Gaby, oh Gaby, tu devrais pas m’laisser la nuit
J’peux pas dormir, j’fais qu’des conneries
Gaby, oh Gaby, tu veux qu’j'te chante la mer
Le long, le long, long des golfes
Pas très clairs

Vendredi vient de se pointer. De toutes façons, la nuit je mens

J’fais mon footing au milieu des algues et des coraux
Et j’fais mes pompes sur les restes d’un vieux cargo
J’dis bonjour… Faut bien que je me mouille
C’est ma dernière surprise-party, je m’écrase le nez au hublot
J’ai mon contrat de confiance l’encéphalo qu’il faut
J’ai qu’du bol, j’en vois un qui rigole

Alors à quoi ça sert la frite si t’as pas les moules
Ca sert à quoi ‘cochonnet si t’as pas les boules

Ça fait plusieurs jours que j’écoute en boucle la version Bashung d’Avec le temps. Et puis tout d’un coup, j’oublie d’appuyer sur Repeat et je tombe sur Gaby Oh Gaby. Ça m’a fait un bien fou. Et puis je me suis souvenu de J’ai toujours rêvé d’être un gangster et de cette scène magnifique avec Bashung et Arno. Si vous aimez un tant soit peu l’un ou l’autre, prenez 15 minutes et regardez ces 2 extraits + le making of.

Et puis je me suis parti dans un délire sur A la Claire Fontaine. Connaissez-vous la version très libertine de Colette Renard?

À la claire fontaine
Hier, après dîner
Y avait trois capitaines
Qui m’ont déshabillée

Quelle belle nuit pour une femme
Quel voluptueux gala
Car comme vous, mesdames
Je ne pense qu’à ça


Et si vous voulez vous rincer les oreilles voilà 2 versions instrumentales et les paroles originales
Impro Africaine + chanson (Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal)
Version brésilienne (Baden Powell)

À la claire fontaine
M’en allant promener
J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle
Que je m’y suis baigné
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

Je voudrais que la rose
Fût encore au rosier,
Et que ma douce amie
Fût encore à m’aimer

Willis Earl Beal – Evening’s Kiss by HotCharity

In remission of a mind, watch and listen to find
The position behind this illusion of time
Got me counting my dimes so on the bus I can write
I’m even doubting the rhyme, I’m in no rush I can hide
Because I know that I tried, no longer taking a side
Tears don’t flow from my eyes, no longer go for the lies
I don’t protest or resist, I’m not invested in this
I’m backing out of the fight to give my spirit tonight
Gazing at the face of an overcast day
Watching rain fall from a dim cafe
Can’t see the wind but I see the trees sway
Now the evening’s kiss got me fading away
Just fading away
Just fading away
Fading away

Drip-drop, window pane hypnotic
Clip-clop, concrete heels on it
I’m still disillusioned and cool catatonic
Always in a daze without smoking that chronic
And the doors still open at the end of the day
And I’m still hoping without much to say
Ask me how I’m feeling; well I’m full of shit n doubt
Ask me who I’m with and I’ll tell you I’m without
These phantasm women got me swimming through the sea
Apprehension steady creeping, whirlpool is pulling me
So I might as well relax, go down with the flood
‘Cause my hearts been attacked and the sharks smell my blood
If I lose consciousness and awaken a-shore
I will never complain I will never get cold
Gazing at the face of an overcast day
Watching rain fall from a dim cafe
Can’t see the wind but I see the trees sway
Now the evening’s kiss got me fading away


There’s also an older very different version that popped up on the web a few days the whole media frenzy started.

Willis Earl Beal and s l e e p d e p t h – Evening’s Kiss (somniscient stylee) by s l e e p d e p t h

PS: Found Magazine seems like a fantastic concept. Check out their website / there’s some really great random stuff.

Viola Wills‘s cover is pretty catchy but the original was written after Gordon Lightfoot‘s divorce…

But the most depressing version is the one Johnny Cash recorded on his last album.

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong,
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost that you can’t see.

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong.
With chains upon my feet.
But stories always end,
And if you read between the lines,
You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand
The feelin’s that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it.
I don’t know where we went wrong,
But the feelin’s gone
And I just can’t get it back!


But usually covers work the other way around. It’s the fast songs that get the slow treatment.
Did you know David Byrne has a live “sincere version” of Whitney Houston‘s biggest hit?

And here’s her gorgeously 80s video, just in case you needed to delete the Bodyguard memory you’ve probably kept of her since the 90s.

Disco Deewane is one of her biggest hits. She was Pakistani but sang in Urdu and Hindi. She started as a Playback singer when she was 15! Here’s the download link for Aap Jaisa Koi, however you have to watch the video below: it’s her voice but it’s not her on stage. The movie is Qurbani, Bollywood’s biggest movie of 1980!

Anyway, so this young girl and her brother Zoheb were launched by Biddu, a legendary Indian music producer. His biggest achievement was producing Kung-Fu Fighting, Carl Douglas’ only hit in 1974. Perhaps you know the Cee-Lo Green + Jack Black version from the Kung Fu Panda soundtrack?

This track surfed the chopsocky wave AND was the first mainstream disco hit. So when disco died in the West, Biddu returned to India and launched the whole 80s Bollywood Disco fever. If you go back up and listen to Disco Deewane, it sounds a lot like Kung Fu Fighting (especially the Uh-Huhs…). The album was a huge hit around the world with 60 million copies sold?! Check out some of the different covers for the latin american versions here and here.

In my opinion, her best track is Boom Boom. You could say it’s Bollywood’s take on Donna Summer’s I Feel Love

The only sad part of this post is that Nazia Hassan passed away in August 2000. She had stopped singing and had dedicated her life to charity organizations and to her family. She was only 35. Here’s the Guardian obituary and a beautiful tribute I found online.

© Fouad Elkoury

Ooooo-oo-oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo
All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watching the puddles gather rain

And all I can do is just pour some tea for two
And speak my point of view
But it’s not sane, it’s not sane

I just want someone to say to me no, oh, oh, oh
I’ll always be there when you wake, yea-ah
You know I’d like to keep my cheeks dry today
So stay with me and I’ll have it made

And I’ll have it made
And I’ll have it made, oh
Lord no no
You know I’m really gonna, really gonna have it made
You know I’ll have it made
Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh

Blind Melon were pretty much a on-hit wonder band. I also like another track: Change but their career ended with their lead singer’s death.
Download this track here and check out this really amazing Stripped away version

And if you ever wondered whatever happened to the bee girl from the video check this link

This is the definition of my life
Lying in bed in the sunrise
Choking on a vitamin tablet the doctor gave
In the hope of saving me
In the hope of saving me

I need love
I need love


I discovered this track in the movie High Fidelity. The Beta Band have produced a number of tracks since but this stays my favorite. I used to work at a record store and to me this scene is just epic… followed closely by Jack Black’s rant on Stevie Wonder.

And here is the track that started the whole Rain trilogy (I’m thinking of having a small addendum, BTW…)

Rain, rain go away
Come back some other day
Rain, rain go away
Come back some other day

Well it’s been raining in my life
Everyday and night
I’m so confused with the blues
I couldn’t even eat a bite
But I met me a new little friend
Maybe my luck will change…

Bob Azzam is actually Lebanese (Wadih Georges Azzam!). He gave us timeless songs like Fais moi du Couscous Chérie and Mustapha. The last one was about a waiter called Mustapha Chehadeh that worked at Ajami restaurant in downtown Beirut in the 50s. Seems this guy was a legend. He used to give you the bill: Hommos 3 liras, Fattoush 4 liras, “In marrat” 10 liras… And if you asked what that item was, he’d say “Ma marret…” (“If it slips by” / “it didn’t slip by” for the non-Arabic speakers among you…)

And since we’ve been promised a lot of sunshine for the next week, I’m going to give you a CCR rain double bill

Long as I remember The rain been coming down.
Clouds of myst’ry pouring Confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, Trying to find the sun;
And I wonder, Still I wonder, Who’ll stop the rain.

Heard the singers playing, How we cheered for more.
The crowd had rushed together, Trying to keep warm.
Still the rain kept pouring, Falling on my ears.
And I wonder, Still I wonder Who’ll stop the rain.

And more importantly

Someone told me long ago
There’s a calm before the storm
I know it’s been coming for some time

I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain
I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain
Coming down on a sunny day

I think we’re going to stop the rain for a few posts / Expect another one whenever it starts pouring again

Just yesterday you slipped
away from me
without so much
as one word of good-bye
You packed the sunshine
in your big old suitcase
Now only the rain fills the sky

But in time
this heart of mine will heal
the Sun will shine
and I can find a way to stop the rain

Hey window pane
Do you remember
How sweet it used to be

When we was together
Everything was so grand
Now that we’ve parted
There’s just one sound
That I just can’t stand

Hey rain,
Get off my window…


I think we’re gonna have a “rain post trilogy”. This is officially number 2, after I like Rain.
I love this song. It was Ann Peebles biggest (only hit?) but was also covered by Tina Turner and I originally discovered it in Alan Parker’s The Commitments (yet another northern blue eyed soul discovery…).
Download her whole album here.

There are a lot of songs about rain and tears. The most obvious being Aphrodite’s Child‘s track of the same name. Useless trivia: this psychedelic one hit wonder band launched the careers of 2 of Greece’s biggest musical exports: Demis Roussos and Vangelis!!!!

Rain and tears, are the same
But in the sun
You’ve got to play the game

Rain and tears, are the same
But in the sun
You’ve got to play the game
Game…


And so we go back to Motown and the Temptations who are actually wishing for rain.

Sunshine, blue skies, please go away.
My girl has found another and gone away.
With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom.
So day after day, I stay locked up in my room.
I know to you it might sound strange.
But I wish it would rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

‘Cause so badly I wanna go outside. (Such a lovely day)
But everyone knows that a man ain’t supposed to cry, listen.
I gotta cry ‘cause cryin’ eases the pain, oh yeah.
People this hurt I feel inside, words could never explain.
I just wish it would rain (Oh how I wish that it would rain)

Oh, let it rain.
Rain, rain, rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh baby. Let it rain.
(Let it rain) Oh yeah, let it rain.

Day in, day out, my tear-stained face, pressed against the window pane.
My eyes search the skies, desperately for rain.
‘Cause raindrops will hide my teardrops.
And no one will ever know.
That I’m cryin’, (crying) cryin’ (crying) when I go outside.
To the world outside my tears, I refuse to explain.
Oh, I wish it would rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh baby.

Let it rain (Let it rain), let it rain.
I need rain to disguise the tears in my eyes.
Oh, let it rain.
(Let it rain) Oh yeah, yeah listen.
I’m a man and I got my pride.
‘Til it rains I’m gonna stay inside.
Let it rain (Let it rain) …

The instrumental bit reminds me so much of their best know track My Girl. No?

Since we’re talking about the weather, The Velvet Underground are right to ask Who Loves The Sun?

Who loves the sun
Who cares that it makes plants grow
Who cares what it does
Since you broke my heart

Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Not everyone
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun


Well it seems that Irma Thomas does.

It’s raining so hard
Looks like it’s going
To rain all night
And this is the time
I’d love to be
Holding you tight
I guess I’ll have
To accept the fact
That you are not here
I wish tonight
Would hurry up and end
My dear

I’ve got the blues
So bad
I could hardly
Catch my breath
The harder it rains
The worst it get
This is the time
I’d love to be
Holding you tight
I guess
I’ll just go
Crazy tonight…


And I’m gonna end this post with Karen Dalton tearing you heart out.
(Expect another rain post very soon… it’s probably going to be longer than a trilogy if the weather stays as bad this year in Beirut)

If I should leave you
Try to remember all the good times
Warm days filled with sunshine
And just a little bit of rain

If I should leave you
Try to remember all the good times
Long days filled with sunshine
Just a little bit of rain

Everyday is like Sunday
Everyday is silent and grey

Hide on the promenade
Etch a postcard :
“How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here”
In the seaside town
…that they forgot to bomb
Come, Come, Come – nuclear bomb

Everyday is like Sunday
“Win Yourself A Cheap Tray”
Share some greased tea with me
Everyday is silent and grey

It was also covered by Natalie Merchant and the 10.000 Maniacs

And by the Pretenders

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience was an indie band from New Zealand. This song is 25yrs old. I discovered it when Lali Puna covered it. Go to this blog to download their gorgeous version or watch it below. Or you can go here and download the JPS’ album Love Songs.

Let’s stay positive about the rain despite our wet socks. We’re not equipped to face this weather in Beirut / so what!? Here’s a song from the nineties.

Come and wash away the pain, step into the blessed rain
Cool the fire in your soul, the rain will make you whole

Take me dancing naked in the rain
Feel it washing over me, oh oh
Join me dancing naked in the rain
Cover me in ecstasy


And of course there’s the classic Gene Kelly song from the movie Singin’ in the Rain.

I’m singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feeling
I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love
For love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face
I’ll walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Singing, singing in the rain
In the rain.


I thought I was ending this post on a happy note. But actually, this song will always remind me of Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. As Alex, the leader of the droogs he indulges in a bit of the “old ultra-violence” while he whistles and sings this tune.

It always triggers a very primitive feeling of let’s just break everything. A bit like this Mano Negra song

J’ai comme envie de tourner le gaz
Comme envie de m’faire sauter les plombs
Comme envie de t’expliquer comme ça
Que ton indifférence, elle ne me touche pas
Je peux très bien me passer de toi
Comme envie de sang sur les murs
Comme envie d’accident d’voiture
Comme envie d’expliquer comme ça
Que ton indifférence elle ne me touche pas
Je peux très bien me passer de toi
J’ai comme envie d’n'importe quoi
Comme envie de crever ton chat
Comme envie d’tout casser chez toi
Comme envie d’expliquer comme ça
Je peux très bien me passer de toi
J’ai comme envie d’une fin torride
Comme on en voit qu’au cinéma
J’ai comme envie qu’ce soit terrible
Et qu’ça se passe juste en bas de chez toi
Je peux très bien me passer de toi

I was going through my digital music library and decided I’d clean it up a bit and make some space. I don’t know how I got to a really lo-res (56kbps!!!) version of Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee.
And I remembered that John Lennon had nicked Come Together‘s opening line (Here come ol’ flat-top, he was movin’ up with me) from a Chuck Berry lyric. A few google search attempts later and I had discovered it was You Can’t Catch Me. I’d always thought it was Come on…

He’d later record a whole album of Rock’n'Roll standards in order to settle this royalties issue.

It’s funny, I usually post so many lyrics, and this is a lyric-initiated blogpost but it’s actually leading to a mostly instrumental theme. Bear with me…

I then realized John Lennon was also “inspired” for Sun King, another track on Abbey Road.

Forget about the lyrics: they’re mostly gibberish and Google translate didn’t recognize the Span-talian at the end.
Focus on the progression: it sounds a lot like a Fleetwood Mac instrumental called Albatross

And the worst part is Peter Green got his inspiration from Chuck Berry‘s Deep Feeling

Once again, we have the Chuck Berry connection…
But wait, there’s more!
It seems a lot of lesser-known musicians are still not credited by the big boys. Click here to read some more about about Jake Holmes and Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused.

And all this “inspiration” took me straight back to that lyric from 1992: “Hail hail rock ‘n’ roll, comes from r ‘n’ b and soul…”

Ahaha ahaha ….
Pockets of hate, rockets of love
It’s never too late, the change in the color of
The color of her, the color of him
It really doesn’t matter what skin you’re in
Big yellow taxi cab passed me by
Stopped on the next corner to pick up a white guy
The color of you, the color of me
You can’t judge a man by looking at the marque

Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino
Here come Elvis, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee
Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino
Here come Elvis, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee


I love everything about this song: the video, the lyrics, the story behind the album “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat” as well as Garland Jeffreys‘ crazy career.

But wait! there’s more… we go full circle once again: Hail hail rock ‘n’ roll is a documentary film that chronicles two concerts celebrating Chuck Berry‘s 60th birthday!!!


Post-Scriptum: As I was finishing this post I did a small research and realized John Lennon and Chuck Berry had actually played together on the Mike Douglas show in 1972!!! Thank you WFMU. I’ll leave you with some a great version of the track that started this whole post!!!