Michel Sardou Image via Wikipedia

French singer Michel Sardou was awarded the “freedom of Connemara” at a ceremony at the Irish embassy in Paris recently. The award is to thank him for 30 years free advertising for the region thanks to the huge and enduring hit, “Les lacs du Connemara” (the lakes of Connemara). Anyone who knows contemporary French culture probably knows this rousing, epic ballad from the 1981 album of the same name. It went straight to number one upon its release and has become a classic of chanson française.

According to to a report in the Irish Times, Sardou admitted that he had not visited Ireland when writing it and that he chose the names from a tourist brochure. As such it is another in the long list of tourist songs such as “Oh Danny Boy” and ” Swannee” that were written without any knowledge of the location.

Music by Jacques Revaux, lyrics by Pierre Delanoë?


“I have a very romantic idea of Ireland, he is reported to have said. “It is a land of legend, mysteries; harsh and wonderful at the same time. Everyone had [John Ford's] The Quiet Man in their head. Ireland wasn’t really like that, but that image stayed in France”.

This might be a little oversight on his part, as the writers for “Les lacs du Connemara” are listed as Jacques Revaux and Pierre Delanoë – two of the world’s most successful songwriters. Revaux, for example, wrote the melody for “Comme d’habitude“, later better known as “My Way”. Delanoë’s site even states clearly that the two wrote the song.

Either way, thanks to Sardou and Delanoë’s stirring but maudlin lyrics, generations of French people often make Connemara their first big stop in Ireland. “We see French people driving around playing it in their car,” said a local official. Sardou has since visited Ireland many times, notably for the horses, and has plans to buy a house in Connemara.

Les Lacs du Connemara lyrics

UPDATE: The site of the French authors’ society, Sacem, lists Michel Sardou and Pierre Delanoë as the lyricists of “Les lacs du Connemara“.

The recent broadcast of the BBC’s “Secrets of the Pop Song” featuring Guy Chambers has brought attention back to Ray Heffernan. At the time, he was a very young musician that met Robbie Williams in Dublin and went on to work on the song that became “Angels”. He eventually sold his share of the song for €7,500, with Williams’ team arguing that the song had changed totally between the original composition and the final version. The song went on to generate some €7 million. Although these cases are rare (and it could be argued he was lucky enough to get upfront cash rather than being ripped off), it only serves as a reminder that you have to learn the basics of songwriting as a business if you hope to receive any reward for your work. I don’t say that to freak people out or make you paranoid, but a little music business knowledge goes a long, long way.

As a second thought, I’d add that your songs can always be improved. It would be better to be in Chambers’ position than Heffernan’s. Being able to recognise the good elements of a song and re-work them to perfection is a skill to aim for.

Check the interview and then drop over to Ray Heffernan’s YouTube channel.

Image via Wikipedia

Unfortunately, I only came across this programme after the first 15 minutes. But it must be said: “Secrets of the Pop Song” is an absolutely amazing songwriting series on the BBC. As the title implies, the idea is to get behind the process of writing pop songs, ie songs that have huge appeal.

The first one (Saturday July 2) was devoted to the Power Ballad with fantastic interviews from producers, lyricist and composers, each throwing in their own two cents. Lyricist Don Black focused on accessibility, Diane Warren underlined the need to say something universal in a new way. Her example was the title “Unbreak my Heart”. Boy George told he tried to block the release of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, as he felt it was “too personal”. It’s interesting to note the importance given to the lyrics overall.A very significant part of the show was also given over to Guy Chambers and Rufus Wainwright’s attempts to write their own power balled. Chambers is the man behind Robbie Williams solo hits (“Angel” is discussed) and worked with Diana Ross, Sir Tom Jones and others. From the early fumblings (Wainwright had an idea to combine a folk song with rap), the song slowly came together melodically and lyrically. It was also nice to see how it changed harmonically and picked up more depth when instruments and backing vocals were added.If you are coming to this article later, the title is “World War Three” – and sounds like a fantastic song at this earlyish stage.

For those that saw it, what did you think of the use of “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus…” as the actual chorus? I thought it was a classic case of a filler line being left in when it needed more work. Ugh.

The Secrets of the Pop Song, BBC Two, Saturday July 2, 9:45pm – The Ballad
Sat 9th July 9.45pm – Episode 2 - Breakthrough Single
Sat 16th July 9.45pm (tbc) – Episode 3 – Anthem

Find out more about the programme on the BBC Two website. You might be able to watch the series online using the BBC iPlayer.

Cover of CB Milton

If you’re into the Internet radio scene and dance music, you might want to check Club97 radio, transmitting from New Jersey. It’s run by Mike Delaney, the former president of the 2 Unlimited fan club in the US, and who has been following the dance, Eurodance, techno and House scene for more years than we’d both care to mention.

He interviewed me recently about what it was like writing lyrics for 2 Unlimited, CB Milton and others. As usual, I talked way too much. So maybe you’ll find something of interest amongst the anecdotes and ramblings. Check here for Club97 Radio. The show goes out Friday March 25 at 8pm CET or 3pm SET.

Something I didn’t think to do is ask people what they would like to know about writing for these groups (just remember, I didn’t write all the hits – far from it!). So feel free to post a question. I’ll link to the interview afterwards.

For Club97 Radio listeners, here are the tracks I mostly talked about: Nothing Like the Rain and It’s a Loving Thing (which has just been re-released in a mix by Phil Wilde).

I have to say that I love this idea. An artist in Saginaw, Michigan, has been decorating the town with lines from Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”. “We drove through the city and tried to find areas that symbolized abandonment: the broken railroad track, the empty school,” Eric Schantz told ABCNews. In one poignant note, he sprayed “They have gone to find America” across the doors of an abandoned college.

The lines are surprising, of course, when placed alongside the more mundane graffiti and tags. As they give food for thought, they also make you look more closely at the rest of the surroundings. Paul Simon’s manager asked for photos of the works. I’d be pretty flattered in his case.

The connection with Saginaw is an interesting one. What lyrics do you think would suit your town? I immediately thought of Shane McGowan’s version of “Dirty Old Town” for London (even though it was originally written by Ewan MacColl about the English town of Salford). Any other suggestions?

It must be said: Germany’s entry, “Satellite” by Lena, was a very so-so song, and it wasn’t exactly an electric vocal performance. Strange that they received so many votes, although this sort of thing is said every year.

But what about the lyrics? A research and semantics laboratory had the fun idea of pasting all the Eurovision song lyrics together and running them through a semantics analyser, Intellexer. These sort of things are usually used to quickly analyse and summarise long texts, for the purpose of creating executive summaries. In the case of the Eurovision, the result is almost a corny version of haiku:

Let the sun shine, glide away my moon
Let the light of my love shine bright
I don’t believe any more your shallow heart.
Feeling the love ’till the day when I die.
For the cruel-cruel time when I’m first time in love

As many lyricists seem to write a compendium of worn-out clichés, it’s not surprising that an executive summary of Eurovision lyrics is itself a compendium of worn-out clichés.

If there are any lyrics that actually touched you, please let us know by dropping a message. Read more about Intellexer.

There is much talk at the moment about the George Harrison “track” that was featured on British radio recently. The story is that Beatle biographer Hunter Davies came across a scrap of paper with some Harrison lyrics, “Silence (Is Its Own Reply)”, speculated to be about his relationship with John Lennon. During a radio show, the presenter Spencer Leigh suggested that Liverpool musician Dean Johnson could provide a melody for the lyrics, that you can find here. There has been considerable talk about this – lots of it pretty negative. Why?

It must be said: Johnson was either naive or brave to take on the task. There is something perceived as sacred about The Beatles, with George in particular seen as Mr Nice Guy. So it would have to be one hell of a melody to live up to the expectation. Based on the one acoustic version sung live on radio, it isn’t. Even though it’s hardly fair to judge it under these conditions, I can’t help wondering what it would have been like if Dave Stewart or ELO’s Jeff Lynn had been given the lyrics.

Yet this is not the first time that a song has been re-constructed from fragments. Woody Guthrie’s family spent considerable time seeking out composers to take Guthrie’s large catalogue of unsung words and make songs out of them. Is it fair to take scraps of a dead man’s song and fill in the gaps? Apparently, the estates of George Harrison and Woody Guthrie think so.

George Harrison: “All Things Must Pass” mp3

I just noticed that Dana Winner’s new album, “Between Now and Tomorrow”, has been released featuring “If You Want to Know Me” with lyrics by me. The album features English versions of a similar album released in the Benelux, and was recorded largely for release in her “second home”, South Africa. But this is not the first time she has recorded in English, nor recorded covers

Dana Winner is one of Belgium’s most successful singers. Her international career was first launched in The Netherlands and Germany, and took a global turn when she was invited to go on tour in South Africa. The tour was a major success and her South African album went Platinum.

One thing led to another, and Dana Winner released two albums, “Unforgettable” (2001) and “Unforgettable Too” (2002), which topped the album charts in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and which were granted several awards in South Africa and Belgium.

In 2005 “Beautiful life” was released. It was Dana’s first pop record, entirely sung in English. It became another international success.

In 2006, Dana decided to record a new album in Dutch, following her version of the Dutch classic “Het dorp” (The village). The album featured “Het dorp”, but also the hit single “Kijk om je heen” (Look Around You) and the summer hit “Als je lacht”. The album reached Gold status in a matter of weeks. So far Dana Winner has sold 1.8 million albums worldwide.

I’ll be there just waiting
Till you come around
We’ll take it kinda easy
And hope that it will never end

I was contacted initially by EMI about adapting “Si tu veux m’essayer” for her, and immediately thought it would be interesting to write for Dana and also to adapt a song written by Jean-Jacques Goldman. Practically unknown outside France, Goldman has raked up dozens of hits, and written for many other major performers. “Si tu veux m’essayer”, for example, was a hit for singer Florent Pagny on the album “Rester vrai”, which sold over 200,000 copies.

Adapting lyrics into other languages
When I started working, “If You Want to Know Me” came together quite easily after one or two false starts. There’s a reason for this: it’s well written in terms of structure and meter. So the lyricist in me had an excellent basis to work from. As there was no reason to do otherwise, I kept quite close to the original French lyrics. This has not always been the case, as I totally re-wrote “Aspettando te” several years back to become “We Can Break Away” for the girl group Indiana with practically no use of the original lyrics.

I have mixed feelings about adapting lyrics into English. On the one hand, if you have the opportunity I feel you should improve a song’s impact – and that’s what most singers expect. On the other, you always want to respect the original songwriter. The only version of a song of mine that I’m aware of is a Spanish version of 2 Unlimited’s “Nothing Like the Rain”, which does stay pretty close to my original lyrics. On the other hand, I’ve had plenty of remixes where they completely remove everything except one line of the chorus! This used to irritate me, but I’ve come to accept it as part of the game.

By connecting Dana Winner, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Florent Pagny, “If You Want to Know Me” has found itself on my playlist (yes, I actually listen to my own stuff – the good tracks anyway). Winner will be touring Holland extensively in December 2009. You’ll find more about her on Dana Winner website.

If You Want To Know Me (Amazon FR)

“If You Want to Know Me” is published by Strictly Confidential.

The infobahn is alive with Susan Boyle’s rendition (nice word, eh?) of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”. There is an overwhelming opinion that Boyle has now recorded one of the definitive versions of the song. This, however, is seen as sacrilege by others, who cling to memories of the Stones and Gram Parsons. This sort of fuss is frequent when someone decides to cover a song. Why? What’s the issue?

One of the most enduring myths in pop culture is the myth of the auteur. There is a strange obsession about artists singing their own lyrics. I think it comes from our desire to associate the performer with the song – as if most men could actually love you “all night long” or Marilyn Manson was as dark and twisted as he tries to make out (which I doubt – he’s remarkably well-read and articulate). To burst the bubble, all one has to do is think of some absolute defining moments in pop and ask: who cares who wrote them?

Who cares that Elvis Presley didn’t write “Hound Dog” (Lieber & Stoller)? Who cares that Edith Piaf didn’t write “Je ne regrette rien” (Doumont & Vaucaire)? Who cares if Jimi Hendrix didn’t compose “Hey Joe” (Billy Roberts)? Each made history and moved countless millions of people with their versions. What’s more, how would those songs sound if sung by their respective authors? The answer is easy: disappointing in most cases.

If it’s worth singing, sing it well
So I can’t knock people singing “covers”. It’s a tribute. If a song is worth writing, it is worth singing well. And for me, the better the singer the happier we should be. Yes, even if that singer is Celine Dion, Nana Mouskouri or in this case the winner of a TV show.

Coming back to “Wild Horses”, Boyle has indeed created a superb version. Yes, it’s a bit incongruous Susan Boyle slipping into a song made famous by Mick Jagger. But she breathes new life into the song. When you look at it from a songwriting perspective, “Wild Horses” is basically a magnificent melody and structure with dubious lyrics. I’m not sure how Boyle manages to put such emotion into Jagger’s mild misogyny, but she does. Being a nice guy at heart, I salute verses such as:

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn’t drag me away

But I’ll pass on the rest. We should be thanking Susan Boyle for her voice and heart. We need more of both in the charts.

Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream

The way music is licenced around the world means that I have no control over where the tracks I work on eventually crop up. As Perry Rose has played quite a lot in France, just about all his albums are available on Amazon France as MP3s.

I have to say: Perry Rose is truly one of the best melody writers I know, in addition to being a great singer and songwriter. His Irish roots are also pretty clear to see (check the liner notes on the compilation “Celtic Circus” where he talks about the Duffy Circus in Ireland – he has circus roots on both sides of his family).

I’ve written lyrics with him on nearly every album over the past ten years, and seen him countless times in concert. It’s always interesting to work as a lyricist for someone regularly, as you get to know each other and know what will work well.

Amazon have a neat widget, so I made a selection of our co-writes over the years and added comments for each track. My faves are “On my Knees” and “Down to the Sea”, but there’s not one track here I’m not proud of.

Get more news about Perry Rose or follow me on Twitter for lyric news.

I just got back from Normandy, which has been celebrating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing this year. So it was a strange coincidence to discover that Dame Vera Lynn is back in the UK charts with a compilation based around “We’ll Meet Again”, the song written for the movie of the same name in 1939. Lynn was known as the sweetheart of the armed forces, appearing regularly in uniform to sing for them. The song is one of the iconic tracks of the conflict, evoking a feeling of destiny and hope in the face of overwhelming odds.

We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day

It was written by composer Ross Parker and lyricist Hughie Charles (who would also pen “There’ll Always be an England”) and has had a long career. It is known mostly for the chorus, and to be honest, the verses don’t add much to the song. But it’s interesting to see how four lines can reach people so powerfully even after 70 years. In addition to regular re-releases, “We’ll Meet Again” has been used in films such as “Dr Strangelove” as well as countless World War 2 documentaries. It has also been covered by people as diverse as Barry Manilow, The Byrds and Pete Doherty. By entering the charts at age 92, Dame Vera Lynn has set a new record that will be hard to beat.

As WordPress users are often told by WordPress, “code is poetry“. But what happens when coders take a look at songs and determine the logic behind the songs? A geeky in-joke has now become one of Twitter’s funniest trends. Type #songsincode into the Twitter search engine and you’ll be bombarded by song titles and lines expressed as php or Apache code. Examples?

var i = {shot:{sheriff:true,deputy:false}}

That reads as “I shot the sheriff, but I didn’t shoot the deputy”. Or how about

load(int tons) { if (tons == 16) { older(days(1)); debt++ } }.

Yep, that’s “16 tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt” (courtesy of @efficacy).

Personally, I find the whole idea a scream. But what hits the funny bone exactly? Is it like synthetic voices trying to express emotions? Or is it how easily complex personal thoughts can be reduced to code? Or the obvious comment that engineers are always analysing things?

Inevitably, someone has started a site with the better ones. This is unfolding as I type this, so I’m not sure what you’ll find. So check SongsinCode and put your left-hand brain to work on right-hand matter.

And my shot at it?

{ if (baby == left me) var i ={find:{place to dwell:target=”new”}}

Don’t tell me the syntax is shot. I know that. Throw me in a fix. As @robertham says, “Geeks just want to have fun”.