Song

Source: Vimeo

Yesterday The Daily Post had a Discover Challenge called Song, and this is what it said:

DISCOVER CHALLENGE

Song

Tell us a story about a piece of music that stayed with you.

BY BEN HUBERMAN

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And this is my response:

I can not decide which song to pick because there are so many so I will just randomly pick the first song that comes to my mind whether there is a special connection there or not, and the first random song to come to my mind is the song T’es Beau by Pauline Croze from her first album Pauline Croze:

Song

Music Video

When did it start?

One day back in maybe 2007 when I was still in one of my periods of experimenting with language learning (Esperanto, French, German, Spanish) and expanding my music collection to include music in more languages as I found interesting songs on French internet radio and in similar to/recommended music artists lists on Amazon and other places, I was listening to a French internet radio station (whose name I can not remember, but later it was bought by Virgin Radio) as I browsed the internet, and then a song that was playing caught my attention.

The woman singing the song was singing in French and her voice and the music had a calm and relaxing lullaby-like sound/feeling to it that caught my attention, and I looked to see the name of who was singing the song and what the name of the song was.

The musician (music artist) was Pauline Croze, a musician that I had never heard of before, and the song was T’es Beau which I had never heard before and I could not understand the lyrics because I did not know enough French yet (I still do not, I am forever stuck at the just beginning level, and I always start and stop language learning sometimes) but I still was able to enjoy the song.

I felt that I would probably like more songs by Pauline Croze so I immediately started looking for more music by her, I found out that she only had one album out at the time (her second album Un Bruit Qui Court was not out yet), and I found a few more songs by her and I liked them as well (some even more than the song T’es Beau) so eventually I ended up buying a limited edition CD (that included a special DVD) of her album Pauline Croze.

Pauline Croze quickly became my favorite music artist until this day, and her album Pauline Croze went on to become my favorite album until this day:

Playlist

How has it changed over time?

The song T’es Beau does not connect with me as strongly as it used to but it is still an easy listening type song that you can listen to and relax to as it plays in the background or as you daydream, and sometimes I still daydream of myself or Pauline Croze or someone singing this song and playing this song on an acoustic classical guitar while sitting on the front steps of the B Auditorium building at MS University (where I went to college, but I never finished) near the flower bushes during a nice quiet sunny day during the spring as a few students and other people occasionally walk back and forth from the S Fine Arts Center building.

Does the song’s meaning reside in the melody, the lyrics, the performer’s voice — or some other intangible element?

I think it that it resides in all of those things, even though I do not understand most of the lyrics, and that combination creates a certain calm and relaxed mood and still somewhat reminds me of a lullaby.

Thanks to the song T’es Beau I was introduced to Pauline Croze and her music for the first time, and that led a new favorite music artist and favorite album.

Even though I can not understand most of the lyrics to her songs, listening to Pauline Croze’s music helped me during some tough times during the years after having to dropout of college after struggling with anxiety (social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder) and depression et cetera, a dramatic change of my worldview, quitting my part-time job after a civil war (the non-violent kind) at my job that led to my anxiety levels getting too high so I quit, not having enough money to continue college, feelings of isolation and loneliness and sadness and abandonment and failure et cetera, et cetera.

So T’es Beau may not be my favorite song, but it still does have a special place and somewhat of a special connection with me still.

Fin,

-John Jr