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Tag: Michel Polnareff

The Day of the Radio

Today Russia celebrates the Day of the Radio. On this day (May 7) in 1895 Alexander Popov demonstated his invention, and so Communications Industry was born. There was still a bit of a walking to do towards the television, but there was no looking back for what would be known as the Broadcast Media.

As you know, I spent two years working in the radio. First, I had a placement at the BBC Radio Manchester, or BBC GMR, as it was then known. And after a placement with Songs of Praise and a contract with the Factual and Entertainment Department I returned to Radio Manchester where I spent the next year and a half with the Actiondesk (later known as Interaction). At the same time I also started doing a programme at a community radio station in Manchester, moving from a news programme to a programme on Arts and Culture.

I owe a great deal of experience and discoveries to my time in the radio. I was used to public talking, but radio was different: the public was a long way from my microphone. I had to learn to use my voice to convey the feelings, sensations, and reactions to the listener. I also had to acknowledge the inconvenient difference between the rich English vocabulary and the “layman’s terms“. I still shudder when I recall compiling questions for an on-air quiz at The Phil Wood show: even my “easy” questions were occasionally crossed out by the producer Sarah as being “too difficult”. I was once proven right: somebody thought that “darjeeling” was a curry.

Best of all – and this is something I am really, really grateful for to the BBC and QT Radio – in spite of me having no experience whatsoever in the Broadcast Media, everybody spoke and asked things as if I knew how to do everything. Of course, if I didn’t know, they were kind to show and to explain. But the general assumption, I feel, was quite clear: if you’re at the Beeb, you’re certainly capable of doing anything you need to do. This prompts a different kind of response. You’re given a carte blanche, you’re invested with responsibility while also being spoken to as an equal, and if you wear your head, arms, and legs in their proper places, there is no way you can blow it. You’re not being treated as something “half-done”, and that’s a great way to grow.

Maybe I return there, although television is more up the alley I want to walk. Nevertheless, this was a great time, great experience, and in some ways it made me what I am now. Thank you!

Michel Polnareff – L’Amour Avec Toi

I have translated this song previously into Russian, now it’s the turn for English rendition. I like this particular, romantic and tender, version. Once again, Polnareff gently attacks the society’s frowning upon “love talking”.

There are words that can be thought
But not said in public.
I’m sick and tired of the public
And its fake morality.

Chorus: I would simply want to make love to you,
I would simply want to make love to you.

Of course, I could tell you
That I live only for your smile,
That your eyes are the bluest in the world,
La-la-la….

Chorus

Then some will say one cannot
Speak to a girl like that.
This should be done, not talked about,
It is my dream, and tonight is made for it.

Chorus

Эти слова могут быть на уме,
Но их нельзя произносить в обществе.
А я устал от общества
И от его выдуманной морали.

Я просто хотел бы заняться с тобой любовью х 2
(вокализ)

Конечно же, я мог бы тебе сказать,

Что живу лишь твоей улыбкой,
Что у тебя – самые голубые в мире глаза…….
(вокализ)

А я просто хочу заняться с тобой любовью х 2
(вокализ)

Кто-то скажет: нельзя
Так говорить с молодой девушкой!

Но ведь это делают, а не говорят об этом.
Это мечта, и этот вечер – для нее,

Потому что я хочу заняться с тобой любовью х 2
(вокализ)

Michel Polnareff – C’Est Ta Ta Ta Ta

The post below was written in September 2006 and marks the early days of my infatuation with the French iconic musician.

Original post – 28/09/2006

I’ve written somewhere that I adore Michel Polnareff, but now I also adore all web users who’ve collected and uploaded his videos for me to find them and to go totally mad with the man. 🙂 I’ve heard many of his songs before, but watching him perform, especially those early songs, is a different kind of experience. So much so that I’ve embedded one of his videos, ‘Ta Ta Ta Ta’, on my blog. It sounds like a medieval troubadour song, with a modern twist, and medieval music is one of my weaknesses. And so is Michel Polnareff.

Chorus:

The woman I love is ta-ta-ta,
The woman I love, she is not you.
The woman I love is ta-ta-ta,
The woman I love, she is not you.

I call myself your friend
And yet when your eyes
Meet with mine
I feel guilty,
I feel unhappy
But I can do nothing about it.

Chorus

I would love to talk to you
And to explain
But can find no words
I make up my mind
But I always leave it
Until tomorrow

Chorus

And what you take
For a song
That you like a lot
Is my declaration
Made my way
But you don’t understand it

Chorus

Listening to Kama Sutra (Michel Polnareff)

Back in 2006, on October 1 I was listening to Polnareff’s Kama Sutra. The final verse is poignant: when the dust covered the traces of people that once were, they no longer can answer questions about themselves, and thus anyone is capable of saying whatever they want because nobody knows how it had been.

The poem “Listening to Kama Sutra” that came as an impromptu response to Polnareff’s song preempts the song’s story. Before we can be found in Kama Sutra positions under the layers of dust, we need to find a partner, and many of us sometimes spend forever on this never-ending quest to find a familial soul.

Michel Polnareff – Kama Sutra

When the dust covers our footprints
So that the light no longer shines through
Those who will come to visit us
Will not understand what is happening there.

But so it goes. So it goes.

They will find us
In Kama Sutra positions
Asking themselves
What is happening there

They will ask us
Where they came from
And where they are headed
Et cetera
And they will try to understand, why

They will explain
Where they came from
And where they are headed
And they will try
To understand, why

They will ask us
One more time
The questions that
Nobody will answer

But so it goes. So it goes.

They will find us
In Kama Sutra positions
Asking themselves
What is happening there

They will ask us
Where they came from
And where they are headed
Et cetera
And they will try
To understand, why

When the dust covers our footprints
They will say about us whatever they want
And, speaking of what nobody knew anything,
They will tell us whatever that wasn’t

But so it goes. So it goes.

They will find us
In Kama Sutra positions
Asking themselves
What is happening there

They will ask us where they came from
And where they are headed
Et cetera
And they will try
To understand, why…

Julia Shuvalova – Listening to Kama Sutra

Like the rolling stones
We move in transparent orbs
In the expanse
Of the virtual space
Neither we understand
Nor know
Nor expect
Where we are to get
We merely move
Like molecules in the
Brownian movement
Along the arteries
Of boundless world
And this is beautiful
But how terrifying
To fall into a clot
And never to find an orb
To dissolve in with
And time flies past
Like a monsoon
That buries in dust
The oases that
One wanted to reach
O tear your orb
Stretch out your hand
Let me feel the warmth of its film
O let your lips touch
The sweating forehead
And lids of the eyes
Watering from dust
O while we are
O still here
O while the thunder
Only threatens
To separate us forever
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave…
… me

October 2006

Love Me (Michel Polnareff) – With Mina Mazzini Cover

I don’t always go back and republish the posts but now and again I simply have to draw the reader’s attention. I have just discovered Mina’s cover of Love Me Please Love Me that we must share with the world. It was made in the 1990s, and in the video the imagery kindly mocks Mina’s burgeoning figure.

Original post – 20 March, 2007

As you undoubtedly know, Michel Polnareff performed at Bercy in Paris earlier this month, and on his official website, Polnaweb.com, you can find dates for future concerts. (I wish I lived in France!) The performance was broadcast across the media, including mobile phones, hence it is no wonder YouTube and Google are already full of recorded extracts from the concert.

I highly recommend to visit this website, RTL.fr, where you will find several radio interviews with l’Amiral, as well as short reports from the concerts. The link to follow is Michel Polnareff en concert.

And below there is a video of Polnareff performing live one of his very famous songs, Love Me. I’m totally in love with the opening of the song, but even more so with the lyrics – which you can find below in French and in my English translation (not adapted to the music).

Love me, please love me
Je suis fou de vous
Pourquoi vous moquez-vous chaque jour
De mon pauvre amour?
Love me, please love me
Je suis fou de vous
Vraiment prenez-vous tant de plaisir
A me voir souffrir.

Si j’en crois votre silence
Vos yeux pleins d’ennui
Nul espoir n’est permis.
Pourtant je veux jouer ma chance
Même si, même si
Je devais y brûler ma vie.

Love me, please love me
Je suis fou de vous
Mais vous moquerez-vous toujours
De mon pauvre amour?

Devant tant d’indifférence
Parfois j’ai envie
De me fondre dans la nuit.
Au matin je reprends confiance
Je me dis, je me dis
Tout pourrait changer aujourd’hui.

Love me, please love me
Je suis fou de vous
Pourtant votre lointaine froideur
Déchire mon cœur.
Love me, please love me
Je suis fou de vous
Mais vous moquerez-vous toujours
De mes larmes d’amour?

Love me, please love me
I am mad about you
Why do you laugh every day
At my unfortunate love?
Love me, please love me
I am mad about you
Indeed, you take so much pleasure
In seeing me suffer
If I believe your silence
Your eyes full of boredom
There is no hope for me
And yet I want to take a chance
Even if, even if
It is to ruin my life
Because of such indifference
I sometimes wish
To disappear in the night
In the morning my confidence returns
I tell myself, I tell myself:
Today everything could change
Love me, please love me
I am mad about you
However your aloof coldness
Tears me apart
Love me, please love me
I am mad about you
But will you forever be laughing
At my tears of love?

British Seaside and Holidays by Polnareff

It is absolutely true: my first ever sea was the Irish Sea. I saw it in 2002. When I told one of my friends about it, he pitied me. Indeed, how sad is that: to see your first sea in Blackpool?

This was in 2002. Between then and the late 2007 I visited Blackpool a few times. I rode past Conwy Bay in North Wales once or twice. But it was at the turn of 2007-2008 that I spent almost two weeks in North Wales. I was staying in Llandudno and taking day trips to Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris. Most importantly, each day I was walking by the sea, breathing sea air and watching seagulls. Little did I know that the memories of staying in North Wales would be so strong that I would want to go to the seaside more and more often.

This is what has been happening since March 2009: whenever I had the chance, I tried to go and spend a day by the water. I visited Southport for the first time; then I went to Blackpool after a 3-year pause; and finally I visited Scarborough. I figured out that Scarborough would be the closest to Manchester town on the eastern coast which was unknown to me.

From all those trips I brough back some photos, and the most recent ones from Blackpool and Scarborough are still in the process of being uploaded to Flickr. But, looking at them recently, I realised that they can illustrate “Holidays” by Michel Polnareff. I have already written a post about this song in December 2006, although I include the English translation here again now. I arranged some of the photos to the “story” of Polnareff’s song; the photos were taken in places like Llandudno, Conwy, and Deganwy (North Wales), Blackpool and Southport (English west coast), and Scarborough (English east coast). Mr Polnareff is web-savvy, so I hope he likes my attempt at spreading the word about his work, if he sees this post or the video.

Holidays, oh holidays
It’s a plane that comes down from the sky
And the shadow of its wing
Covers a city below
How close is the ground
Holidays…

Holidays, oh holidays
Churches and council flats,
What is their beloved God doing?
He who lives in the space
How close is the ground
Holidays…

Holidays, oh holidays
The plane’s shadow covers the sea
The sea is like a preface
To the desert
How close is the sea
Holidays…

Holidays, oh holidays
So much sky and so many clouds
At your age you don’t know
That life is boring
How close is death
Holidays…

Holidays, oh holidays
It’s a plane that lives in the sky
You’re so beautiful, but don’t forget
That planes crash
And that the ground is close
Holidays…

Michel Polnareff – Je Suis Un Homme

I am sure all of us have been missing dearly the Polnareffienne’s additions… well, no more now!

In fact, we should be grateful to a friend of mine who sent me an email about Sweet Transvestite post. I didn’t actually ask for a permission to mention this on the blog, but I’m doing so without giving out any names, so I hope he’s OK with that. In short, although a straight man, he did go out in female apparel a few times. I believe he played the part very convincingly.

I was partly replicating Polnareffienne label on my Russian blog, and Je Suis un Homme was one of the first l’Amiral’s songs that I translated into Russian. For those who already know the lyrics and the gist of the story, the connection between my friend’s email and Polnareff’s song will be obvious; for those who are yet to know the message of the song, it will become evident.

The story, of course, is that because of his provocative photographs, like the one above, Polnareff was one time thought to be gay. Unlike some of the stars, then as now, who are happy to court controversy for as long as it goes, Polnareff eventually responded with Je Suis Un Homme. And years later, when the rumours about his return began to spread, the Paris Match magazine (if I remember correctly) came out with the cover that pretty much speaks for itself.

I shall repeat what I said to my friend: I admire him and others like him, be they men or women. What I find the most admirable about this is that a straight person puts on the “persona” of their opposite gender and actually takes it out to the street. This is one thing with performers… and a very different thing with ordinary folks (although the friend isn’t quite ordinary). Somehow we continue seeing that acting is reserved for professional activity; as a result, being creative without necessarily making films or going on stage is likely to be misinterpreted. Here I remember how a few years ago I was walking in Canal St in Manchester on a weekend, and there I saw several couples where a husband was dressed as a woman. I don’t doubt for a second that the acceptance and the ability to walk out together when you look rather like two lesbians than a man and wife has demanded a lot from both partners. I guess this has something to do with the fact that acting is considered a lie sometimes. But then, exactly what is a man, and how different is the man from a woman (apart from certain physiological and anatomical aspects)?

 

Michel Polnareff – Tam-Tam

It’s been a while since I posted any translations from the most adorable Amiral, so I’m about to rectify this omission. I’ve only recently discovered this hit song from 1980s and, as it happens, fell head over heels for it – to the point that I was doing the Google AdWords Professional exam today with this song in my earphones. I already passed the GAP exam successfully before, but I had to do this once again. I can testify that l’Amiral’s songs are very, very effective!! Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Polnareff!

Tours Eiffel, échafaudages et dix heures par jour de trime
Ca n'est pas une plac' pour moi
Matins gris sur macadam et marteaux-piqueurs en prime
Vraiment pas une place pour moi
J'en ai marre, j'en ai marre de voir les animaux dans les zoos
J'en ai marre, j'en ai marre de voir des monuments, des drapeaux

J’veux partir
Redevenir un homm’ préhisto
Avec rien sur la peau
Jouer du tam tam tam tam tam

Aspirines et papiers bleus et cachets pour pas dormir
Ca n’est pas une vie pour moi
Vitamines et intraveines ou tablettes pour se nourrir
Vraiment pas une vie pour moi
J’en ai marre, j’en ai marre de lire des trucs moches dans les journaux
J’en ai marre, très très marre qu’on m’dise c’qui est laid ou ce qui est beau

J’veux partir
Redevenir l’homme préhisto
Avec rien sur sa peau
Jouer du tam tam tam tam tam

Au secours!
J’veux savoir où sont les filles bronzées en photo,
Au secours,
J’veux savoir où il fait beau, il fait toujours chaud

J’veux partir
Redevenir l’homme préhisto
Sans télé ni journaux
Jouer du tam tam tam tam tam

J’veux partir
Redevenir l’homme préhisto
Bye, bye moi vouloir
Jouer du tam tam tam tam

 

Eiffel Towers, scaffoldings and ten hours a day of slavery –
This is not a place for me.
Grey mornings on the pavement with jackhammers on top –
This is really not a place for me.
I’m tired, I’m tired of watching animals in zoos,
I’m tired, I’m tired of looking at the monuments and flags.

I want to leave,
To be a prehistoric man again,
With nothing on the skin,
And to play tam-tam-tam-tam-tam.

Aspirin, and blue paper napkins, and tablets against sleep –
This is not a life for me.
Vitamins, intravenous or the food supplements –
This is really not a life for me.
I’m tired, I’m tired of terrible things in the papers,
I’m tired, so-so tired of being told what is ugly and what is beautiful.

I want to leave,
To be a prehistoric man again,
With nothing on the skin,
And to play tam-tam-tam-tam-tam.

Help!
I want to know where the tanned girls from the photos are.
Help!
I want to know where that place is where it’s nice and always hot.

I want to leave,
To be a prehistoric man again,
Without a TV or papers,
And to play tam-tam-tam-tam-tam.

I want to leave,
To be a prehistoric man again,
Bye-bye, this is me, wanting
To play tam-tam-tam-tam-tam.

error: Sorry, no copying !!