Nougaro

[letrangere]

Having been in the SW at the time of his death I couldn't help feeling a cultural outsider. Headline news on TF1 at 20.00 hrs? Crowds massing in Toulouse, young men sobbing? Can someone please enlighten me as to what I've been missing all these years?

Margaret

[SaligoBay]

>Having been in the SW at
>the time of his death
>I couldn't help feeling a
>cultural outsider. Headline news
>on TF1 at 20.00 hrs?
> Crowds massing in Toulouse,
>young men sobbing? Can
>someone please enlighten me as
>to what I've been missing
>all these years?
>
>Margaret

I don't know, because I've missed it too! When it happened, I did wonder how come if he was so great, nobody has ever mentioned him in my hearing before?

This Yahoo News article tell you a bit about him:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,8874475%255E1702,00.html

Apparently he kept the chanson franais going in the face of the onslaught of rock'n'roll. And he did jazz in French. And now that I know that, I understand why I didn't come across him, because I'm not a great fan of either of these.

Neighbour said he "didn't have a brilliant singing voice, wasn't all that good-looking, but was a true poet".

I've still to look at his lyrics, and will report back at some unspecified time in le futur. Not that I could plan to do it at any other time

[letrangere]

As a follow on from this, I should report that two good French friends have come to my rescue - neither could believe I hadn't heard of the great man - and I am now the proud owner of 2 Nougaro CDs. And the surprising part is, for someone whose musical taste is normally restricted to classical/jazz, I find them quite enjoyable. Not sure that I would buy them myself, especially at full price, but they're perfectly pleasant easy listening background music. He also has an tendency to play on words, which is interesting for language learners.

Margaret