Last Updated on: 14th April 2018, 11:07 am
I’m in a strange strange mood this morning. So you get my strange strange musings.
I was riding into work with a coworker yesterday and he had the French CBC radio station on…and an old song came on that I hadn’t heard in years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4T5TOXnnXg
It got me thinking about my impressions of this song the first time I heard it, and how shocked I was when I heard the lyrics.
It was in French class. The teacher played it for us once before handing us the lyrics. I thought “Ooo, a groovy song! Happy happy woo!” Then I got handed the lyrics.
Um?
Have a chorus
I’m knocking on the doors of tomorrow
nothing left in my hands.
I’m knocking on the doors of tomorrow
Barefoot in the dew with nothing left to lose.
Yeah! Happyhappyhappy! Full of talk of rocks of contempt being hurled in his general direction leaving deep and wide wounds in his life, escaping from shame and having nothing left but false promises and scorched earth. Woooo! Doodle doo bounce bounce let’s dance!
I thought of this as I scooted up the stairs of my office whistling the groovy chorus. Then I remembered the lyrics and what they meant, and thought hmmm. that’s not happy.
This got me thinking about a lot of old French songs I know that sound like they should be happy happy woo, but are actually quite sad. Let’s start with Tassez-Vous de d’la.
This one even has English sub titles for folks who can see. Basically the gist is “Get out of the way, I need to find my friend. Last time I saw him he was about to die from all the drugs he’d been shootin’ and snortin’ and I abandoned him. I didn’t want to but I didn’t know what else to do. Forgive me. I’m a horrible friend. Let me through I have to find him now! Help help help I’m running through this crowd and I have to find him!”
Wee hoo! Dance dance! Party party woo boyng!
Or, there’s this old thing. Felix leclerc Le P’tit Bonheur.
Woooohooo, I saved a girl who was dying in a ditch. She made me happyhappyhappy until she left me without warning, now I wanna jump off something high and can’t look at a pretty girl or a fountin. Whistle whistle wooo.
We’ve already talked about La Ziguezon Zinzon,
Here’s another song from the same band. This one’s kind of a joke song, but it’s still about a rather dark legend all about making deals with the devil and stuff…happy happy happy! I’m including it because it’s in my head and hey, I learned a lot of Quebec swear words through this song.
Here’s a version by a different band, just because I think their name is hilarious and it sounds a bit better, even happier than the one I know! Les Maudits Matous – Martin de la chasse galerie
Hehehehehehehehehehhehe! Nice name there!
So…the moral of the story is if you hear a beautiful happy song in a foreign language, you might wanna look up the lyrics before humming it while skipping down the street.