I don’t understand how the human brain works. Granted, I don’t understand how a lot of things work (AIRPLANES ARE TOO HEAVY TO FLY), but the human brain? Complete mystery. How can the same organ (is the brain an organ?) that’s capable of learning the specifics of quantum physics be simultaneously incapable of remembering the name of that famous person from that movie I saw with that guy that one time during that thing.
WHERE DO DETAILS LIKE THIS GO?!
Take French music, for example. I’ve started to listen to French music pretty regularly because a) I’m convinced that the French know something we don’t know and 2) Since I don’t understand a fucking word of what French people are singing about*, their songs don’t distract me during the work day.
Recently, my French phase has lead me to download a lot of songs by Edith Piaf, and my favorite song of hers is called Milord. I can’t really explain why it’s my favorite, other than the fact that every single time it comes on I feel as though I’m supposed to be dancing naked at a cabaret somewhere, surrounded by buttery croissants and very thick accents.
(Hey look! Even though I’ve been to France, I still seem to think that it’s just one big giant accent-filled sex bakery!)
But wait, here’s the thing with Edith Piaf, or at least, here’s the thing with her song Milord: I know it from somewhere. I know I’ve heard this song before, in some other context, and yet I can’t place it. In a movie, maybe? Or a play? Or a TV show? Or like, fuck, I don’t know exactly, but I’ve definitely heard it. Has that ever happened to you? A song comes on and you know you’re familiar with it, but your impossibly complicated, never-works-the-way-you-need-it-work brain won’t make the connection for you?
IT’S INFURIATING.
At first though, not knowing where I’d heard the song wasn’t too bad. I was all, “Oh, it’ll come to me!” Then, a few hours later I was like, “Wow, that’s weird, I still can’t figure it out.” Then, a few hours after that, I was all, “COME ON, BRAIN. YOU KNOW THIS SONG.” Then, by day three, I was an inch away from having a hot mess breakdown over why in the hell I could remember all of the words to every Christmas song ever, but I couldn’t shake my brain into summoning forth the one tiny little piece of information that was keeping me awake at night, humming Milord incessantly to myself while small fragments of my soul hardened and chipped away with despair.
Finally, I sat down to Google it. “Okay,” I thought, “this is it, Google will have the answer” and I started typing every possible combination of “Edith Piaf” and “Milord” and “soundtrack” and “where the effing eff eff eff do I know that eff eff song from?!?” which didn’t bring me any closer to solving my torturous mystery but did bring me to a Tumblr called Eff This Diet where some girl in Southern California who has a severe foot phobia writes about how she’s trying to lose 120 lbs.
NOT HELPFUL.
Also, just so you know, this is the part of the story where I lie and tell you that I didn’t actually spend multiple hours over the course of an entire week trying to Google myself to brain-lock freedom. Nope. DIDN’T DO IT.
Also also, guess what? It turns out that finding where I’ve heard that Edith Piaf song is the one thing that Google can’t do. Do you know what that means? It either means that I’ve never actually heard the song Milord before and that something deep inside my brain (AGAIN, WHAT IS THE HUMAN BRAIN!!!) is tormenting me until I slowly go insane, or my brain is so large and complicated that even Google can’t handle it.
Which is to say, in all seriousness, that if anyone can figure out where the belligerent fuck I’ve heard this song before, I’ll send you $20 worth of whatever you want - bubble gum, condoms, hair elastics, salt, whatever you want.
JUST. HELP. ME.
*Actually, that’s a lie. I know three French words: poissons, which means fish, merde, which means shit, and merci, which means thank you. But unless someone is singing “thank you shit fish” over and over again, French music is a pretty distraction-free experience for me. UNLESS I HAPPEN TO KNOW SAID FRENCH SONG FROM SOME LONG-LOST MYSTERIOUS FORMER LIFE THAT NOT EVEN GOOGLE CAN FIND.
::cries::
Posted in: also, too much iced tea, day to day shenanigans, wtf?!
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I can’t remember what I ate for dinner yesterday, so I’m no help here. Even if I had seen the same movie and the hamsters in my brain managed to latch on to the correct portion of the soundtrack. No.
But you mentioned condoms which reminded me of that little green tin of condoms you gave me, the one currently riding around in my purse. Along with another little green tin, filled with mints. I have learned to be very careful about which tin I pull out and open in public.
I’M JUST SAYING.
The only thing I can think of is the movie La Vie en Rose which came out in 2007 starring Marion Cotillard who plays Edith Piaf…. maybe its in that movie??!!
You probably already saw these on wikipedia but I figured I’d post them anyway.
This song was also covered by male crooner, Bobby Darin in 1964.
Benny Hill produced a skit modeled on the musical Cabaret, and included the song “Milord,” sung — in English — by Louise English, a member of Hill’s Angels. It is the closing number in the skit and the refrain is repeated as the patrons toast each other and throw confetti.
Cher sang an English version of “Milord” on her second solo album The Sonny Side of Cher which was released in 1966. It has also been sung by the all-girl punk group the Mo-dettes in 1980, Candan Erçetin, Mercan Dede at 2003.
In-grid sang a remix of “Milord” in her album La Vie en Rose released in 2004. The song was edited to have a faster speed than the original.
French jazz singer Raquel Bitton performed the song as part of her Piaf tribute show “Piaf: Her Story, Her Songs”.
“Milord” was in “La Vie en Rose” (or at least it’s on the soundtrack) and it was also apparently in “La Mome,” but I’ve never heard of that movie. *ahem*
I should probably actually go SEE “La Vie en Rose” before I put it forth as my answer, but that’s just too bad. This post did make me listen to “Milord,” though. And now it’s stuck in my head. So thanks for that.
I really think you should just write a whole post in parentheses.
Also, I can never spell paraentheses right. See? That’s wrong. Parantheses. Still wrong. FUCK.
Probably you somehow saw this Hungarian movie from 1965 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058218/)? I mean, imdb also says it was in “The Bucket List”, but the Hungarian movie seems more likely.
La Mome is just the original French title of La Vie En Rose. Piaf’s nickname in France was the little sparrow or ‘mome’
As for Milord, there are tons of dance remixes that get played in French discos, so maybe you heard it in one of those? And it was used in some German film way back, about a girl who falls in love with a drag queen (no idea what it was called!)
If you’ve been to France, you may have heard it there. It’s really popular to play in cafes and lobbies. It’s also in two French car commercials and one commercial about cigarettes that I can remember. Also, although I never saw a trailer for La Vie en Rose in the US, the ones in France also had Milord in them.
I’m sorry Google is failing you.
It failed me last week (and still) as I’m trying to remember children’s books from my past because I’m currently obsessed with making sure I can still purchase the books I loved when I was five for my future unconceived someday child. The one google failed at is all different animals telling their children bedtime stories and I found a user on Yahoo who’s looking for the same book but the rest of the internet is all “We don’t care! La la la la la! Here’s some books about giraffes!”
And I’m all, “What the actual fuck?! This is not what I wanted. Screw you google. We’re done.”
But not.
Because I just can’t quit google.
Also, I read “Eff This Diet” and she’s pretty inspiring. She’s lost like 100 pounds already and she’s pretty down to earth about it.
Hi Shaba,
I’m a librarian, so I can’t resist researching questions like this. I did some digging in a subscription database called NoveList; is the book you’re looking for by any chance “Papa’s Bedtime by Mary Lee Donovan? Here’s a description from Publisher’s Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-679-91790-8
If you haven’t found those books yet, there are a couple of groups on LiveJournal (I know right?) that are amazing at finding books with the slightest detail. LMK if you want their info
It’s the theme song for Two and a Half Men. I know that’s your favorite show so I’m betting that’s where you heard it. Also? Fromage is french for cheese. So now you can have a shit cheese fish next time you visit. Ta dah.
This could help….
http://www.screentunes.com/ type milord without Pilaf’s name and you’ll get a list of some covers of the song in movies. Only movie I recognize is The Bucket List. Other thoughts, maybe they played it at the Oscars for the movie La Vie En Rose. That’s all I’ve got.
love that site! thanks.
Oh boy. I HATE when this happens. And I swear that as I age, it is happening more and more.
Avec means “with” in French. Now you can add that into your one sentence.
Are you sure you want to figure out where it came from? You might like the song less once you associate it with something else.
Ugh. So annoyed at you. So, so annoyed. I have a major, major, Eyes Wide Shut creepy sexy thing for French Hip Hop, which invariably I forget sometimes because as you know I’m like a crack whore for new music and when you’re shooting up you’re never really thinking about the high you got last week, you know? Sure you do…you do great crack analogies.
Anyway, I’ve had your post open for like four hours while I intermittently tried to search my blog for a tune I know I put on one of the mixtapes I used to make and not only couldn’t find it (or remember it for the life of me) but I found that all my old article URLs are fucked and I have to figure that out at some point too, because essentially the Google of Derek’s Blog is broken.
So thanks. Check out French hip hop, I hear good things.
THANK YOU SHIT FISH. I don’t know what that means, but I will be repeating it over and over again in English.
there is actually a word for the phenomenon that occurs in your brain when you’re trying to remember something and it slips your mind, and the harder you try to remember it the more impossible it is for your brain to recover it. of course, I can’t remember what it’s called, but I’m pretty sure I read about it on mentalfloss.com. I’ve learned a lot about the human brain from that magazine- like did you know that scientists are working on a type of trauma therapy that works by altering memories in a way that is preeeetty freaking similar to the memory-erasing process in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind? craazy shit….
Yeah I’m going to be of no help to you. But just beware of when you start to just sing the French or foreign songs and have no idea what I means. I still do that for a German one and the only thing I can remember is that the music video had some kind of S&M thing going on. WTF?
did you ever watch la mome? which is possibly also french so you would have no idea what was happening so i dont know WHY you would watch it….but it has the song in it.
it’s probably from a commercial, all annoying songs are in commercials. typically for burgers
Despite desperately wanting to win $20 worth of salt I could give a merde as to where you heard that song before. Not because I’m mean or a bitch…wait, that’s a lie, I’m both of those things but not in this instance. I just can’t get past “thank you shit fish”. That makes me inexplicably happy.
So thanks and good luck. I hope one of the more helpful readers led you to your answer and in turn, the deep recesses of your Christmas carol addled brain.
During the exhibition skate at the 1992 Olympics, Kirsti Yamaguchi (who won the women’s single gold), did her “fun” program to Milord. It was a tribute to France (since the 92 Olympics were held in Lillehammer).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hM3L1XEWKY
(1) It is, in terms of the tune (and the tempo and tone), very much like a similar-but-different version of “Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay”, so perhaps you are conflating it with that in your auditory memory?
(2) I have to suggest that you get yourself some Serge Gainsbourg to listen to, if you need more French music. “Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin” and “Couleur Cafe” are my two favorites of his albums, but some of the tunes on his other albums are really good (the rest is just not my taste, but I’m unhip and old-fashioned in my musical tastes, so your opinion would probably be very different)
(3) Also, Carla Bruni actually has some pretty good stuff
And that’s all I have to say about that.
I give you a lot of credit for trying to figure it out on your own before googling it. A lot of people wouldn’t do that. Like myself.
Random thought: Airplanes are too heavy to fly yet I think the bigger (and heavier) they are, the better they will stay in the air. My brain baffles me.
Okay, I lied, that wasn’t all — I went to youtube to see if there were any versions of Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay on accordian so you could compare and see how kind of similar the two are, and found this guy — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eztsaD2oCNg . Watching him play this just made me smile so hard my face hurts. Hilarity.
Somehow, I imagine “thank you shit fish” as the new snarky thank you. You know, when someone points out the totally obvious, and you say “thank you, Captain Obvious”? Well, now it’s gonna be “Thank you, shit fish”. Which makes no sense but it makes me laugh so…there.
Also, I can’t believe that you of all people don’t know the French word for orgasm. It is one of only 3 or 4 French words/phrases I know. A girlfriend once told me that it’s “la petit mort” which literally means “tiny death”. Of course, she could have told me anything after what had just, uh, gone down and I would’ve believed it, but I don’t think she was making that up.
Did you see “La Vie en Rose” (with Marion Cotillard)? It’s the Edith Piaf biopic and that song is, well, in it, of course.
This totally happened to me with the song Flowers in the Window by Travis. My boyfriend at the time played it for me for what i thought was the first time and i somehow knew all of the words and didn’t know why. It was super weird and i totally thought i was psychic until a few months later i watched the movie Saved! and relized that’s where i heard it from and it was in the trailer. not psychic. Maybe in a few months you’ll figure it out…maybe…*helpful*
Whenever anyone says a question is driving them crazy, I can’t resist reminding the world that librarians live for this shit, for reals! Nicole, here’s the link to your SF Public Library system’s Ask A Librarian page: http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000001701 You can just IM or email them the question and they should get back to you fairly quickly.
A public service message from your friendly virtual librarian.
You have semantic dementia!!! AHHH
Just kidding, you really don’t have that…I shouldn’t joke about those things.
Well, now it’s clawing it’s way through my brain too. I’m SURE I’ve heard it before…so thanks I think.
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