[Dixielandjazz] Si Tu Vois Ma Mere

Sun Dec 16 06:29:17 EST 2018

Thanks to you all,

I didn't know the word of "Mare" and the misunderstanding with the title
"Si tu vois ma mère". It's very interesting ... and funny.

For my part, what I can say is that the first time Sidney Bechet recorded
this tune was in 1952
This tune was a very big hit in France, many bands played it and nobody was
singing it.

So, according to the big success encountered, the recording company (I
suppose) wanted someone to write lyrics (to make more money ?? :o)) ).

Jean Broussolle was a singer who was a member of a vocal group well-known
in France at that time, named "Les compagnons de la chanson" which made his
debuts with Edith Piaf.

Jean Broussolle wrote these lyrics :
---------
Quand je pense à toi
Aussitôt je vois
Je ne sais pourquoi
Le balcon fleuri
Où tu m'as souri
Quand je suis partie
Souviens-toi

Depuis ce temps je voyage
Et sur toutes
Les routes
À tout jamais ton doux visage
Qu'un rêve effleure
Demeure

Car le temps qui fuit
Au vent de l'oubli
Passera sans bruit
Sans rien effacer
Maman, tu le sais
Rien ne peut briser
Le passé

Je me souviendrai
De tes yeux jusqu'à mon dernier jour
Maman, mon plus tendre amour
-------

If you understand french, you can see that these lyrics are very
sentimental : someone who makes his life, getting older and older, time
passing by, but whatever appends,  he or she'll remember till his/her end
his/her one and only love : his/her mother.

Lucienne Delyle, a successful singer in France at that time, sang this song
in 1960 but the big hit was and remains today the Bechet's version.

Regards

Jean Marc

Le sam. 15 déc. 2018 à 23:25, Joe Carbery <joe.carbery at gmail.com> a écrit :

> I went to boarding school (in Ireland) at age fourteen. The staff were
> members of an originally French clerical order, though by this time they
> were all Irish. Remnants of the French influence were obvious in the names
> for family members, such as pere, mere, frere, sere. Being a rural lad and
> knowing no French, I was a bit shocked to hear students refer to their
> mother as a female horse!
> Joe Carbery.
>
> On Sun, Dec 16, 2018 at 10:15 AM Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:
>
>> Again, Bill, you've unscrewed the inscrutable with a throughly researched
>> response. I wonder if you could possibly do all this yourself, or do you
>> have some sort of contract with Satan? If the latter, don't sell too
>> cheaply, as Faust did, and do include some loopholes. I've heard that
>> eternal damnation is a drag. Seriously (the previous sentences were
>> intended as whimsy), thanks for this. You 're the only "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere"
>> completist I know.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>>
>> > On Dec 15, 2018, at 2:24 PM, Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On 15 Dec 2018, at 10:21 AM, Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:
>> >> If that's the meaning, it doesn't seem to match the lovely melody. I
>> wonder too what the lyrics would be, if there are any. :), :)
>> >
>> >
>> > Dear Charlie,
>> > I posted the following on the DLML on 15 March 2006.
>> >
>> > "Dear friends,
>> > In reply to my request, Rich sent me the French and English lyrics,
>> off-list, with the following comment:
>> > "I'd post these on the DJML but, when using plain text, I can't figure
>> out how to format the lyrics so they come out readable.  Maybe you can
>> transcribe them and post to the DJML - that WOULD make lots of DJML'ers
>> happy!!".
>> > OK then.
>> >
>> > "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere (Lonesome)"
>> > "If You See My Mother" (1952. Music, Sidney Bechet. 1958. Lyrics, Jean
>> Broussole)
>> >
>> > English version:
>> > 'If you are going to see her and the great love that has abandoned me
>> > Far from the thoughts that start to go away for-ever.'
>> > [8 bars]
>> >
>> > 'And if you see my mother,  tell her,  tell her that I haven't written
>> her
>> > So great the pain it breaks my heart
>> > Tell her for me my sadness I would have needed tender looks,
>> > And her soft hand, to take my hand and tell her
>> > And I shall return, sadly, close to her white hair.
>> > Re-find my childhood heart.'
>> > [24 bars]
>> >
>> > I have several band versions of the song (including Bechet and Wilber)
>> but none with a vocal.
>> > Therefore, I am having some difficulty matching the sentimental
>> (soppy?) words to the fine tune. It probably makes more sense in French,
>> which I would not dare attempt to transcribe.
>> > Over to the singers.
>> > Kind regards,
>> > Bill. "
>> >
>> > •PS (Dec. 2018):
>> > It is in my copy of 'Anderson', 1294 under the title "If You See My
>> Mother" (Lonesome) 1958 (Lyrics. Jean Broussole. Music: Sidney Bechet) with
>> both English and French lyrics, using the above lyrics. (Copy attached in a
>> separate email.)
>> >
>> > •While on the subject, you may also be interested in listmate Dick
>> Baker's research in the supplementary Annotated Notes to his 2014
>> publication:
>> > Stomp Off Records Index of 3,828 Tunes and Composers.
>> >
>> > Si tu vois ma mère [If You See My Mother] [I Remember When] [Lonesome]
>> (Sidney Bechet–Jean Broussolle)
>> > Paramount JB of Boston 1247
>> > Grand Dominion JB 1379
>> > <4--Aha--8/13/96 in DJML discussion of Bechet’s Si tu vois ma mere,
>> Michael Kott (makott at mosquito.com) wrote:
>> > The words were published in a French biography/songbook by Import
>> Diffussion Music (42-44 rue du Fer-a-Moulin, 75005 Paris, telephone
>> 535.44.25) in 1982. The book is entitled "Sidney Bechet, Mon Ami
>> > Sidney". I do not have the book, only a poor copies of some of the
>> dozen or so songs in it. The words to "SI TU VOIS MA MERE" were written by
>> Sidney Bechet and Jean Broussolle and the music was by Sidney Bechet alone.
>> > And Phil Crumley added:
>> > Last week there were several postings inquiring about this tune. Yes,
>> it does have lyrics which are:
>> >
>> > Si tu vas la voir, dis-lui dema part, Que le grand amour ,’Quim’avait
>> laisse etc.---
>> >
>> > The sheet music states that the music was by Sidney Bechet, lyrics by
>> Bechet & Jean Broussolle. It was copyrighted in 1958 by Vogue Records,
>> Paris.
>> > The tune is NOT about a person being lonesome for his/her mother. It is
>> instead about a person who has lost the love of his/her life and now,
>> because of the grief, "must return to her for her mother’s love to find
>> some way to heal my poor broken heart."
>> > Realized that here & elsewhere folks are referring to the song in
>> English as "Lonesome." We have Lonesome as alternative title, but don’t
>> have cross-ref under that title. Will put one there now. --4>
>> > 1/13/16 note from Jan Mulder says the lyricist’s name is spelled
>> Bronsolle (it’s not), which prompted me to look for an American
>> copyright--and I found it:
>> >
>> > SI TU VOIS MA MERE; slow, paroles et
>> > musique de Sidney Bechet. Piano & chant.
>> > France. © Vogue -Records; 20May58;
>> > EP132979.
>> >
>> > Neither spelling is in the copyright books anywhere.
>> >
>> > Bechet first recorded it with Claude Luter on 12 Jan 52, as an
>> instrumental only. I’ve found the labels of the original 78 release (Vogue
>> 5076), the original 45 release (Vogue EPL 7.488, and the original 16 2/3
>> rpm LP release (Vogue V.16.25001), and all credit Bechet only--and don’t
>> have vocals. Can it be that Brousolle/Bronsolle wrote lyrics for tune later?
>> > Jim Armstrong sings French lyrics on the Grand Dominion CD, but it
>> credited only Bechet as well. But Phil Crumley says the sheet music he has
>> was copyright 1958, the same year as the copyright I found in the book
>> saying by Bechet only. Very puzzling.
>> > I found several refs to the original 1952 Bechet recording being used
>> in Woody Allen’s 2011 film Midnight in Paris; the credits there are
>> >
>> > Lyrics by Sidney Bechet & Jean Broussolle
>> > Music by Sidney Bechet
>> > © Warner Chappell Music France - 1952
>> >
>> > So obviously, Jean Broussolle was involved in the lyrics to the song,
>> perhaps something between the original 1952 recording and 1958.
>> > What’s hard to explain is that 1958 copyright filing leaving him off
>> the credits at the very same time that Vogue was publishing a sheet
>> > with his name on it.
>> >
>> > •More than you needed to know - again.
>> > Cheers,
>> > Bill.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
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