3 times and had 8 children, one of which is also a famous folk musician Arlo Guthrie.  Unfortunately, Woody had inhereted Huntington's disease (a neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscle control and leads to mental decline) from his mother and passed away in 1967 at the age of 55.

Guthrie originally wrote This Land is Your Land in 1944 as an antithesis of the recently released 'God Bless America', which he saw as inane.  He borrowed the melody of the song from a Carter Family tune 'Little Darin', Pal 'o Mine' and wrote his own lyrics.  This was something that he apparently did quite often to increase the popularity of his songs, and seeing as he wrote what is known as a scathing protest song during a time when his country was at war, he put it into a booklet with a few other folk tunes that he had written.  The song became a hit with people who were struggling economically and financially during that time and eventually became a protest anthem around the world, the lyrics being adapted for India and Canada (!)  Anyway, the song continues to be a big deal, as Bruce Springsteen and perpetual nice guy Pete Seeger sang it for Barack Obama's 2009 Presidential inaugauration. 

Holly:

This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie): This song is simple, and is played and sung without any ornamentation or frills, but it’s become a big cornerstone in American music history. Another song that has more historical than musical importance in my opinion. The guitar playing and singing are both fine on this recording, but nothing special. The fact that it was a protest song is what has given it the staying power over the years. I’ve never felt a particular attachment to this song, and I still don’t. 2.5/5

Kelly:

Yeah, again I agree with my sister on this one - a song heavy on historical importance and light on musical importance.  But maybe had it not been such a catchy melody, it wouldn't have caught on?  But we can thank the Carters for that (sorry Woody).  For some reason this song reminds me of my early childhood, maybe there's a Raffi version?  Anyway, Guthrie's voice sounds exactly like you would expect someone with the name Woody Guthrie to sound like.  It's pretty simple, just him and his guitar, but that's the set of for a lot of folk music, as it was meant for people to join in and sing together.  I can imagine that this song is relatively poweful when you have a bunch of folksters gathered at a park in New York with their guitars and banjos and hammered dulcimers singing their hearts out, but poor ol' Woody by himself just doesn't make the cut for me.  3/5

This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie

And just for fun, here's the first verse of the Canadian version:

This land is your land, This land is my land,

From Bonavista, to Vancouver Island

From the Arctic Circle to the Great Lakes waters,

This land was made for you and me.

Rum and Coca-Cola - Lord Invader

Move over, George Harrison and the Chiffons - we have our first instance on this list of a song being plagiarized.

But first things first - the history behind this song.  The book tells us that during World War II the US invaded the Caribbean island of Trinidad in attempt to block any invasions (makes sense).  Lord Invader decided to change his name from Rupert Westmore Grant to poke fun at the occupying forces, and his song Rum and Coca-Cola not only speaks of the delicious drink, or the blending of American and Caribbean cultures, but how the infantry would pay for the 'services' of many of the local Trinidadian women.  He also borrowed the melody from the nearby island of Martinique.  There's not a lot of info about Lord Invader, except for that he was important in early Calypso music.

The big controversy with this song is that after its release in 1943, a suspiciously similar sounding song came from the Andrews Sisters in 1945 with the same title and some of the same lyrics (they even sing with faux-Trinidadian accents).   Anyway, Mr. Invader took the 'song writers' to court where it was determined that yes, they deliberately borrowed from his song, and he was awarded with an undisclosed sum of money.

But here's the important part - what we think!

Holly:

Rum and Coca-Cola (Lord Invader): Hmmm. I listened to this song several times, and just couldn’t really get into it. It’s just a light, fluffy, forgettable song to my ears. The subject matter is really the thing that’s interesting in the song. So listening to the lyrics was really cool, and informative of the attitude in Trinidad at the time. It’s too bad it just wasn’t a better song. 2/5

Kelly:

Why do I feel like I've heard this song a million times?  I can't place it.  Anyway, I get that this song is kind of a big for Trinidadians and their feelings towards the American invaders, but this song just doesn't do it for me.  I understand that it's meant to be cheeky and pointed, but for me if falls flat.  And there has got to be a better singer in Trinidad than Lord Invader.  I found his voice grating and annoying, and it sounds like the band and backup singers didn't rehearse at all.  2/5

Rum and Coca Cola - Lord Invader

And below is the Andrews Sisters not-so-subtle rip off:

Rum and Coca-Cola - Andrews Sisters