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rfmcdonaldAnd so we come back to Mylène Farmer's 2002 single "C'est une belle journée".
This song, one of the new singles from her 2001 best-of collection Les Mots, was a hit in France, ranking #5 on the French pop charts and #11 on the Walloon charts. I love the song, just as much as I did back in January 2009; I have the song's 2002 four-track CD digipack single, with the original song and three great remixes.
I mentioned once that the first time I visited Montréal back in 199, I bought a CD copy of Kate Bush's "And So Is Love", and internalized from it--incorrectly, I think, but what did I know?--a message that all was bleak, would be bleak, and I should reconcile it. I've been thinking about those feelings a fair bit, before and during and after I did my "It Gets Better" vlog. Mylène Farmer is a bit of a grim artist; Wikipedia's authors call it a catchy and joyful song, also a dark song that sees the dark side of life and actually needed its lyrics edited ("Je vais me coucher" was originally "Je vais me tuer," "I will go to sleep" versus "I will kill myself"). I downloaded the song, and her other songs, back in 2000 and 2001 and 2002, when popular music was one of my few ways to access the outside world, one of the things that made me feel part of a broader community. Call her music something that reflected the tenor of my life in those days; call her music also a gateway; call the song's final lyrics as offering some kind of hope.
When did I buy the single? I bought it while I was moving away, the first time I'd been there in years, at a time when I felt more optimistic about my life and was fumbling towards happiness, and finally, thank God, leaving Prince Edward Island behind. It entered the world, and for good.
Ça a été une belle journée.
This song, one of the new singles from her 2001 best-of collection Les Mots, was a hit in France, ranking #5 on the French pop charts and #11 on the Walloon charts. I love the song, just as much as I did back in January 2009; I have the song's 2002 four-track CD digipack single, with the original song and three great remixes.
I mentioned once that the first time I visited Montréal back in 199, I bought a CD copy of Kate Bush's "And So Is Love", and internalized from it--incorrectly, I think, but what did I know?--a message that all was bleak, would be bleak, and I should reconcile it. I've been thinking about those feelings a fair bit, before and during and after I did my "It Gets Better" vlog. Mylène Farmer is a bit of a grim artist; Wikipedia's authors call it a catchy and joyful song, also a dark song that sees the dark side of life and actually needed its lyrics edited ("Je vais me coucher" was originally "Je vais me tuer," "I will go to sleep" versus "I will kill myself"). I downloaded the song, and her other songs, back in 2000 and 2001 and 2002, when popular music was one of my few ways to access the outside world, one of the things that made me feel part of a broader community. Call her music something that reflected the tenor of my life in those days; call her music also a gateway; call the song's final lyrics as offering some kind of hope.
Belle
La vie est belle
Comme une aile
Qu'on ne doit froisser
Belle
La vie est belle
Et je vais là
Belle
La vie est belle
Mais la mienne
Un monde emporté
Elle, j'entre en elle
Et mortelle, va
Beautiful
Life is beautiful
Like a wing
That does ruffle
Beautiful
Life is beautiful
And I go there
Beautiful
Life is beautiful
But mine
A world affa
It, I enter it
And for good
When did I buy the single? I bought it while I was moving away, the first time I'd been there in years, at a time when I felt more optimistic about my life and was fumbling towards happiness, and finally, thank God, leaving Prince Edward Island behind. It entered the world, and for good.
Ça a été une belle journée.
