I remember a song in French which was a hit in Ireland in , I think, the late fifties.
As far as I was concerned it was just a series of La’s as in Ladi ladi Lo so I assumed it to be a nonsense song and la’d along with the rest.
I heard it lately on Nostalgie and it actually is about a girl refusing a boy something.
The words actually say
Elle a , elle a, ell a dit , elle a, elle a dit non.
Not exactly Moliere I know but not total rubbish.
What surprises me lately is that as I age more and the past becomes clearer , words of songs adhering to my brain reappear and start to make some sense.
This all started with the eagle of a few post ago.
As we looked up at it a line from a Leonard Cohen song came back from my misspent college days ;
I thought I saw an eagle ,
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then it lodged and I went about the house for the last week mouthing bits of this song , so much so that I got Síle at it too.
So yesterday I finally got out the lyrics and put them on my blog, then I got a youtube version of the song and put that up on my Facebook site.
I now am somewhat exorcised (Sile still is not, she claims the song went through her dreams all night last night )
However there is a piece in the song that I think we should embroider in our samplers , previously I had just heard it as la la la .
These are powerful words;
If you call me brother now
Forgive me if I enquire
Just according to whose plan.
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must
I will help you if I can.
Comments
Terry Cunningham
on February 20, 2011I remember a crazy meaningless song I used to sing as a 6-year old. One bit of it was, “… When the snow lay round about, dee pan Chris pan deeben”. I never could fathom the last part!!
Terry C.
Marymac
on February 21, 2011Coincidentally, we have been having great fun recently, exploring various “mondegreens” (suggest you google its provenance) There are a few excellent examples on Japanese CD of Heavy Petting, eg instead of “I swam the Irish Sea again, following some blind instinct” they had put “following some blinding stink”
Martin
on February 23, 2011My favourite Mondegreens were those with my surname in like Glem Campbell singing :”I hear you singing in Dwyers ” or The Wolf Tones “Every man must stand behind the men behind Dwyer ” or even the same Leonard Cohen put in his tuppence worth when he sang about “Like a Bird on Dwyer “.
It is not all of us who have Real Songs mentioning our names…”Jove was at home when Marymac …”
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