Help: Apres de ma blonde

Subject: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 03:47 PM

This is an attempt to ask a question I just knew you could help with, but which I have forgotten!

I was driving through Sarf Lun'n, running through songs I knew, and surprising myself with how many - not up to Bert's list - when I came up against a problem. I'll post that on Mudcat, I thought, but, what with the Sarf Lun'n traffic, it had gone when I got home. I've been trying to recover it, but with no luck.

I was going through the three songs I know in French, two from my Dad, and one from school, when it came up. It wasn't "Il etait un petit navire", which we learned three verses of, and then the head of department then banned. I know all the verses of that.

I don't think it was "En passant par la Lorraine". I have all the verses of that, and know what the French means. (Does anyone know what the song is about though? This girl with her clogs marrying the son of the king? Sounds like an exposition of a story like the Keeper did a hunting go.)

So it must have been "Aupres de ma blonde". I know the verses, and their meaning, but I'm not sure what the chorus means. "Aupres de ma blonde, qui fait bon dormi," what has that got to do with her lover being off in Holland?

Unless the way my mind was going was that my Dad learned those songs while learning French before going to Normandy, and that there were other wartime songs, which linked up with a Polish connection (via the Enigma film thread, and the new film I've heard of in which the Polish airmen in the Battle of Britain are replaced by an American Eagle squadron), so that I wanted the words for "My darling daughter."

I'll check the database.

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 03:50 PM

There's a parody, but not the original, or rather the English version of the original. Any help?

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:32 PM

Apres de ma blonde, qu'il fait bon, fait bon, fait bon,
Apres de ma blonde, qu'il fait bon dormir.

"Beside my blonde one, how good it is to sleep"

Or are you looking for a deeper meaning?

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:35 PM

That is roughly what I thought - but, the song is sung by a female, and the blonde in the chorus is in the feminine form. So who is singing it?

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:42 PM

I dunno- maybe shesings the verses and he sings the chorus. Or maybe it's blond-e to make it more rhythmic and musical. Wish I could help. It's a sweet song!

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:45 PM

I once sang it with an Irish song "This one and that one may court him" which also concerns a missing love in the Netherlands.

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:51 PM

And I've just found that the version I know is different from the DT version, which does not mention where the mari is.

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Amos
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 05:25 PM

The song's chorus is sung in the male voice about his blonde girlfriend. In the verses, the birds in his father's garden are singing for all the girls who don't have husbands and the singer asks, "What would you give, my beuty, to have a husband?", to which she replies, "I would give Versailles, Paris and Saint-Denis; the towers of Notre-Dame, and those of Amiens as well."

The chorus, each time, is the male voice.

Hope this explains it?

A

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Amos
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 05:32 PM

Oh, the chorus isn't "qui il fait..." but Que il fait..." meaning how good it is to sleep with my blonde lass.

A

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 06:14 PM

Thanks for that - I was writing from memory, which doesn't get many refreshers in French. The version I learned, however, had an extra line. This was able to be fitted in because each verse began with the last line of the previous verse. It came after the line about the dove singing for the girls without husbands. In the Digitrad version, between these two verses.

3. Qui chante pour les filles qui n'ont pas de maris Pour moi, je chante guere car j'en ais un joli.

4. Que donneriez vous, belle, pour avoir un mari? Je donnerai Versailles, Paris et St. Denis....

It says "Il est dans la Hollande, les Hollandais l'ont pris." I think. Which puts the switch between characters after 3.1, with the male coming back for 4.1. This does make it clearer.

Now what about "Mother, may I go out dancing?"

Penny

Subject: RE: Lost hope question......
From: Amos
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 06:17 PM

Gee, Penny

Things to be thankful for: singing this song on and off for 35 years,I never learned that extra verse about having had one who was taken away by the Dutch. So the perplexity it induces bypassed me completely!!! Sorry I can't help with that one.

Regards,

Amos