Dis Lui Toi Que Je T'aime - Interpretation

[Scruffydog777]

I found what seems to be a good translation of Dis Lui Toi Que Je T'aime, but haven't benn able to find a good interpretation of what this song means. Has it been posted before or does any one know what the general gist of this song is?



http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/7310/aimed.jpg (http://img534.imageshack.us/i/aimed.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[Naft]

I seem to get it as a guy singing about a girl that is either cheating on or is interested in another man, however that wakes up the question in why Vanessa would sing it from the guys perspective. I don't know anything about her such as if its a common style by her (like Claude Kelly (a RnB artist that writes songs for other people too, advertises them by singing them and sometimes that is form a girls perspective ) ) or if she writes her own songs, but weird nonetheless.

However there's one thing I wonder:

"I cannot do eyes, in eyes
throwing that away"
I don't get that part, not the slightest.

[Bigdan]

However there's one thing I wonder:

"I cannot do eyes, in eyes
throwing that away"
I don't get that part, not the slightest.

> I cannot fling it to him this way, face to face... ( it's too much for me)

[User22]

Thanks for finding this Scruff, now I know whats going on :)

or if she writes her own songs, but weird nonetheless.


And please correct me if I'm wrong, but Serge Gainsbourg did indeed write this for her, correct?

[Bigdan]

Thanks for finding this Scruff, now I know whats going on :)



And please correct me if I'm wrong, but Serge Gainsbourg did indeed write this for her, correct?

he did. :)



.

[Scruffydog777]

Thanks for finding this Scruff, now I know whats going on :)



And please correct me if I'm wrong, but Serge Gainsbourg did indeed write this for her, correct?

Wikepedia says that Serge Gainbourg and the writers who produced Vanessa Paradis's first album worked together to write her second album in 1990 called Variations sur le meme t'aimewhich contained the hit songs Tandem and Dis-lui toi que je t'aime.

This is what Wikepedia said about the about the song Tandem.,
The best recognized single is "Tandem". Of prime importance are the lyrics by Serge Gainsbourg: every other line is dripping in innuendo or double entendre, including the album's title.

So I suppose the same is probably true of Dis-lui toi que je t'aime, making it probably very difficult to interpret.

[Corsaire]

Well, I hesitated for a while before commenting on this song because I think people do need to have a certain background to understand and accept that, sometimes, there might be much more to a song than what appears at first glance. Let me try to give my interpretation and see how it flies...

BTW, a few lines are not quite right in the English translation and it is important to keep that in mind.

Gainsbourg’s lyrics are just like MF lyrics; they can be read and interpreted in different ways (at different levels) and many of the songs written by those two have a deeper (or occult) meaning that could be considered as being controversial and/or disturbing. Concerning this particular song, I would say that most people would interpret it as being about a woman who asks a lover to tell a second lover (a person that will be shattered by the revelation) that she is in love solely with the former. The problem with this superficial analysis is that many lines don’t make sense at all. But there is another interpretation.

The most enigmatic lines refer to “programming” and a “double”. There are two concepts that one most take into account if one is to be able to decipher the lyrics; mind control and dissociative disorders. Myself, I think this song is about a woman facing an internal conflict caused by her multiple personalities. Those personalities seem to have been created by a sort of programming, or “mind control”. These themes are quite ubiquitous in popular music today, but anyone initiated will know that they have been used for decades. Gainsbourg is a master at this sort of game where lyrics will be quite efficient at conveying both a superficial and a deeper, occult layer. In this case, basically, the two lovers (two men) are, in fact, two alters (two doubles). A particular line that will seem meaningless to most is “Questions de pleins et de déliés” which is translated literally in the English version. In French “pleins” and “déliés” refer to the thick and a thin strokes in calligraphy. One could interpret this as being the two states, or the two sides of a letter, or a person. Also, interestingly, the song “Tandem”, which is taken from the same album, seems to be a variation on the same theme (“Variations sur le même t'aime”)!;)

This is yet one possible interpretation of this song and, evidently, anyone can claim that this is all speculations and that Gainsbourg never intended to give it that meaning. I would say that one has to have at least some knowledge of occult concepts concealed in popular art to be able to present an informed opinion on such topics.

[Scruffydog777]

So could you explain this a little further. You say it may be a case of her having multiple personalities, so is this song maybe a case where she's sort of looking at her two personalities, let's say one is of a sweet, religous, polite, young lady and maybe the other one is of an evil, manipulative, seductress that will lie to get any thing she wants and it sounds like she might be saying in this song to the evil personality that she is in love with her evil side, wanting it to tell the other personality off so she can pursue the type of life she really wants full time, but having tremendous feelings of guilt about it?

And as far as mind control are you saying someone else is trying to more or less convince her that the dark side of her is the better side to be?

[Corsaire]

Scruffy, what you describe could very well be what this song is about, but it is difficult to tell because the lyrics do not provide details on the nature of the two “alters” she seems to be dealing with.

But, more generally speaking...

The “good girl gone bad” archetype is quite common in popular music and one can cite plenty of examples: Rihanna, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera... Sometimes the good/bad states do coexist from the beginning and the ambiguity is what makes it work. Whether this good/bad recurring pattern is genuine, orchestrated or even forced upon the singers is difficult to determine. Many times, the singer will pretend to have several personalities, to have a good and a bad side to their soul, to be “possessed” while on stage, to lose control while performing certain songs or while being a certain persona. Is all this just for publicity, is it just to reach to new fans, is it a natural extension of reality (no one is one-dimensional and we all have good and bad sides) or is it just that the singers are controlled or programmed by an external force? Myself, I think you might have all of these playing together, but in many cases, I would say that the individual (the singer) is simply controlled and manipulated by others. And yes, I beleive this can and does go to the extreme cases where you enter the realm of mind control and programmed individuals.

The good/bad duality can be conveyed in many ways; attitude, lyrics, imagery and symbolism can all be used to express this concept. There is also plenty of play on contradictions and inversions of states or concepts: good is bad, bad is good, Satan is God, God is Satan, up is down, down is up... Gainsbourg once said of VP: “Paradis, c’est l’enfer” (literally, “paradise is hell”).

Another example, see what Alizée is wearing when she performs this song at the Tel Aviv Gainsbourg “Concert Hommage”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7mYaabjUg0

This screams of good/bad (white/black) duality.

[Scruffydog777]

Another example, see what Alizée is wearing when she performs this song at the Tel Aviv Gainsbourg “Concert Hommage”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7mYaabjUg0

This screams of good/bad (white/black) duality.

It's funny, I had just watched that video about an hour ago, thinking about what had been said in this thread and I noticed the black top and realized it's a color used to represent evil and the bottom was of a white color that's used to represent good. It could have been just a simple costume selection but then again............................

It's also interesting to read the history of France Gall and her association with Serge. He wrote the song for her Les Sucettes, but she was so young and naive, she had no idea of the real meaning of the song and it seemed to devistate her when she found out. So I think it kind of shows you what Gainbourg was about. Now I think you're saying he may have manipulated the mind of Vanessa Paradis, but do you think that it's possible that he could have any affect on Alizee's thinking?

I don't think you're trying to say that, but it looks like Mylene Farmer had somewhat of the same mind set as S.G. and I guees it's very possible that she could have heavily influenced Alizee into singing songs that were of a controversial nature, influencing her to the point that the Alizee that we all think her to be (sweet, kind, with strong family values), sang songs that had a dark side to them, but Mylene convinced her in some way, which could be considered mind control to sing them, with Alizee knowing all too well what they meant.

[Corsaire]

It's funny, I had just watched that video about an hour ago, thinking about what had been said in this thread and I noticed the black top and realized it's a color used to represent evil and the bottom was of a white color that's used to represent good. It could have been just a simple costume selection but then again............................


Sure, it is quite easy to read too much into things when those topics are brought up... but it is also easy to read too little into it...:D

Edit:

I think you added some text to your last post there Scruffy... I will add to my reply to you then... ;)

As far as mind control is concerned, this is a vast and complex subject. I do not believe a lyricist could control a singer in that way. A lyricist can provide conceptual settings and topics but it is up to the artist (and/or people who manage her/his career) to decide if the lyrics fit the intended purpose.

I would say that the mind control part comes from another front. I think it is more at the managerial level; parents, managers, agents and people that are referred to as “handlers”. So, basically, what I am saying is that you can “program” a singer to be someone (or be many personalities) she/he is not so that it is easier to push a particular product. How far is this programming going? Well, you have the whole range from simple suggestion and persuasion techniques right up to the real genuine mind control and programming techniques.

In the case of MF and Alizée, well, the former was apparently involved as both a lyricist and manager. You also have to take into account the contribution of LB which is, to my assessment, much more important than that of MF. Did MF/LB “control” Alizée, and if so, to what extent did they? Well, we could speculate for a while... :D