OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud (Dec 2001)

Subject: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 08:22 AM

Gilbert Bécaud est mort.
Le chansonnier qui a chanté plus que 400 chanson est mort à l'age de 74 ans.
Qui est-ce qui sera le guide maintenant quand Nathalie viendra de Moscou à Paris?
Qui est-ce qui va chanter 'Et maintenant' ou 'L'important c'est la rose' à nous?
J'écouterais encore une fois à 'Quand il est mort le poete' ce soir et je dirais: "Chapeau, Monsieur".

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 09:32 AM

Nom de Dieu!

Wolfgang types impeccable French, too! A real polyglot. Heard this too on the radio as I got up this morning. French celebrities are dying off in droves this week - must be the damn cold ! Not very familiar with M. Bécaud's work - sad all the same.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 10:13 AM

Gilbert Becaud, though not known very well in the US for his work as a singer, would be familiar because he wrote the Everly Brothers hit, "Let It Be Me", and Vicki Carr's "It Must Be Him"--also wrote "September Morn", and a variety of film and TV music--

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: simon-pierre
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 11:38 PM

For those who can read french, here's a good tribute.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: simon-pierre
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 11:40 PM

... wich was written before his death...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 04:49 AM

Thanks for the link, Simon-Pierre.

Just to give you (North Americans) an idea what level of attention his death reached in Germany, it was among the top three items of the main evening TV news. That is the same level of attention the death of George Harrison has reached and the death of e.g. Leonard Cohen and Mick Jagger would reach. Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton, for instance, would barely reach a mention among 'further news', Martin Carthy's death would not be mentioned at all.

There are only three singers & songwriters worldwide whose death I guess would reach the highest possible level of attention in Germany, namely change of the TV evening main program immediately after the news for a special feature: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Wolf Biermann (from Germany, nobody of you knows him, except presumably Joe Offer)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 05:47 AM

Here's his website: (click). It makes no mention of his death - yet.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 07:58 AM

I checked with a splendid website of the words of french chansonnier songs, to see what Bécaud songs might be there. A fair number. This one was the first one up, and it's an appropriate one for the death of a minstrel.(Here are the others):

Les baladins qui serpentent les routes
Viennent de loin parmi les champs de blé
Les bonnes gens regardent et les écoutent
Et les étoiles leur parlent de danser
Les vieux châteaux dressés du fond du Moyen Age
Semblent guider leurs pas légers comme un matin
Et parmi les donjons perchés dans les nuages
Des princesses leur font des signes avec les mains
Mais les gars de vingt ans qui ressemblent à des dieux
Insouciants et joyeux parmi leurs rondes folles
Passent sous les donjons sans dire une parole
Ils ne regardent pas les bras tendus vers eux

Danse donc, joli baladin
C'est la ballade, c'est la ballade
Danse donc, joli baladin
C'est la ballade d'Arlequin

Words by Louis Amade.(For a rough translation, but good enough to make out the sense, I suggest using the Babelfish translate facility at the bottom of every post.)

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 03:09 PM

There's an obituary in this morning's Sacramento Bee, derived from information from the Associated Press.

French singer Gilbert Becaud, a master of the romantic song whose best-known compositions were "What Now, My Love?" and "Let It Be Me," died in Paris on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 74.

Along with Charles Aznavour and Guy Beart, Mr. Becaud, was among a group of famous French singers known for booming, dramatic songs during the 1950s. He earned the nickname "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" when fans ripped up the chairs at Paris' illustrious Olympia Theater after an electrifying performance in 1954.

He was best known in the United States as a composer whose songs were sung by Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, and Neil Diamond.

"What Now, My Love?" was recorded 150 times by legendary artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Elvis Presley, and Streisand; Sinatra and Aretha Franklin sang it as a duet, and Sonny and Cher also had a famous version.

But Mr. Becaud's favorite rendition was by Judy Garland, whose emotional intensity reminded him of Edith Piaf, the fabled French chanteuse.

He also wrote "Let It Be Me," a 1960 hit for the Everly Brothers,
and "It Must Be Him," recorded by Vicki Carr in 1967.

Charley Maroqani, Mr. Becaud's agent, said the singer died of lung cancer on his houseboat on the Seine in Paris, surrounded by family and friends.

Compiled from the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 03:19 PM

I suppose when Chuck Berry goes they'll say his best known song was My Ding-a-Ling...

For anyone who thinks they don't like Gilbert Bécaud, on the basis of hearing those songs, especially in English, you ain't heard nuthin' yet.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 03:27 PM

I suppose the same could be said of Jacques Brel, Kevin - the power of their songs gets lost in translation, and turns into easy-listening music when it hits the States. Are there any English translations that really show the quality of Bécaud's songs?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: OBIT: Gilbert Bécaud
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 01:18 PM

refresh