Obit: Serge Reggiani

Subject: Obit: Serge Reggiani
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 04:51 PM

Died aged 82 on July 22nd - and the fact that most of us have never heard of him just reflects the way our monoglot English-speaking cultures impoverish us.

Here is a link to an excellent obituary in the Guardian. The opening paragraph alone would be enough to make you want to hear more about him,. so here it is:
Serge Reggiani, who has died aged 82, was one of the last monstres sacrés of the chanson and the cinema who emerged in France during the first half of the 20th century. Slightly built, with the face of a melancholy puppy, Reggiani was part of the heady leftwing postwar St Germain-des-Prés scene, which included Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret and Boris Vian.

My interest was aroused when I came across this scruffy but LP in a charity shop a few years back. I'd never heard of him, but it looked intriguing.

When I heard the title song, I was blown away, even though I couldn't understand most of it. I persevered and made enough sense of it to persevere a bit more.

Anyway here is a link to Les loups sont entres dans Paris" (The wolves have entered Paris).

Nothing in the LP notes about it, but I took it that it was actually about the Nazi occupation, and the Guardian obit bears that out. (And also indicates a link to the year it was recorded, 1968 - "During the events of that May, Reggiani's songs were acclaimed by the student protesters".)

(And if your French isn't up to it, here's a link to an Englished version I felt impelled to write, in the context of a current terrorist bombing - NB, not a translation so much as an adaptation.

Subject: RE: Obit: Serge Reggiani
From: open mike
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 06:02 PM

such a moving song and a wonderful tribute to a singer no longer with us that this song might continue to inform us of today's wolfish terrors.

Subject: RE: Obit: Serge Reggiani
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 08:24 PM

McGrath, thanks for re-posting. Your old link of 27 July 01 no longer works. I put both the song and your translation with chords in my notes at the time.
The Reggiani song also can be found at Paroles but, if you are searching by title (Titres) it takes a bit of time- so many 'l' songs in French.
If one searches this monster French lyrics site by Interpreter (Interpretes), one will find lyrics to over 100 of his songs (113 are listed, but access to a handful are forbitten because of copyrights).

Subject: RE: Obit: Serge Reggiani
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 08:47 PM

forbitten? Oh, well.
The 113 songs under his name at 'Paroles' are interpretations by him; he wrote a fair number of them, but other authors are represented.