B4real wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:29 am
Vickie wrote: B4- I have missed your much needed input. I have been listening to Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour, and I will be posting my questions and thoughts on that in the next couple days. I am especially curious about the song La Manic, which is all in French. There was nothing in English in the liner notes and in spite of my recent attempts to learn a little French before we go to Montreal, I understand NOTHING of it, lol ..I am sure you have some info on it.
Vickie, Please forgive my absence here but I’ve been mentally (it feels like physically) walking through the most interesting pages of personal history again! But before I give you some info about La Manic I must say that’s a great photo of Dave’s daughter and the koala. Just my type of Aussie animal!
Here’s the English translation. Due to my recent family history discoveries I simply must find time to go back to learning French and not have to depend on goggle!
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-manic-manic.html
The Manic
If only you knew how long the time is at Manic
You’d write way more often, to the Manicouagan
Sometimes I think so hard about you
That I recreate your soul and your body
I look at you and I am filled with wonder
I throw myself into you
Just like the river into the sea
And the flower into the bee
My beautiful lover, what do your silken forehead
And your velvet eyes become, when I am not there
Do you turn towards the Côte-Nord
To see a little, to see some more
My hand signalling you to wait
At twilight and at dawn, I reach out
I meet you wherever you may be
And I keep you
Tell me what’s going on in Trois-Rivières and in Quebec City
Where there’s so much to do, and eveything we do with it
Tell me what’s going on in Montreal
In the dirty side streets
Where you’re always the more beautiful
Because ugliness can’t get to you
You, who I’ll love until I pass away
My eternal
We boast around all day long
But we’re all good guys faithful to their loves
Some play guitar
Others play accordion
To pass time, when the time is long
But me, I play of my love
And I dance, saying your name
Because I love you so much
If only you knew how long the time is at Manic
You’d write way more often, to the Manicouagan
If you don’t have much to tell me
Write the words ‘I love you’ a hundred times
It will be the most beautiful of poems
I’ll read it a hundred times
A hundred times, a hundred times are not a lot
For those who are in love
If only you knew how long the time is
At Manic
You’d write way more often
To the Manicouagan
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You may know La Manic was written by Georges Dor.
Here’s a bit about him and his song -
http://www.cshf.ca/song/la-manic/
As it says in the link Georges song La Manic was inducted in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. I remember in 2006 that LC quoted from this song in his acceptance speech when he also was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Possibly that song was inducted before LC was and that prompted him to quote his words from Georges’ song –
“If you knew how life drags on at le Manicouagan
You’d write to me a lot more often at le Manicouagan”
I haven’t seen this video for so long and I’ve just watched it now. It was a moving experience back then and you can times a thousand fold that emotion today! I know you are going to love it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3tMW65t60
I love Adrienne Clarkson’s entire intro to Leonard and she begins with this,
“Before Leonard Cohen there were songs, and after hearing Leonard Cohen there are no songs; quite like his....”