Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
There’s a story in here somewhere
Even I get tired of Gogol Bordello and Nine Inch Nails after a while. Hungry for something new, I bought something old: greatest hits compilations from Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday. I listened to them back to back, and something struck me at once: both singers did covers of the song, “My Man.”
Excerpt:
He’s not much on looks
He’s no hero out of books
But I love him
Yes, I love himTwo or three girls
Has he
That he likes as well as me
But I love himI don’t know why I should
He isn’t true
He beats me, too
What can I do?
It’s an old French song from the Twenties, “Mon Homme.” Someone must have liked it well enough to translate it into English, whereupon Billie Holiday, Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand, Alice Faye, Peggy Lee, and doubtless many more women decided to put their mark on it.
My question is, why?
Read the lyrics (linked above). If you’re wondering why she “love(s) him so,” you can go on wondering, because her man has no redeeming features whatsoever. Did the song speak to a common problem among women, the hopeless and illogical infatuation with scum? Is that why it was so popular?
Billie Holiday puts a little shame into that line, “He beats me, too.” Indeed, her voice conveys regret, disappointment, and (maybe I’m reading too much into this) self-loathing. Not so Peggy Lee, who sings with great joy and seems oblivious to the song’s intrinsic darkness. “He beats me, too,” smacks of a powder room confessional, to be followed with tittered laughter and a rejoinder of, “Well, if you think that’s bad, wait until you hear this.”
I’m perplexed. I’m intrigued. And I can find precious little about it on the ‘net.
What’s the story behind the song? Why did so many famous singers feel the need to cover it? What would happen if a woman nowadays sung it — how would that go over?
A flipside version, “My Gal,” would be fun, don’t you think?
D.
Okay, so you struck a chord and I decided not to lurk on this one. Surprisingly, I am a french american by marriage, have lived in France and speak/write French fluently.
In the context of the lyrics:
“Ce n’est pas qu’il est beau, qu’il est riche ni costaud
Mais je l’aime, c’est idiot,
I’m’fout des coups
I’m’prend mes sous,
Je suis à bout
Mais malgré tout
Que voulez-vous
I could translate it this way:
“It’s not that he is handsome, nor rich or strong, but I love him, it’s crazy, he kicks me around, he takes my money, I’m at my wit’s end, but in spite of it all – what can I say?”
That’s a little lighter than, “He beats Me” and the language is slang and metaphor. So, just go with it and understand that this is a classic and it is more about the singer than the song. The great French singers of the century, Mistinguett and Edith Piaf made this one famous. Check this:
http://www.geocities.com/~jimlowe/mist/mistdex.html
See, that’s what I love about my readers. There’s always a brilliant light out there somewhere.
Thanks, Lucie.
Thanks for the link, too. I love learning something new about show biz.