The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy : Lyrics : La Mer

The Jazz Butcher Lyrics La Mer

Lyrics

La Mer

La mer viens dedans
La mer va de hors
Tous les petits poissons habitent dans la mer
C'est vrai, tu sais
La mer c'est bleu
Et les poissons sont verts
La mer c'est bleu
Et les poissons sont verts
C'est vrai, c'est un fait
Et
Chorus:
Tout le monde va a la plage
Parce qu'il est bien joli
Et tout le monde s'amuse bien a la plage

Les elephants sont gris
Et la mer c'est bleu
La mer c'est bleu
Et les elephants sont gris
Mais qu'est-ce qu'il ya des elephants ici?
La mer c'est bleu
Et les elephants ils vont
Les elephants ils vont souvent en vacance
Les elephants font les vacances comme tout le monde
Mais
Chorus
Comme ca!
Et les elephants ils vont
Ils vont en bâteau
Le bâteau ne marche pas
C'est trop petit
Les elephants tombent dans la mer
Mais les elephants, ils nagent jusqu'a la plage
Les elephants ils nagent jusqu'a la plage
Les elephants ils sont sauvés
Et
Chorus
Which translates to (roughly)
The sea comes in
bad French grammar joke
The sea goes out
All the little fish live in the sea
It's true, you know
The sea is blue
And the fish are green
The sea is blue
And the fish are green
It's true, it's a fact
And
Chorus:
Everyone goes to the beach
Because it is really nice (fun, etc)
And everyone has a lot of fun at the beach

The elephants are grey
And the sea is blue
The sea is blue
And the elephants are grey
But what is there to do with elephants here?
The sea is blue
And the elephants go,
The elephants often go on vacation
The elephants go on vacation like everyone else
But
Chorus
Like that!
And the elephants, they go
They go in a boat
The boat doesn't work
It's too small
The elephants fall in the sea
But the elephants swim to the beach
The elephants swim to the beach
The elephants are saved
And
Chorus

Found On

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Bath Of Bacon

It's really just the sound of a few mates failing to take seriously the fact they they've got an l.p. to make. It seems VERY early eighties now, but you must remember that there was a LOT of crap for us to clear out of the way in those days.

Glass Records LP;CD

The Wasted Years

Featuring ‘Bath Of Bacon’, ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’, ‘Sex And Travel’ and ‘Distressed Gentlefolk’.

Purchase Now
( thejazzbutcher.bandcamp.com )

Fire Records 4xCD

Others Say

Others Say..

One day in 2018, Pat Fish sent me a very kind message to explain to me the genesis of a song, which I'm sure is now one of the classics of French song. No small feat for a roast beef.

The Butcher Says..

November 26, 2018, via messenger: “I like the idea of your column and I would be happy to say something about the origins of La Mer . I happen to remember the Sunday afternoon I wrote it vividly. I was coming out of a good big meal washed down with wine at my parents' house. With nothing else to do, I returned home and started playing a chord suite used in Stairway to Heaven . For three or four hours, I worked on this damn thing, to conclude, at tea time, that it was really young music, useless and pretentious, and that it was better that I pass to something else. Released, I started to strum the A minor and the MI, in the very basic way of Patrick Fitzgerald, a punk songwriter, quite popular at the time. At that time, I was also listening to Charles Trenet and Jean Sablon a lot , and, for some reason, La mer came to me. Suddenly, I remembered all those crazy little songs we were taught at school, to make us learn French. Most of these songs were about elephants in one way or another. I started with this crazy literal translation of The sea comes in, the sea goes out . I stopped for a moment and laughed, “You can't do that!”, a usual thing in my writing process. And, in a few minutes, in a very strange way, the whole scene went by, in French in the text. After having struggled for hours, the sea was writing itself, in ten minutes. To be honest, I didn't think anyone, after that lonely Sunday afternoon, would ever hear this song, and certainly not in France! When we first performed there in 1986, the band asked me if we were going to play La Mer . “ Are you crazy? We're going to get killed! ” . This shows how wrong we can be. Best regards, Pat x ”.

Source: Renaud Sachet 2021-10-09 (Saturday, 9^th of October 2021 - 3 years 74 days ago)

Live Stats

39 documented performances (click to explore)

1983	1 (JBC)
1985	2 (JBC)
1986	5 (JBC)
1987	17 (JBC)
1988	4 (JBC)
1997	2 (JBC)
1999	1 (JBC)
2002	2 (JBC)
2005	2 (JBC)
2015	1 (JBC)
2019	1 (Pat Solo)
2020	1 (Pat Solo)

Media

From the 2012 Last of the Gentleman Adventurers recording session (unreleased)

1 Recorded Live Performances

1997-09-22 The Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, USA
Credit: David Whittemore