So says a commenter on the Youtube clip below of the dreamy Joe Dassin singing his classic song “Les Champs Elysees”, a song that I have listened to probably once a day since I first discovered it (it played over the ending credits of The Darjeeling Limited). I know it’s a famous and beloved song but I had never heard it before.
It’s rare that something hits me at such a primal level as that song did. Sitting in the movie theatre, watching the credits roll, hearing that song for the first time, my heart reached up out of my chest, trying to meet the music halfway, yearning towards it, grasping … I wanted the feeling that was contained in that music. I wanted to capture it, live in it, own it. I knew immediately I needed to hear it again. And again. And again. I couldn’t get home fast enough to download it off of iTunes.
And since then it has been on almost eternal repeat.
What is it in this song? I think the Youtube commenter kind of nails it. But when you listen to it in the middle of a maelstrom of sadness, as I have been over the last year or so, it is not too insistently happy. It does not make a demand of you that you ‘cheer up’, which is insulting when you are grieving and dark. It speaks to wherever you are at. It incorporates sadness, somehow that bittersweet or nostalgic feeling of joy that is now past, is in the melody. It doesn’t insist that you forget or move on. You can just BE when you listen to it.
And whenever I listen to it – whenever – without fail – it brings me to another place. Stops me in my tracks, and then propels me forward.
I treasure the song.
Found two awesome clips of Joe Dassin performing this song. I love the first one – which is more obviously live than the second one- just him and his guitar and his beautiful open face.
So glad this song came into my life.
It has really really meant a lot to me over the harrowing last year.
It has reminded me, at times, that joy still does exist. You cannot get to it now, and that is okay. But we’ll still be here when you’re ready to join us again. Take your time, take your time.
I love French “chanson” (Champs-Elysees) seems to be in the same tradition, though it is more recent. I think your comment:
“It does not make a demand of you that you ‘cheer up’, which is insulting when you are grieving and dark.”
is very true of a LOT of it. A lot of it (especially Charles Trenet’s stuff) is kind of philosophical, kind of skirting-the-edges of happiness, but not really grabbing you and telling you “You MUST be HAPPY NOW” (Or at least that’s how I feel about them; your mileage may vary)
And there’s a lot of value to having something that, while it carries the possibility of joy being in the world within it, does not demand that you get up and JOIN that joy immediately.
u gave me this song when u made me that awesome mix….im obsessed with it!
Great song! I also heard it for the first time when I saw The Darjeeling Limited. Wes Anderson movies always contain songs that send me running to Google and iTunes. Brilliant music selection.
ricki – I don’t know Charles Trenet’s stuff – I will have to check it out!
And now I have to break out my ipod.
I think Wes Anderson has managed to make me fall in love with every songs at the end of one of his films (though the one at the beginning of Darjeeling gets me too; the guy knows from classic rock). Even though he *always* uses the slo-mo, it never fails to please.