Les Chansons Francaises

[Chas]

I'm digging on Leo Marjane at the moment. She's still among us, at 100 years; she sang for a pro-German radio station, which didn't endear her to her public. (hands up, everybody who hasn't made a bad decision)

[video=youtube;via0kHcEV1A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=via0kHcEV1A[/video]

 

[ChiTownScion]

While in Paris last October, I visited the grave of another French singer of that era, Edith Piaf. It happened to be the 50th anniversary of her passing. I wondered why she seemed to be a national heroine but was not enshrined in the Pantheon.

Piaf's wartime activities have become the subject of current scrutiny and controversy. Her post war alibi was that she utilized her singing for German troops as a cover while working for the Resistance, and that she parleyed that to visit French POWs, who had their photos taken with her and later used the photos in forged identification cards during escape efforts. Problem is, not a single French POW came forward to verify her account.

My own conclusion is that I wasn't there and that those who were not subject to the realities of that terrible chapter in history-especially those of us who are not French- are in no position to pass judgment on those who had to survive it. I just enjoy the music.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Rina Ketty -- J'attendrai (1938)

[video=youtube;ctU8sVUwF4Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctU8sVUwF4Q#t=125[/video]