Comments on: CHARLES AZNAVOUR – “She”

By: xxx

xxx — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:31:38 +0000

Buen cantante con buena sensibilidad, que dejara un buen legado.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:18:37 +0000

I discovered this through the EC cover and I think it’s a pretty perfect song. Nice to see it’s polarizing people… great songs probably should.

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:24:55 +0000

Obviously found this very boring as an 8 or 9 year old kid listening to the Top 20 (although it didnt used to actively annoy me like ‘Seasons In The Sun’ or ‘Eye Level’). Now I think it’s pretty amazing one of those rare tracks which I appreciate more the more I hear it.PS strangely enough a similar thing has happened with ‘Seasons in the Sun’ unlike ‘Eye Level’ which I still can’t bloody stand! and that’s from a person who loves instrumental music…

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:57:50 +0000

Google says it was one Christian Toma.

By: granny85

granny85 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:13:19 +0000

Can anyone remember who the hunk was in the old Cointreau advert?
He had a lovely way of saying ‘ora-nggges’!!

By: mike

mike — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:47:00 +0000

From my French teacher, on an end-of-term report: “He is making good progress, but he must learn to confine himself to what is considered to be acceptable French.”

By: Erithian

Erithian — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:48:24 +0000

My favourite pieces of teacher’s marginalia came from Mr Harvey, our English teacher. When I wrote about Macbeth’s situation in relation to that of Banquo, “as the song says, money can’t buy me love”, he wrote laconically, “Your frame of reference is perhaps stretched a little too far here.” Another time he wrote, quite reasonably in retrospect, “The needle on my waffle-ometer is pinging away merrily at this point.” Top man, Mr Harvey…

By: Waldo

Waldo — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:28:07 +0000

I must confess that “See me” appeared more than just the once as a mark for my English compositions or “stories” as the thick kids called them. Far more satisfying was a comment regarding a piece I wrote about a swimming pool, comparing this to the Berlin Wall. I was very pleased with it and the teacher’s remark was “Good if original”. The implication was obvious and when I showed this to my dear old mum, she was livid and ready to steam round to the school to confront the teacher. I assured her that the comment was the most flattering thing he could have written and that his opinion didn’t matter. If he felt that the work was beyond my wit (I was only a scumbag comprehensive school kid after all), it was completely up to him. My mum could never see this but a face-off with the school was fortunately avoided.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:29:04 +0000

Ah yes, the good old, intimidating “See me” in red ink. Quite a popular writing theme in my own West Central Scotland schooldays actually, although kittens etc. would have been replaced by “Catholics” or “Protestants” being given the Pooh Sticks treatment, depending on which school you went to (woe betide you in certain parts of Lanarkshire if you had a blue exercise book).

By: Waldo

Waldo — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:55:06 +0000

“Boxing Day Bobby” occupied all of three and a half pages of a red A5 exercise book. At the bottom was the comment from my teacher: “See Me”. The spooky thing was I can’t recall my parents having anything to do with my consequent sessions with Doctor Gangees, although I consider it unthinkable that they would not have been consulted to see whether there were any objections to my treatment. As for the story itself, Charlie Brooker and/or Channel 4 are quite welcome to it.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:35:43 +0000

Dr Ganges????? Surely too much of a coincidence on the Pooh Sticks tip.

I look forward to Charlie Brooker recycling Waldo’s story as his own idea in next Saturday’s Guide.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:08:27 +0000

Although these days, “Boxing Day Bobby” would not only be published but earn you a slot on Channel 4.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:31:48 +0000

I would have thought ‘Crackers’ was a fairly mild taunt even for thirteen year olds. I can see their point though.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:53:02 +0000

One day at school in the summer of 1974, a few weeks before I was to take summer exams as a second year, I wrote a composition for English class called “Boxing Day Bobby”. This told the seasonal tale of an enterprising lad (Bobby) who struck on a blinding money spinning idea. He simply went around all the houses in his well-healed neighbourhood on the day after Christmas, collecting up all the now neglected presents of puppies, kitties and bunnies into a perforated potato sack to take down to a bridge over a stream and there indulge in his own variation of “Pooh sticks”. For this vital service, Bobby naturally takes a commission. On the back of this delightful festive story I was cordially invited to undergo a programme of half hour treatments with Doctor Ramesh Ganges, who was on site to help my school’s many “special” children. During these sessions (there were about six of them, I think) I can remember moving flat animal shapes around a board depicting a farm, drawing the “Play School” house over and over and also playing Ludo with Doctor Ganges, which is rather like Trivial Pursuit without the questions. I remember Doctor Ganges as being a dear man, who reminded me of Professor Calculus from the “Tintin” stories, but his parting remark to me was double-edged:

“Waldo, you are a clever and creative boy but your imagination tells me that there is something disturbing in you…” Charming.

When I returned to my class, I had it on good authority that I would broadly be left to my own devices and not subjected to any cruelty. Amazingly this held sway. I think the advent of the exam season had much to do with it and I was, after all, in the “O-level stream”, largely a civilised group within a school choc-full of psychotics, neurotics, bullies, nincompoops, half-wits and violent basket cases (and that was just the girls).

Everything was going swimmingly until “She” by Charles Aznavour charted and very quickly occupied the top spot. Universally this record was loathed by my contemporaries, boy and girl, but I personally thought it was a beautiful song and said so, even though it was the theme to a Frank Finlay-esque TV series no bugger ever watched. I particularly liked the line about “beauty/beast, famine/feast”. I said this openly too. It was only after this happened that I walked into class after lunch one day and saw that somebody had scrawled “WALDO IS CRACKERS!” on the blackboard. I had my own idea as to the culprit but it wasn’t important. What was important was that someone had obviously considered my fondness for a pop ballad as a clearer sign of lunacy than my drowning-the-pets story, which even I later conceded was a worrying piece of prose, the consequent psychoanalysis of the thirteen year-old author being perfectly understandable. Thank God I’m cured now.

Happy Days!

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:46:52 +0000

haha IN PARTICULAR the xmas ad they did for DE KUYPER CHERRY BRANDY

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:42:50 +0000

also michel legrand! the taste-community for material like this has fallen through a hole in history a bit

diclaimer: as a tot i thought LES SWINGLE SINGERS were the greatest thing in all art and music

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:27:57 +0000

This spate of Francophilia came at around the same time as the Cointreau adverts. You know the one – woman at dinner party asks French guest, “What is Cointreau?” Frenchman reads the label:“Inimitable chef d’oeuvre – litairallee a mastairpiece zat cannot be equalled” etc etc. French entertainers such as Sacha Distel and Mireille Mathieu were on our screens a fair amount. And we weren’t too far away from a referendum in which there was a bigger vote in favour of the EC than you might expect today. Perhaps we just liked them more than we do now!

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:01:19 +0000

and pretentious

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:57:44 +0000

(it is WRONG that “cheese” become a word of disapproval! in a sane world “french cheese” would be a massive thumbs-up)

(i am going to add it to my list of WORDS IT IS V.LAME TO USE AS a DISS alongside dinosaur and fat cat)

By: Marcus Floater

Marcus Floater — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:35:08 +0000

An overripe slice of French cheese, is my feeling. Aznavour did much better things than this, but nonetheless he remains a second-rank chansonnier, compared with the likes of Brel, Brassens, Ferré, etc. A good actor, though. He’s excellent in Chabrol’s Fantômes du chapelier.

I seem to remember reading that this single was a huge flop in France!

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:01:09 +0000

Mike xpost: I prefer to blot such traumas out.

By: crag

crag — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:36:03 +0000

Beautiful melody, lovely arrangement, and that voice giving it the hook to make it stand out from the pack – yet another number 1 like Waterloo and even perhaps Seasons in the Sun(with its unusually perky musical arrangement) that seems to combine optimism w/ a meloncholy sigh of regret. Must have been something in the water at the time.
3 is way out- would have probably hated it at the time but this is a def 8 now.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:25:24 +0000

Back to “She”: does anyone else hear premonitions of “Fairytale of New York” in its opening moments?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:01:28 +0000

“The Old Fashioned Way” is another one of those songs whose point you only really grasp when you get to, erm, my age. Now his remark “The world changes – love stays” makes perfect sense.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:24:48 +0000

I was too young to appreciate either the TV prog or the single & hearing it on the radio used to induce huge guffaws at Aznavour’s tortured English and wobbly vocals. I seem to recall that comedians/impressionists of the day would grab the skin on their neck and shake it violently to create the Aznavour vibrato – I don’t know why I remember that. He seemed to hang around for some time after this – I recall ‘Dance In The Old Fashioned Way’ being a hit as well. The problem for me was that I could not hope to relate to what he was doing – it didn’t fit into my vision of pop & it was obv aimed at an older age group (prob the age I am now & above, in fact) so I discarded it. So having lived a bit how does it sound now ? Well, always trust your instincts, it may not induce guffaws anymore but it’s still an uneasy listen. Even EC’s version, which is better, still sounds strained and unwieldy. I can only think that it is the melody which irks me & the fact that the word she seems to be interminably repeated throughout the song. I no longer have a vision of pop that it doesn’t fit into but I can only really muster a paltry 2 on this one.