Music meme

[shewhomust]

It's a meme! And this is how it goes:

1. If you'd like to play along, reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. You then list (and upload or link to the video, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Then, as I'm doing here, you'll post the list to your journal with the instructions.

valydiarosada gave me a J -

- which was more of a struggle than I'd anticipated. My mind was suddenly awash with songs I don't like (Just a song at twilight...) or don't like enough to want to list (Jennifer Juniper) or which don't actually begin with J. That said, I'd include I see the joker as a bonus track if I could find a recording. Because the second hurdle was finding links to the songs - and the more obscure the song, the harder that was, and the more it seemed worth doing. Bang went my first really good idea, Martin Simpson's Jazzman... None of the songs which follow are on my list of all-time favourites, I had to look further afield than that: which is rather the point, isn't it?

So, in alphabetical order:

• Jacky, by Jacques Brel (with subtitles - (or here's Marc Almond, with Mort Schuman's translation*)



• The Janitor's Boy, Natalie Merchant



• The January Man, Bert J for Jansch



• Jerusalem - Billy Bragg's version



• Joe Hill, by Phil Ochs

What, no Dylan? That'll never do. durham_ramler, who is playing along at home, wonders if he knows which track I'll choose - well, I hope so! Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (BobDylan.com offers a selection of samples, or try Bryan Ferry's version, for a change.

And an interesting oddity: Joshua gone Barbados, which I hadn't realised was written by Eric von Schmidt (and an explanation of what it's about, and why von Schmidt is maybe being unduly hard on Joshua).

---

*Oh, that's interesting. Neither translator appears to know that a 'maître chanteur' is a blackmailer.

Comments

[sovay]

Neither translator appears to know that a 'maître chanteur' is a blackmailer.

How does that work?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

What, you mean what's its origin? Good question: 'blackmail' is 'chantage', but which comes first? Hang on...

Oh, dear, there are chamber choirs who didn't know either. Oh, well, doesn't matter unless you're speaking French. 'Faire chanter' (to make someone sing) is to exercise pressure on them, and chantage derives from that (Lexis says 1808).

Which is why, in the song, he talks about running a brothel, and becoming a 'maître chanteur' instead of a singer...

[sovay]

'Faire chanter' (to make someone sing) is to exercise pressure on them, and chantage derives from that (Lexis says 1808).

That's what I wanted to know!

Which is why, in the song, he talks about running a brothel, and becoming a 'maître chanteur' instead of a singer...

"Et que ce soit les autres qui chantent . . ."

I did some translations of Jacques Brel a few years ago when I discovered him properly; that was a line I knew I was missing, but I wasn't familiar with the idiom. Thank you very much!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

You are more than welcome!