Petula Clark, "Downtown."
Petula Clark, "Ciao ciao."
Petula Clark, "Dans le temps."
Obviously they're the same song, with identical backing tracks,* which isn't the interesting thing here for me (especially since I've known "Ciao Ciao" since high school Italian class--the lyrics are completely different in meaning [as are the lyrics for "Dans le temps"], and quite good by the standards of the sentimental summer romance genre). This kind of thing is not uncommon for multilingual Clark, who was huge in France (and England) long before anyone in the U.S. had heard of her. She has French versions of most of her hits, from "Viens avec moi" ("I Know a Place") to "C'est ma chanson" ("This Is My Song"), not to mention French-language covers of English-language songs, like "Un jeune homme bien" ("A Well-Respected Man") and "Ceux qui ont un coeur" ("Anyone Who Had a Heart").**
*Except that I think the Italian and French versions are slightly sped up, though whether that's an artifact of the digitization or a deliberate thing done in the studio, I don't know. I only have the English version on original vinyl, so I can't compare directly.
**And, while I'm at it, there are her delightful French songs that as far as I know don't have equivalents in other languages, like the very yé-yé "Prends garde à toi" and the utterly silly "Ô Ô Sheriff," and of course there's also the wonderfulness that is "Chariot," later turned into "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March.
But what's fascinating me is the backing vocalists--because I'm pretty sure, but not completely sure, that they're the same in each version, too. When they're led by Clark singing "Downtown," it sounds like they're saying "downtown," too--but when she's saying "Ciao ciao," they sound like they're saying "ciao ciao," and when she's singing "Dans le temps," they sound like they're saying "dans le temps." But if you listen closely (you can hear it best around 1:55 in the English video, 1:54 in the Italian, and 1:52 in the French), I think they're saying the same thing in each song, which is something like "Taaau-taau," and our contextualizing brains do the work of making them sound like they're saying the very similar-sounding words we find around them.
I might be wrong--sometimes I think they all sound the same, sometimes I think they're all different. But if I'm right--that's very clever!
16 comments:
,this isn't to do with the post ..but i was wondering ..in my flut; looking about .. is your cat licking your shirt the baronette.. ?
where are you seeing this anne? totally possible - he likes to compulsively clean. i think at times he gets so into cleaning himself that he loses sense of where his body ends.
are we talking about ethan's cat cleaning ..or ethan .. ..so what is the baronette naming all about ..of companion ..is this ethan again ..or companion ..the talking cat ,male .. ? ?? ..oh it's a comment to the right there on the pg ..
oh oh. sorry, let me back up. i'm ethan's partner, chris. i periodically post on the blog too, but it's been awhile since i did.
'thebaronette' name's from a failed band idea ethan and i had called 'klaus and the baronettes'. it got demoted to a username once we gave up on the idea.
boorman is our male cat. he was the one doing the shirt-cleaning and feeling embarrassed after ethan caught him.
thanks for commenting anne. i've enjoyed reading your conversations with ethan. i'll join in one of these days...
.it's funny that you happened to be there as i commented about that .. ..it makes me very grin happy ..i like to see people that are together in coupling ..of very close in all that they do .. .. oh please tell me that you read aloud together in a very playful way .. ,hello hello.. i don't really know ethan that was the first time i've made any comments to him..but he may have noted some ..the little prince is really a girl comments ..by an anne,me ..on others.. known to both of us .. pages .. .i was going to get in to saying something of hoban ..but this is .. too difficult .. .of a way of conversing .. i'm more of an emily d. letter writer of back and forth ..in a modern way.. sort ...or best.. drama.. face to fave .. curious ..of what you and ethan do for a living . ..my novel reading was either in my early teens skipping school.. or when i've worked at reviewing child lit for schools .. .
yah, rather good timing on my part! of course, i did just stir up some confusion in that. in the past now!
very nice of you to say that of ethan and i. we are very close in that way. haha, and yes, we've read playfully together. although, one time involved the bhagavad gita of all things.
i'd love to keep talking with you, anne. find out more about you and to share with you. i want to ask though if you'd like to shuttle the conversation to another format? one that you prefer more? i'm open to anything. (am i gathering correctly you like email or did you mean sending letters through the mail? if email, here's mine asdindebimte@gmail.com)
chris
of the seventh .... i came over here in the afternoon.. was it .. to read a bit ...of why ..in a min.. and my eyes wandered as they do .. and they got stuck on the cat licking.. i couldn't focus to read ..i''ll say why ....i felt a need to make some sort of comment ....of why i came over and felt a need to say something sort of funny and friendly .. because i felt badly about the last comment i left over on john's ('lox ) ..i felt like i was in a western ...of the way some of the men were commenting there .. don't know why really .. anymore ..something just overwhelmed me ..anyways ..ethan didn't say anything wrong .. i shouldn't have left the comment ..about the way men talk there .. sorry ethan it wasn't you .. and sorry about your petunias..post here ...oh wait .. maybe that's not her name .. .
i just went to say that i'm a little overwhelmed with email.. and a little more .. as a reply..and it's not a real address ..why would you do that .. whoever you are ..
that's ok anne. no worries. and what's this about it not being a real address? (i'll admit, it does looks a little suspiciously randomized, but that's it.)
,my mind is likely very different from yours .. . and still mostly lost in the wooded ...of not tec' tech at all..low tec' to no tech.. ..think of me as really being.. from neptune or somewhere ..or of missing a lot of schooling .. .what is your idea of random.. ? and for me fiction/non fiction it is all real and science is soup..
gotcha. sorry, i didn't mean to assume.
i know 'randomized' wasn't an accurate term for my address, but it's often what people think of it and then believe it to be illegitimate. wasn't sure if you thought i was giving you a fake.
what is 'soupy' about science to you?
, funny..timing again.. i just came over to add something for ethan ....of that i was surprised that he didn't know of hoban because of riddley walker .. .more not petunias ./ .. .that email.. didn't go ..i told you that ..
,of soupy of science..well that meant a lot of things ..as always ..i say too much with too littl'
I think the cat also know how to other things, but now that you've caught him licking the shirt he's taken precautions, and you'll never catch him ironing or washing the dishes.
,oh the s landed here . ..that was missing from jonathan's knows / yes clearly they lick the dishes in the night .. but of the ironing ... you've all been thinking that it's just something of ..all clothes are made in the orient now and ...of don't need ironing anymore..but the truth is they lick...those unsightly folds out in the night and they are dry by morning..
it was boun to land somewhere.
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