Sunday, May 28, 2006

Aznavour

Off on a shopping mission, and as a result of being in a preparatory mode, I have had for the last several days only the French CBC radio stations on in my car. What a nice treat it offered on this trip! There is a sort of Desert Island Discs show on with Charles Aznavour as guest.
As easy at is to become exasperated with French attitudes, the assimilation process that went on between Aznavour and French culture is as close to ideal as I can imagine occurring anywhere. When we in the Anglosphere had to listen to sappy lyrics like those in 'Yesterday', and people actually thought they were good, Aznavour (and many others around him) were really writing songs.
Very interesting is that he regards 'Sa Jeunesse' as his song.
So many of his best songs are about a sort of entropy, and regret, in life, that I guess this makes a certain sense.
Moreover, it does not matter what age you are, these lines still carry their force.

Souvent en vain
On tend les mains
Et l'on regrette
Il est trop tard
Sur son chemin
Rien ne l'arrête
On ne peut garder sans cesse
Sa jeunesse...

1 Comments:

At 3:05 AM, Blogger Claude said...

Je l'aime beaucoup. Il me fait pleurer. Des vraies larmes...Not many have the power. It's a gift. Il est sincère. La vie n'est pas un jeu pour lui.

 

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