“If you take that away, the songs just don’t sound as strong.” Although he hasn’t heard Birkin’s albums he believes her approach is the way to go. “It’s very dependent on getting the right person to do it but I think it would be worthwhile.”Ī Birkin/Cocker collaboration is certainly something that appeals to Bob Stanley, Saint Etienne’s songwriter and pop expert par excellence, but when considering how one might go about covering Gainsbourg’s songs he also emphasises the integral nature of the musical arrangements, particularly those of Jean-Claude Vannier. Now that you’re mentioning it to me I’m thinking ‘yeah, maybe that’s a good idea.’” He is intrigued to hear of Birkin’s intentions as at one time he was trying to get Faber to do a translation of the lyrics. When asked if he’d like to perform more he ponders for a while before replying, “I’d have to understand them a bit more. If you’re going to sing a song you have to be able to put some of yourself into it.” He modestly claims that it was “a selfish thing” to do as he was a big fan and wanted to be part of the project, “but I just couldn’t sing the translation that I was given and feel satisfied. “And even with my rubbishy French I thought well surely it’s better to say ‘I just came to tell you that I’m going.’” “It was ‘If I am here at all it is to tell you that I must leave,’ or something like that,” he tells BBC Culture. His ability to bring something fresh yet visceral to the English language version of I Just Came to Tell You That I’m Going on the Monsieur Gainsbourg tribute album was helped in no small part by his insistence on translating the song himself, after he had been sent a version which he considered “wasn’t even English.” It is an enticing prospect, and should it ever come to fruition the obvious choice to perform the songs, for many, would be Jarvis Cocker, a great admirer of Gainsbourg who certainly appreciates the difficulty of translation. On the suggestion of her brother Andrew, she is now contemplating approaching a British university to do dual translations: “One with the rhyme and one with the meaning.”
0 kommentar(er)
