....this time .... from the 1950s!
I am ashamed to say that I remember this little, inoffensive French priest from his appearance on the BBC TV pop show, The Six Five Special.
Then he sang in English: "Day by day, in the market place I play my flute all day but nobody dances ..."
His name is Father Duval and on this clip he sings the same song,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RugXby2efE0
Father Duval died suffering from alcoholism on 30th April 1984. RIP.
I am ashamed to say that I remember this little, inoffensive French priest from his appearance on the BBC TV pop show, The Six Five Special.
Then he sang in English: "Day by day, in the market place I play my flute all day but nobody dances ..."
His name is Father Duval and on this clip he sings the same song,
“J’ai joue de la flute" but in his native French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RugXby2efE0
Of course, it sounds kitsch but it also sounded kitsch back in 1959 or whenever (I was a very small child, then) ahem.
But one thing I do know and that is, it is a much better song and he is a much better singer than Father Ray Kelly and his Hallelujah.
Father Duval died suffering from alcoholism on 30th April 1984. RIP.
A sad end: RIP indeed! I remember the song and the singer, and liked both.
ReplyDeleteAround the same time came the emetic "Lord of the Prance".
Quite beautiful, in its own little way - I too recall the folk ditty if not the appearance on Six-Five-Special .. Over-the-points, over-the-points, over-the-points! Yet singing priests, and priests and nuns singing popular tunes is no novelty - think of the wonderful olden-days wireless and record disc 'star', though now largely forgotten, Fr Sidney MacEwan - at least he didn't burst into a chorus of Pennies Form Heaven, ad lib, at weddings (a Monty Python sketch, that image, if ever there as one).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFvqEq0s584
God Bless Our Pope!
Anonymous....yes, very moving....for those of a certain age!
DeleteVery pretty, but it sounded more like a guitar ;)
ReplyDeleteIan in England
Ian, it was a Tibetan nasal flute which does sound somewhat similar to a guitar :)
DeleteLast year I got my 2 Duval EPs transferred to CD and thence to my MPC
ReplyDeleteVE - you must be of a certain age!
DeleteOdd thing about the whole Fr Kelly thing is when I say I don't think it was appropriate for him to do that my friends tend to get quite angry with me. You wouldn't think people would feel so strongly. Why didn't he sing it at the reception? I will pray for that poor little priest. I recently lost a friend to alcoholism. It's a tragic way to end one's life.
ReplyDeleteChloe, you need to change your friends :)
DeletePeople always react angrily when someone dares to speak the truth that has been tacitly prohibited.
Delete