Pour ce 10-ème numéro, nous allons évoquer un tube d’une « vieille canaille » spécialiste de la musique et du cinéma américain.
La pochette du 45T de Monsieur Eddy :
La pochette de la version originale (non sortie en single semble-t-il) de Ray Stevens :
Pour la version de Jerry Lee Lewis :
For my Friends who don’t speak French a summary in English. I hope it can help to follow what I say :
For this 10th episode, we are going to talk about a hit by a specialist in American music and cinema.
-Sample of Pas de Boogie Woogie by Eddy Mitchell
Everyone in France knows this gently anticlerical song by Claude Moine. This is Eddy Mitchell’s real name and he writes himself the French lyrics. From his beginnings with Les Chaussettes Noires, Mr. Eddy (this is his nickname on French TV) covered some American rock’n’roll like Johnny be good.
On the other hand, the case of Pas de boogie Woogie is less obvious. It is indeed a cover.
-Sample the original version of Ray Stevens www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-NuleBqWw8
Don’t Boogie Woogie is first recorded by Ray Stevens in 1974, then by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1975. If Jerry Lee’s version is a little better known, it doesn’t had much success.
Eddy Mitchell says that the author seeing the royalties increase without comparison with those in the USA, called him to understand what was happening in France with his song.
The American lyrics are not about a priest and his church but of a man who goes to the doctor who advises him to lead a healthier life « he told me I had to stop smokin’ » for example. Note that Jerry Lee modifies the text slightly, like the bluesmen, by staging himself « he told old Jerry Lee to stop smokin ‘ ».
I asked an American friend if there was a sexual meaning in Don’t boogie Woogie as in the French text and the answer was final:
1) Jerry Lee is a wild man.
2) Don’t you know what rock’n’roll means?