Friday, September 19, 2008

Trouble at t'mill



LA MALMARIÉE
C’est le maître du moulin qui marie sa fille.
Il la marie à un vieillard plaisant,
Hélas, la pauvre fille n’a encore que 15 ans.

Quand ce fut le matin jour, elle s’en va chez son père,
Hélas mon père, vous avez bien grand tort,
De me donner un mari, la nuit le jour il dort.

Pardonne ma fille, pardonne, pardonne à la vieillesse,
Il a beaucoup d’argent, tu seras sa maîtresse,
Hélas mon père, au diable son argent,
Moi j’aimerais mieux un homme à mon contentement.

1 La Malmariee, by the Cock and Bull Band. "This miller, he married his daughter off to a ridiculous old man. Pity the poor girl - she's only 15 years old. Well, the day after, she comes back to see her dad. "You know what, Dad?" she says. "You've only given me a husband who SLEPT all night long. What's that about?" "Oh, sorry about the old bloke, my daughter. He's got loads of money and you'll have the spending of it!" "That's not good enough, dad - to hell with the money, I'd rather have a chap who'll satisfy me, know what I mean?"
2 The Trees They Do Grow High, by Martin Carthy. Opposite thing! (Though the young husband does know what to do with it, apparently.)
3 I Always Cry at Weddings, by the In and Outlaws. Total cheat. This is my son's band, and he wrote the song.
4 Madonna's Wedding, by Richard Thompson. Bit of a stretch with some of those rhymes, RT.

La Malmariee, plus a couple of tunes
The Trees They Do Grow High
I Always Cry at Weddings
Madonna's Wedding

4 comments:

Abahachi said...

Still no sound so unable to listen as yet, but I love the lyrics. Sounds like the set-up to one of the bawdier tales in Chaucer.

steenbeck said...

Love La Malrmariee, still listening...
Holy Smoke, TFD, I didn't know your son was in a band! Is that him singing? Nice!

treefrogdemon said...

Hi Steenbeck: no, that's not him singing - he plays guitar, and usually sings harmony but when they recorded that he had a bad throat.

Anonymous said...

Not quite on a marriage theme but more a 'what if / if only' theme, has anyone heard of Maxime Le Forestier? I remember a very poignant song he sang (although I haven't heard it for 30 years so apologies if it sounds awful now) - Si tu etais ne en Mai:

" ...J'ai bien connu ta mère.
Il paraît qu'elle m'aimait.
J'aurais pu être ton père
Si tu étais né en mai.

Mon petit,
Quelque nuits
Éphémères
Mais cela,
Le sauras-tu
Jamais?..."

it goes on in similar vein ending with the fact that the child will know him as 'mon oncle' for the rest of his days ...