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A Thought for Today
See all sides of everything before making up your mind on anything.
This
One Does It For Me!
Dear Ken,
It has been quite a while since I have written to you. I hope you and
yours are all well at the moment.
I would love to see the words to the lovely McKuen/Becaud song, Merci
Beaucoup. It is a gentle song with words that say almost all there is to
say.
Regards and take care,
Debbie Sweeney
All fine in this part of the
world, Debbie, as I hope it is with you. And what a great choice of
lyric! If I'm not mistaken it's the first time this song has been
requested here on ASPTL.
I've loved just about every
Becaud collaboration Rod has penned and was privileged to see the great
man live when he appeared in concert in Durban, South Africa back in the
sixties. And what a concert it was!
Durban, believe it or not,
has a very large French population - probably due to its fairly close
proximity to the French speaking islands of Mauritius and Seychelles.
I'm not sure Becaud appreciated this because shortly after he appeared
on stage he launched into an unexpected rendition of "What Now, My Love"
- in English!
It was probably the only
time in his life he'd ever been booed as the packed Durban City Hall,
where Rod later played, chanted "sing it in French, sing it in French."
Becaud got up from the piano in mid song, stormed around it once, sat down and
re-started with "Et Maintenant." I thought the roof was coming down,
such was the reception he got.
A consummate performer,
richly deserving of his nickname Monsieur 100,000 Volts, and missed but
not forgotten by all who love good music.
Gilbert Becaud in
performance
Your choice, along with "The
Importance of the Rose" were two Becaud collaborations Rod surprisingly
omitted from the CD of his landmark Carnegie Hall "Sold Out" album.
Here's hoping that once all his other projects are completed we'll see
the full concert released on CD in the not too distant future.
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