Max's Musings

La Mer

La Mer

I just wrote two blogs about classical music, so you probably thought this was going to be about Debussy's "symphony," La Mer. It's not. Instead, it's about the song of the same name by Charles Trenet.

Trenet wrote the song one afternoon in 1943 in the south of France. He sang it the same night, "without much impact," according the artist. After the end of the War, the song was recorded in 1945 by Roland Gerbeau after Suzy Solidor declined it. Again, not much impact.

It took a while, but eventually the song caught on and now it's a world-wide favorite, a chanson classic and a jazz standard.
Along with Edith Piaff's La Vie en rose, it's probably the most recorded French song of all time. By the time of Trenet's passing in 1970, there were over 4000 versions of it and at least seventy million copies in recordings and print.

It's been covered by many artists, starting in 1947 when Harry James released an English version of the song, Beyond the Sea, sung by Marion Morgan and with lyrics by Jack Lawrence. The French lyrics are an ode to the sea, but Lawrence turned it into a love song, a perfect fit for the yearning expressed by the melody. This version became Bobby Darin's signature song.

Personally, I prefer the French version, not because of the lyrics but because of the sound of the French language. The song itself is romantic in any language regardless of the words, but most especially in French. It has an aching meloncholy that evokes a nostalgia for a lost, and less cynical, era.

What made me think of this song was that we happened to watch episode six of the UK SciFi series Black Mirror last night which features the song. The episode is titled, approrpriately enough, Beyond the Sea. The episode itself is pretty wrenching to watch, and not romantic at all. That just makes the song even more achingly beautiful.

Here are some links.
Charles Trenet in a live performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXQh9jTwwoA

The Harry James, Marion Morgan, Jack Lawrence release of 1947
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s-QnH-IbiA

Bobby Darin's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8OlDPqYBLw

Lyrics for La Mer with English translation
https://www.rougemusic.com/la-mer

Lawrence's English Lyrics for Beyond the Sea
https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/bobby-darin/beyond-the-sea

Just for completeteness, here's Piaff singing La Vie en rose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzViYkZAz4

In case anyone is interested, here's a link to the Debussy work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCucJw7iT8