Lyrics to a French song

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bedtime
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Lyrics to a French song

Postby bedtime » Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:01 pm

The song is You You by Vanessa Paradis. I only need a few seconds worth of the lyrics as I found the rest online (below). I looked around online and could only find two websites with the lyrics for this song, both of which don't have the lyrics for a specific part of the song.

There are two links below in case one of them is blocked in your country. The times of the mystery lyrics are indicated below and the videos should be cued at the exact spot already.

1:46 - 1:59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRpSi7tG8Us&feature=youtu.be&t=106

1:55 - 2:07
https://youtu.be/hcuuJCYkk_o?t=113

The questioned lyrics are at the beginning of verse 3 (below). Vanessa Paradis tends to add English to her songs, so the missing lyrics could be a mix of French and English. There is a chance that the lyrics I posted could be wrong in some areas as well.

verse 1
You You est anglais, rouquin et mauvais
You You est parfait, foulard et cuir noir


chorus
Mon You You, fou, mon You You, ça veut dire "tu" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "tu" ou bien...


verse 2
You You est complet, trois pièces dans Marais
Mon You You est discret, remarque pas bavard


chorus
Mon You You, fou, fou, ça veut dire "tu" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "tu" ou bien "vous"


verse 3
???
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles


chorus
Mon You You, fou, fou, ça veut dire "toi" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "tu" ou bien...


bridge
Les étoiles, mon You You, les étoiles

chorus
You You You, ça veut dire "toi" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "toi" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "toi" ou bien "vous"
You You, ça veut dire "toi" ou bien "vous"...


I threw these lyrics into DeepL and got this:

pours 1
You You're English, redheaded and bad
You You is perfect, black scarf and leather.


chorus
My You You, crazy, my You You, it means "you" or "you."
You You, it means "you" or...


pour 2
You You is sold out, three plays in Marais
My You You is discreet, don't notice it's talkative.


chorus
My You You, crazy, crazy, it means "you" or "you."
You You, it means "you" or "you"...


pays 3
???
Visit the stars, visit the stars
Visit the stars, visit the stars


chorus
My You You, crazy, crazy, it means "you" or "you."
You You, it means "you" or...


bridge
The stars, my You You, the stars

chorus
You You You, it means "you" or "you"...
You You, it means "you" or "you"...
You You, it means "you" or "you"...
You You, it means "you" or "you"...


I don't know how accurate that English translation is, but it sounds a little off in some places.

...

It sounds almost as if she's saying, in English, "you will...my...(papa, bebe, bonbon?)" during the first part of it. The lyrics right after it sound French, and the last part seems as if it could have English and French.

If your French is better than mine (A1-A2) and you can figure it out, that would be great. :)
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby AnneL » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:01 pm

I'm French (+bilingual UK English) and remember her voice from then and still absolutely have no clue what she is saying, which is probably why you can't find it online. Not sure why you need to figure out everything like that, but good luck.
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:15 pm

you and me must dance, dance,
.... l'air ....
you you and me must dance
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby guyome » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:22 pm

Maybe
You, animal, pa...part
Avec une galère à voi...voiles
You you, animal, part
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles

"Avec" seems to be reduced to " 'c ".

Also,
trois pièces dans Marais
should be "trois pièces dans le Marais" ("le" is hardly heard because it is pronounced with "dans l'Marais"). "Trois pièces" means "three-room apartment" and "le Marais" is a neighbourhood in Paris.
Last edited by guyome on Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby Arnaud » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:35 pm

remarque pas bavard: I hear "renard pas bavard"
Guyome is close but I don't hear "part": I hear something like "You animal balle balle/part, d'une galère à voiles voiles" (ok, I know it means nothing..)
Who wrote such débiles lyrics ? :lol:
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby guyome » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:41 pm

Arnaud wrote:remarque pas bavard: I hear "renard pas bavard"
Guyome is close but I don't hear "part": I hear something like "You animal balle balle/part, d'une galère à voiles voiles" (ok, I know it means nothing..)
Who wrote such débiles lyrics ? :lol:
I think my "readings" are influenced by the fact that I went for lyrics that sort of make sense with the part about You visiting the stars ("You lea..leaves / in a galley equipped with sai...sails / visits the stars"), but maybe I shouldn't have looked for anything meaningful here :)
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby bedtime » Thu Feb 13, 2020 12:18 am

AnneL wrote:I'm French (+bilingual UK English) and remember her voice from then and still absolutely have no clue what she is saying, which is probably why you can't find it online. Not sure why you need to figure out everything like that, but good luck.

This is one of my favourite songs and I'd like to be able to sing along in its entirety.

DaveAgain wrote:you and me must dance, dance,
.... l'air ....
you you and me must dance

I can almost hear the you and me, as you said, in there. Maybe with a couple of beers I could hear the rest. :lol:

guyome wrote:Maybe
You, animal, pa...part
Avec une galère à voi...voiles
You you, animal, part
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles
Visite les étoiles, visite les étoiles

"Avec" seems to be reduced to " 'c ".

The part with une galère à voi...voiles seems fitting with the song and to my ears. I don't hear the avec in there. It sounds to me like she's saying 'bien.'

Maybe part is pars?

trois pièces dans Marais
should be "trois pièces dans le Marais" ("le" is hardly heard because it is pronounced with "dans l'Marais"). "Trois pièces" means "three-room apartment" and "le Marais" is a neighbourhood in Paris.

This is like a detective's mystery, lol. Good find!

Arnaud wrote:remarque pas bavard: I hear "renard pas bavard"

Is this a sort of French idiom with the chatty fox expression?

Guyome is close but I don't hear "part": I hear something like "You animal balle balle/part, d'une galère à voiles voiles" (ok, I know it means nothing..)

Either way, I feel we are getting closer.

I found using a decent pair of headphones helps. Also, using an equalizer to cut the low and high frequencies out, keeping only the voice.

*** EDIT ***

I just typed several other terms in French and searched in a couple different engines. I found about a dozen different links with lyrics to this song and every one has a ??? in the same spot. :(
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Re: Lyrics to a French song

Postby Arnaud » Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:38 am

bedtime wrote:Is this a sort of French idiom with the chatty fox expression?
Pas que je sache. I think the writer wanted to say that the guy is clever but doesn't talk much (rusé comme un renard, mais pas bavard: renard pas bavard: that's just my interpretation). Roda-Gil (the writer) was well known to write sometimes very enigmatic lyrics.
Even with headphones it's difficult to understand, the more you listen the more you can hear and interpret things: part/balle, voile/vole...
Without the written text, it can be anything.
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