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Stand up, ladies and gentlemen
I’m sure you’ll love his new song This man is a wonderful composer Combined to a talented singer He sang for you Water Mint Colour For me it’s a really great honour Stand up ‘cos he is with us tonight Please welcome Mr Eddy Mitchell… |
That’s the opening to this song by La Ruda, the rest of which is indeed in French. I guess we know that the above verse was not penned by a native English speaker due to the oddness of the phrase “combined to a talented singer”. Even the slightly more correct “combined with” sounds a bit strange, but it’s interesting to note how little phrases of our native language get embedded within our brains to the point where only a poet or a non-native speaker would consider deviating in such a way from the expected phrase “a wonderful composer as well as a talented singer”.
Eddy Mitchell was a French actor and singer, originally called Claude Moine who took his new name, according to Wikipedia, due to his admiration for American-born French actor Eddie Constantine. The song includes several references to songs by the singer which include songs such as Johnny B Goode which he covered with French lyrics (which, out of interest started Mon ami Chuck Berry chante depuis toujours, de drôles d’aventures dans des histoires d’amour) as he did with other famous Rock ‘n’ Roll tracks such as “Riding along in my automobile” (which became À credit et en stéreeo).
The first “verse” of this song is in English and references one of Eddy’s famous songs “couleur menthe a l’eau” which is translated by La Ruda as Water Mint Colour, a title which never existed as far as I can tell. This song is also referenced in the main body of the song.
The song is about a guy who is forever reminded that he has the same first name as Eddy Mitchell, a name not so common in France! This would be the equivalent of being called Elvis I guess.
Les Chaussettes Noires mentioned in the song was the name of Eddy Mitchell’s first group. I’ve highlighted very few items of vocabulary below, I’m not sure if this is because I am being lazy or because the song is a lot more straightforward than most.
| Remuer | To stir |
Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | |
Look out now Eddie sees red, when asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Les bancs de l'école | School in general |
Difficult to translate this perfectly - "to be on the school benches" is used in situations such as "Il était sur les bancs de l'école de théologie". School desks, perhaps? | |
Si on ne supporte plus le rock'n'roll et qu'on vous chante le boogie woogie depuis les bancs de l'école | |
If you can't stand rock'n'roll and you've had people sing boogie woogie at you ever since you were at school | |
| Voir rouge | To see red |
Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | |
Look out now Eddie sees red, when asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Certes | Of course |
Eddie sois bon ce n'est rien, certes, curieux est le destin | |
Eddie be good, it's nothing, of course, fate is strange | |
| Le rêve américain | The American Dream |
| à la fois | At the same time |
Tu portes à la fois un joli prénom et le rêve américain | |
You have both a great name and The American Dream | |
Eddie Voit Rouge - La Ruda | Eddie Sees Red (translation of Eddie Voit Rouge by La Ruda) |
| Stand up, ladies and gentlemen | Stand up, ladies and gentlemen | |
| I'm sure you'll love his new song | I'm sure you'll love his new song | |
| This man is a wonderful composer, combined to a talented singer | This man is a wonderful composer, combined to a talented singer | |
| He sang for you Water Mint Colour | He sang for you Water Mint Colour | |
| For me it's a really great honour | For me it's a really great honour | |
| Stand up 'cos he is with us tonight | Stand up 'cos he is with us tonight | |
| Please welcome mister Eddy Mitchell | Please welcome Mr Eddy Mitchell | |
| La vie n'est pas, la vie n'est pas drôle | Life is not, life is not funny | |
| Quand on a pour prénom Eddie | When your first name is Eddie | |
| Si on ne supporte plus le rock'n'roll et qu'on vous chante le boogie woogie | If you can't stand rock'n'roll and you've had people sing boogie woogie at you | |
| Depuis les bancs de l'école | Ever since you were at your school desk. | |
| Eddie sois bon Eddie sois bon, par tous les saints | Eddie be good, Eddie be good, for heaven's sake | |
| Il en a bouffé de cette chanson, la connaissez-vous, non ? | He's had enough of that damn song, you know it, right? | |
| Eddie sois bon, et ta soeur ? Il connait ça par coeur | Eddie be good, and your sister? He knows it off by heart | |
| Dans son sommeil ça revient… | In his sleep it comes back ... | |
| Eddie réveille-toi ; tu dors depuis des heures | Eddie wake up, you've been asleep for hours | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | When asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Parlez-lui des chaussettes noires, il y a toujours un coin qui lui rappelle... | Talk about the "chaussettes noires", there is always something to remind him... | |
| La vie n'est pas, la vie n'est pas drôle, quand on a pour prénom Eddie | Life is not, life is not funny when your first name is Eddie | |
| Si on vous a chanté depuis l'enfance qu'elle a des "yeux menthe à l'eau" ou "la dernière séance". | If you've been sung at since childhood that she has "water mint eyes" or "the last meeting". | |
| Oh Eddie Allons, Eddie quand on y pense bien | Oh come on Eddie, Eddie when you think about it | |
| Tu portes à la fois un joli prénom et le rêve américain | You have both a great name and The American Dream | |
| Eddie sois bon ce n'est rien, certes, curieux est le destin | Eddie be good, it's nothing, of course, fate is strange | |
| Je sais tes parents étaient fans d'Eddie Cochran, d'Eddie Cochran | I know your parents were fans of Eddie Cochran, of Eddie Cochran | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now Eddie sees red | |
| Quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | When asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now Eddie sees red | |
| Parlez-lui des chaussettes noires, il y a toujours un coin qui lui rappelle... | Talk about the "chaussettes noires", there is always something to remind him... | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | When asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Parlez-lui des chaussettes noires, il y a toujours un coin qui lui ra... | Talk about the "chaussettes noires", there is always something to rem... | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Quand on lui parle d'Eddy Mitchell, ça remue sa mémoire | When asked about Eddy Mitchell, it stirs his memory | |
| Attention maintenant Eddie voit rouge, | Look out now, Eddie sees red | |
| Comme est curieux le hasard, lui il aurait voulu s'appeler Johnny. | The strange thing, as it happens, is that he would have liked to have been called Johnny! | |
| Eddie Yeahh ! | Eddie Yeahh! |
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Bonjour
Petites précisions :
- “couleur menthe à l’eau” fait bien référence à une des 5 chanson les plus connues de “Mr Eddy” ->
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17uez_eddy-mitchell-couleur-menthe-a-leau_music
- la chanson est en fait sur quelqu’un qui ne supporte plus qu’on lui parle sans cesse d’eddy mitchell, car si ses parents l’ont appelés eddie, c’était en fait en hommage à eddie cochran (beaucoup moins connu qu’eddy mitchell) !
N’hésitez pas à me contacter, j’aimerais bien participer à ce site, vous apporter des précisions si besoin. C’est une belle initiative !
)
(i could tell you that in english, but i guess you can translate my message easer than i could wrote in english
Et je suis un gros fan de la ruda, ce qui m’a amené chez vous !
Bonjour Calino!
Merci beaucoup – je suis très heureux que vous avez trouvé mon site grace de La Ruda! C’est absolument mon groupe préferé a ce moment.
Est-ce que j’ai bien compris qu’il y a une petite erreur dans ce que j’ai écrit ci-dessus?