French Wishing: Les Rita Mitsouko

Very nice contribution from Jana to the French Wishing-project. Read on!

'A legend in France!'
With this motto I invited my friends to join me for the concert (October 2007) by Les Rita Mitsouko. It was the first time I would see them.
Pop and rock, world music, electronic beats, guitar solos and French chansons. That's what I expected. Although it was a tender, energetic, and overwhelming concert, I had a strange feeling afterwards. The French input was poor and the guitar solos were gone. What happened?
Catherine Ringer, the driving force and lead singer of the band, sang most of the songs in English.
Fred Chichin, the master of guitars and composer of sweet songs was already ill. This great musician passed away November 28th.According to Fred's wish Catherine continues singing and presenting there newest album Variéty, or Variety as said on the UK version. This bilingual title explains a lot why Les Rita's sing their songs in French or English. And because of that I would like to present one of the newest tracks on these 2 albums.
The main reason why I like this group so much is because of their fantastic lyrics. And the fist time I heard the song 'Ma vieille ville' (My old city) in French it was so beautiful. It explains someone's return to Paris which was once his or her home.

"Tu étais revenu
Par une belle soirée d'été, avais marché
L'Ile de la cité
Sous le pont Marie la seine
Les lumières t'ont fait pleurer
Tout est changé et tout est pareil"

But when i heard the English version 'Paris (France)' it was totally different.

"See the lights along the bank
The sting of pearls goes on forever
In a window there's a light
And life goes on regardless
But don't you want to dive in the water"

Catherine explains: "We don't want people to think we are singing about Paris, Texas. It's about a Parisian rolling around the globe to find something new in life before coming back here to find that he has changed, like the town. It's touristic. We sing about the lights on the Seine."
The touristic part could be cancelled and the lights on the Seine we can all imagine. So I prefer the French version. It's much more natural and softer when Catherine sings it.

Les Rita Mitsouko - Ma Vieille Ville
Les Rita Mitsouko - Paris (France)