Carla, George

Just got back from Paris, and my 40-minute interview with Carla Bruni. Yes, she's as beautiful in the flesh as she is on pictures. Yes, she really has that husky voice. Yes, she's as chaotic and unmanageable as she appears in earlier interviews - no need for a questionnaire, Carla decides what to tell and when to tell it. Unfortunately, the interview did not take place at her appartment, as promised, but at a posh hotel (Hotel Square, near the big radio building), because her little boy was ill. We laughed a lot, she sang some lines of other songs (by the Rolling Stones, f.i.) and gave me some background on her decision to put poems by Auden, Yeats and others to music. Inspiration, in short. After the interview (Carla gave me two goodbye-kisses!), which will run in a Dutch magazine in January, I hit Gibert Joseph on Blvd St-Michel. There I bought about 30 cd's, among them a 2006 update of the George Brassens-tribute Les Oiseaux de passage (from 2001, featured here before), called Putain de Toi. And guess what: Carla is on it - hear her live-rendition of Fernande. The title-track is sung by another FS-favourite, Olivia Ruiz. This girl likes to Rock On!

Carla Bruni - Fernande
Olivia Ruiz - Putain de toi

UPDATE:The first single of Carla's new album No Promises is called Those Dancing Days are Gone. The lyrics are a poem by W.B. Yeats.
Carla Bruni - Those Dancing Days are Gone