Lyr Req: Back Door / La Porte d'en Arrière

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: Dead Horse
Date: 02 Jun 08 - 08:04 PM

I found this on dat web ting, Back Door wid some guy from da Shetlands playin along wid Mr DL :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jun 08 - 09:02 AM

From YouTube:

DL Menard - My Back Door

DL Menard - The Back Door (audio only)

Marc Savoy (Groupe) - La Porte d'en arrière

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 02 Jun 08 - 07:28 AM

In answer to the posting just above, I have photographs of D L in his factory making chairs. I also believe that there are one or two in a book on the Cajuns but would need to search my shelves to find it.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 11:45 PM

I visited DL's home once. They had the ultimate country kitchen - on one side were four rocking chairs surrounding a little table with a coffee maker on it. There's a place like that in my dream home.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: bankley
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 11:51 AM

anyhow, it all brings back some fond memories... the kind you don't get from books...did have the happy occasion to meet and talk with the late great Dewey Balfa a couple of times, as well...... his dream was to one day go to Nova Scotia, I sent him info on the place but he died before making that trip back to L'Acadie

a real gentleman and like D.L., an ambassador for Cajun culture and music all over the world.... they kept it alive thru the hard days...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: bankley
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 11:30 AM

I don't... it was set up near his house... burned down a few years ago but Ricky Scaggs, among others, helped to raise money to rebuild it...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 10:18 AM

D. L. Menard and his wife had a chair factory. His wife wove the seats. Does anyone have pictures or one of the chairs?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: bankley
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 10:15 AM

a funny D.L. story... so we were sitting around his kitchen, and I asked him how his trip to the Grammy awards went... he says, "I didn't want to go. Big fancy 'do' like dat and me with nuthin' fancy to wear. But my wife say, D.L. just rent yourself something in Los Angeles when you get there. So we go anyway, and I rent a tuxedo, never dressed up like a penguin before.. not so comfortable. Anyway we be in de theater sitting , watchin' de goings on and dis loud band start to play. Red Hot Chili Peppers. and the poor guy playin' bass,(Flea), he wearin' nothin' but a big diaper.. and I sez to myself, man, D.L., you shouda not worry 'bout what to wear over here!!!!!!

"et il apportait une grande couche"--and he was wearing a big diaper

we all had a good laff.... quite the story-teller that Menard..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: bankley
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:41 AM

"no matter where you are, dat's where you at"    D.L. Menard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: Dead Horse
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:40 AM

Why is it that most of the bands I have heard play this one (including the lot I occasionally sit in with) always sing "J'ai passe DANS la porte d'en arrière" as the last line, when clearly the lyrics written and sung by DL were different to that, and used "DEDANS" and not "dans"?
DL's name always reminds me of Johnny Cash singing A Boy Named Sue, as his first name is Doris (Leon Menard)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 May 08 - 04:32 PM

The last line of each verse should be written with the ending "la porte d'en arrière (d'en, not en).

Menard's band members didn't like the song, which Menard based on the tune "Honky Tonk Blues" by Hank Williams. Remembering the recording session, Menard commented (in Cajun French): "... On the way to Ville Platte, Badeaux (band member) said, "Boy, I'm afraid I'm going to regret this. I'm sure of the waltz, but the two-step ...even the title sounds wrong."
"Well, I said, "you all can call it what you like, or not record it at all, but whoever decides to do either will pay for the session. If I pay for it, then I decide."
"We cut the waltz first. We played it three times and they were all about the same. Floyd Soileau asked us which we liked best. We couldn't tell the difference, so we let him choose. Then, we cut "La Porte d'en arrière." We played it once, and Floyd said, "That's it. That was great. You boys won't top that cut and I made sure to get it right because that's going to be the hit." The rest of the band didn't say anything, they were so surprised. It went so fast that Big John Suire, who had taken a flask of whiskey with him, didn't even have time to loosen up. It didn't hit him until on the way home.
"In those days, a session cost $175, which included 300 records, you understand, and you could sell them. "La Porte d'en arrière came out on a Wednesday and by Saturday I had my $175 back already and some extra money to split among the guys in the band."
They played at the Jolly Roger Club on Saturday and "we had to play it seven times on the bandstand."

Barry Jean Ancelet, 1984, "The Makers of Cajun Music- Musiciens cadiens et créoles," section on Lula Landry, Inez Catalon and D. L. Menard, pp. 43-55.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 01:05 PM

The title should have been "The Back Door." Though I've been listening to it, it was all "French" to me.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: JenEllen
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 12:00 PM

Wonderful! Thank you so much, Masato.
~JE

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 06:56 AM

The lyrics are here, too. I didn't have to type it. With a lot of accents.
~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: LA PORTE D'EN ARRIÈRE (THE BACK DOOR)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 05:43 AM

LA PORTE D'EN ARRIERE
"The Back Door"

1. Moi et la belle on avait étézau bal,
On a passé dans tous les honky-tonks,
S'en a rev'nu le lendemain matin,
Le jour était aprés se caser,
J'ai passé dedans la porte en arrière.

2. L'après-midi moi j'étais au village
Et je m'ai saoulé que je pouvais plus marcher,
Ils m'ont ramené back à la maison
Il y avait de la compagnie, c'était du monde étranger,
J'ai passé dedans la porte en arrière.

3. Mon vieux père un soir quand j'arrivais,
Il a essayé de changer mon idée,
J'ai pas écouté, moi j'avais trop la tête dure,
"Un jour à venir, mon nèg', tu vas avoir du regret
T'as passé dedans la pote en arrière."

4. J'ai eu un tas des amis tant que j'ais de l'argent
Asteur j'ai plus d'argent mais ils voulont* plus me voir
J'ai été dans le village et moi je m'ai mis dans le tracas,
La loi m'a ramassé, moi je suis parti dans la prison,
On va passer dedans la porte en arrière.

(Translation)
1. Me and my girl had gone to the dance,
We went to all the Honky-Tonks,
We came back the next morning,
The day was breaking,
I passed in by the back door.

2. That afternoon I was at the village,
I got so drunk I couldn't walk,
They brought me back to the house,
There was company there, some strangers,
I passed in by the back door.

3. My old father, one evening when I arrived,
He tried to change my way of looking at things,
I didn't listen to him, I had too hard a head,
"A day will come, my friend, you'll be sorry,
You passed in by the back door."

4. I had a lot of friends when I had money,
Now that I don't have any money they don't want to see me anymore,
I was in town, I got myself into trouble,
The law picked me up, and I was put in jail,
I'm gonna' pass in through the back door.

*voulont--in standard French "veulent"

from "D.L. Menard--The Back Door," Swallow LP 6038
SOURCE: Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People, vol. 1, compiled & edited by Ann Allen Savoy (Bluebird Press, 1986, pp. 275-276)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 01:54 AM

Elle,
It's in Savoy's Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People. Since I'm away from home now, I'll post it later, if anyone else doesn't.
~Masato

Subject: Back Door (la porte d'en arrière)
From: JenEllen
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 08:16 PM

Looking for lyrics to the DL Menard song, found as either 'Back Door' or 'La Porte d'en Arrière'

Thanks,
~Elle