SUNDAY
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Polaroid photo by Edward McKuen, August
2002 ©2002 by Stanyan Music Group. All rights reserved.
A Thought for Today
Wisdom lurks between the lines; it’s
seldom verbalized or written down.
FLIGHTS FROM6THE
PAST
Here’s a Flight from the Past courtesy of Webmaster Ken’s weekly column.
THIS ONE DOES IT FOR ME: 6 September 2000
For the past thirty five years or so I've happily told anyone who cared to
listen that the first McKuen song I ever heard was "Rusting in the Rain".
This was the first of five of Rod's songs which appeared on the Glenn
Yarbrough hit album, "Baby The Rain Must Fall", released in 1965.
You can imagine how humbled I felt when I found out just how far from the
truth this was!
It was almost a year ago that I received some mail from Johan Grobbelaar
in New Zealand lamenting the tragic passing of one of our foremost South
African entertainers, Ge Korsten. Johan mentioned, almost en passant, that
Ge had recorded a marvellous version of Rod's "Bon Soir Mademoiselle".
Huh?
I'd fallen in love with the Jimmie Rodgers version of this song the minute
I heard it which, as far as I can ascertain, was shortly after it was
released around 1964. I'd heard and liked Ge's rendition but I was pretty
sure this wasn't a McKuen number. I would have known about it, wouldn't I?
Want to check this one out again, Johan?
Boy, did he ever, and the lesson to be learned is never argue with Johan
on any McKuen topic. Before I could blink a CD arrived with all three
versions of the song on it - Rodgers, Korsten & McKuen - together with all
the evidence I needed to convince me I'd lived most of my adult life
blissfully unaware that my musical enlightenment had, in fact, taken place
a year or so earlier than originally thought. "Chastened" is the word that
springs immediately to mind!
Rod confirms all of the above. He wrote the song back in 1963 and Jimmie,
who at the time was the first major artist to champion Rod's work,
recorded it a year later. Strange that it didn't chart in America because
it certainly did here in South Africa. As a matter of interest Jimmie hit
the Billboard charts in 1963 with "Doesn't Anybody Know My Name" (2.10 -
6.18) and again in 1964 with "The World I Used To Know". The former was on
the charts for 7 weeks and peaked at No. 78, the latter on for 9 weeks and
peaked at No. 51.
Ah well, yet another entry in the journal under the heading "Learning
Life's Lessons The Hard Way". It will be in good company alongside an
entry concerning Jay "Boswell" Hagan. A reader had written to me wanting
to know in which book a certain poem had appeared. The title sounded
really familiar but in spite of searching through every resource at my
disposal, I could not come up with an answer. Time to call in the experts,
so off went some mail to Jay asking for his help.
His reply was both speedy and (because he's a gentleman and understands
this aging thing) polite. The poem in question had never appeared in any
of Rod's books but could be found in the unpublished poetry section of a
web site called "A Safe Place to Land". He'd heard the webmaster was a
pretty accommodating sort of a guy and felt sure he'd point me in the
right direction!
Hope y'all enjoy the lyrics to "Bon Soir Mademoiselle". I think it's one
of the most "hummable" songs ever written and I'm willing to bet my Rod
McKuen t-shirt you'll be humming it all day today.
- Ken, Johannesburg, 10/6/2000
BON SOIR MADEMOISELLE
Bon soir Mademoiselle
au revoir Mademoiselle
it's time for the parting
au revoir Mademoiselle
we loved not to wisely
but oh, we loved well
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
Here's to the summer
here's to the Seine
here's to the seasons
that won't come again
who knows where we're going
but oh, where we've been.
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
Bon soir Mademoiselle
au revoir Mademoiselle
it's time for the parting
au revoir Mademoiselle
we loved not to wisely
but oh, we loved well
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
Here's to the waiters
in every cafe
and here's to the girls
on the Champs-Elysees
I'll never forget
though I'm sailing away
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
Bon soir Mademoiselle
au revoir Mademoiselle
it's time for the parting
au revoir Mademoiselle
we loved not to wisely
but oh, we loved well
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
bon soir, au revoir,
au revoir Mademoiselle.
- from the album "Rod", 1970
Thanks Ken. Don't forget to drop Webmaster Ken a line at
kenb@mckuen.com if you have a story
about a favorite McKuen song or poem. He'll make sure it gets an airing
right here one Wednesday.
Sleep warm.
- RM 10/13/02
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(posted 09/28/2002).
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