Sunday, July 22, 2007
Great Quebec Song!
This group is from Quebec. As some of you know, I'm a huge fan of Quebec. My dear husband is a native of Montreal and we visit there often. Here is a more detailed description of this group from the combox over at The Crescat:
Here is a blurb about the band from good ol' wikipedia:
Mes Aïeux (My ancestors) is a French-Canadian folk music group, founded in 1996.
Although they are labeled as leaders of the "neo-traditional" movement in Quebec, they frequently use subjects and characters from traditional Quebecois folklore (the devil, the chasse-galerie, the shepherdess, the coureur des bois, drinking songs, etc.) in order to approach modern themes with a sense of humor.
An alternate translation of the lyrics, sharpened slightly from the ones I posted on Mary Kochan's Catholicexchange.com blog:
Your great-great-grandmother, she had fourteen enfants/
Your great-grandmother, had near the same amount/
Your grandmother had three, and found that sufficient/
Your mother just had you, and you were an accident/
And as for you, my girl, you go from man to man/
And when things go wrong, you have an abortion/
Sometimes you wake in tears, in the early light of dawn/
On nights you'd dreamt of your home, packed full with your children....
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4 comments:
And you like this group ;}
I used to listen to an Irish folk band in Seattle called the Whyos. They were pretty good, but they didn't have any social commentary, unless singing about drinking is commentary.
I've seen that video three times now and it makes me cry every time. It's a weird "song" but it's really more like poetry. Really depressing poetry commenting about the state of our times. Even though it comments on socialism of Canada, it still applies to modern themes around the world...that with "progress" comes a detachment to the pure things of life like a big family and a patch of land to call your own. Also, once my husband actually did dream (and he never remembers or tells me his dreams) of being surrounded by a big table full of children so that line in the song hits me right in the gut. He was one of two children. I'm so lucky he wanted a big family (even if he didn't know it at the time when we only had one child) because I never intended to have a lot myself...and now we are going to have our 6th and we are blessed beyond measure for it.
I am very astonished to learn that there are ANY conservative people in Quebec at all - let alone a popular band. Their society has become entirely secular, as far as I can see from my several visits there the Catholic religion has become a skeleton. Went to mass once outside St. Joseph's Oratory, a handful of elderly and several Haitian immigrants and that's it. Very, very sad.
There is nothing more joyful than a dinner table with many children around it. We not only have several children, but often neighbor kids as well.
I'm so glad I hit on the "play" on this one. Very touching to my older life experiences. Too true also. Where did I hear or read that the day would come when people would be happy not to have children? Thank you for posting this piece.
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