La Bicyclette, Yves montand, cover JP

[Jean Pierre]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcZMF5Bxyz8
here are two versions of this song
 
- the one in juje box is a vocal/guitar finger picking/melodica version
slower version than Yves Montand's, more in keeping with the original tempo of Pierre Barouh's version

- the one on You tube is a version with bass, drums, accordion, guitar and melodica
the film quote is an extract from Macel Carné's film Les Portes de la Nuit, starring Yves Montand, I superimposed on the original film music, which is les feuilles d'Automne, the theme of the melody which I played on the chromatic harmonica.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

this cover is a triple, or even quadruple tribute

to Roland Dyens, who did a magnificent cover arranged for classical guitar
(I've kept the first 4 bars, as a quote, from the introduction played by Roland Dyens)

To Pierre Barouh and Francis Lay who composed this song
To Yves Montant who recorded it and made it popular, even though it was at the height of the yéyé period (1968)

Quand on partait de bon matin
Quand on partait sur les chemins
A bicyclette
Nous étions quelques bons copains
Y avait Fernand y avait Firmin
Y avait Francis et Sébastien
Et puis Paulette

On était tous amoureux d'elle
On se sentait pousser des ailes
A bicyclette
Sur les petits chemins de terre
On a souvent vécu l'enfer
Pour ne pas mettre pied à terre
Devant Paulette

Faut dire qu'elle y mettait du cœur
C'était la fille du facteur
A bicyclette
Et depuis qu'elle avait huit ans
Elle avait fait en le suivant
Tous les chemins environnants
A bicyclette

Quand on approchait la rivière
On déposait dans les fougères
Nos bicyclettes
Puis on se roulait dans les champs
Faisant naître un bouquet changeant
De sauterelles, de papillons
Et de rainettes

Quand le soleil à l'horizon
Profilait sur tous les buissons
Nos silhouettes
On revenait fourbus contents
Le cœur un peu vague pourtant
De n'être pas seul un instant
Avec Paulette

Prendre furtivement sa main
Oublier un peu les copains
La bicyclette
On se disait c'est pour demain
J'oserai, j'oserai demain
Quand on ira sur les chemins
A bicyclette




The Bicycle
If you leave early in the morning
If you go on these roads
By bicycle
We were a bunch of good friends
There were Fernand and Firmin
There were Francis and Sébastian
And then there was Paulette

We were all in love with her
We were all growing wings
On our bicycle
On these small dirt roads
We often went through hell
To not make our feet touch the ground
In front of Paulette
One has to say that she really put her heart into it
She was the daughter of the postman
On a bicycle
And ever since she turned eight
She followed him around
On all the ways in the neighbourhood
By bicycle

When we came close to the river
We threw into the braken
Our bikes
Then we rolled around in the fields
Making a changing bouquet come to life
Of grasshoppers, butterflies and
Tree frogs
When the sun at the horizon
Began to cast our shapes
Over the shrubs
We returned exhausted and content
Yet the heart a bit vague
Because we never had a moment all alone
With Paulette

To take her hand all furtively
To forget a few of the friends
The bicycle
We tell ourselves we shall leave that for tomorrow
I will dare to, I will dare to tomorrow
When we will be on the roads
By bicycle
https://lyricstranslate.com/fr/la-bicyclette-bicycle.html

[StephenM]

la chanson est tellement belle JP....

l'accordéon et l'harmonica si joyeux.

la vidéo... j'aime les images d'ombres... une victoire

la basse debout est merveilleuse.


the song is so lovely JP....

the accordion and harmonica so joyous.

the video... I like shadow images... a win

the stand up bass is wonderful.

[Jean Pierre]

Merci Stephen , ...well, the bass isn't me, it's Byron House, a studio musician doing freelance work for Band in a Box


note de wikipedia à propos de Byron House

Byron House (born July 27, 1959) is an American bassist and record producer known for his session and live work with numerous artists. He has been the bassist for Robert Plant's 2010 revival of Band of Joy, country and blues act JD & The Straight Shot, and a longtime collaborator with "newgrass" pioneer Sam Bush.


Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, House played mainly banjo as a teenager. He met and first jammed with mandolinist, future collaborator and fellow Kentucky native Sam Bush at age 11. Inspired by late Weather Report bassist Jaco Pastorius' work on Joni Mitchell's 1976 album Hejira, he studied primarily double bass and electric bass in college, both in Europe and America. House worked in a Nashville, Tennessee recording studio as a Fairlight CMI programmer throughout the 1980s while studying the recording techniques of session musicians.

[StephenM]

Merci Stephen , ...well, the bass isn't me, it's Byron House, a studio musician doing freelance work for Band in a Box


note de wikipedia à propos de Byron House

Byron House (born July 27, 1959) is an American bassist and record producer known for his session and live work with numerous artists. He has been the bassist for Robert Plant's 2010 revival of Band of Joy, country and blues act JD & The Straight Shot, and a longtime collaborator with "newgrass" pioneer Sam Bush.


Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, House played mainly banjo as a teenager. He met and first jammed with mandolinist, future collaborator and fellow Kentucky native Sam Bush at age 11. Inspired by late Weather Report bassist Jaco Pastorius' work on Joni Mitchell's 1976 album Hejira, he studied primarily double bass and electric bass in college, both in Europe and America. House worked in a Nashville, Tennessee recording studio as a Fairlight CMI programmer throughout the 1980s while studying the recording techniques of session musicians.

ahhh.... belle information JP et merci pour ça... mentionnant Jaco Patorious. Son neveu David joue actuellement dans le Pat Travers Band (version actuelle), entre autres projets musicaux... Il est très bon. Mais je pensais que le batteur était vraiment génial dans ce line-up maintenant.


ahhh.... nice information JP and thank you for that... mentioning Jaco Patorious.  His nephew David actually plays in the Pat Travers Band (current version), amongst other musical endeavors... He is very good.  I thought the drummer was really great in that line up now though.

[Ted]

[Ted]

bass isn't me, it's Byron House, a studio musician doing freelance work

I love this version – how you pull back all of the other instruments and let the bass carry the verses.

[Jean Pierre]

how you pull back all of the other instruments and let the bass carry the verses.

in fact I didn't extract the bass...this is an instrumental backtrack made with Band in a box
Band in a box is unique in that it doesn't use midi instruments, but real instruments played by real musicians (usually from Nashville, but also from Ontario, Canada).
It works from samples that are played from a chord grid, after choosing an appropriate musical "style".
This is the case here, for this song, where I first entered the chord grid and then chose the midi instruments, or real instruments as in this case with the bass.

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=196280
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Ted]

I didn't extract the bass.

I understood that. I just meant that I like the arrangement – with the only bass, drums, and vocals during the verses.

[Jean Pierre]

ah ok...in the jazzy stuff (which isn't the case here by the way) I like the bass, drums and vocals trinome