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Old 09-28-2008, 12:54 PM
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Scruffydog777 Scruffydog777 is offline
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Cool JAM - did Alizée know?

Me and a co-worker are going to Alizée's concert in Paris next month. I figured if I was going to go to her concert, I would try and learn a couple of her songs that are written in French. I've learned 3 so far and hope to learn 3 more by the time of the show.
Way back in junior high school, We had 5 terms per year. I hated french class. Didn't apply myself at all. I flunked the first 2 terms and for the first time in school, I was in danger of having to go to summer school, if I flunked one more. In the third term, We had one last test near the end of the term. All I needed to pass was a 35%. I didn't bother studying and what did I get? A 30. Couldn't believe it. My teacher called me aside and said if I promised to apply myself, he'd give me a passing grade. Awesome! He did me a great favor and I was determined to reward his faith in me. I busted my butt studying at night. In the fourth term, I did so much better. I was really disappointed when the last test of the term was canceled because I was hoping to get my average up to an A. The last term of that year and then next year which was my final year of french, I studied hard and did very well. What I'm getting at, is because I applied myself so hard in that year and a half. I learned not a whole lot of words, but more importantly how their sentences are structured and a lot of the smaller words that are use so much in most of their language. Le, la les, de, des,au, aux, et,sur, si, moi tu, vous, etc which has been such an enormous help in trying to learn these songs. I found it's like riding a bike after years of not riding. The basics come quickly back to you.
As I'm sure a lot of you have noticed, There are several songs of hers that have a line or two which are difficult to interpret directly into english, but in order to try and learn her songs in French, you have to be able to understand pretty much every line of the song. If you find a line that doesn't make sense, you have do like I did and look up the meanings of each word, then read through the many interpretations that people have offered, then decide for yourself, which is right, or which is most believable, then turn all the lines into a story that you can easily remember. Only then is it possible learn the song in it's native language.
In trying to understand the story of J'en ai marre, I've read through numerous interpretations on different forums. Most seem to think it's about her just being in a bubble bath with her beloved gold fish. Some seem to think that she herself is a fish in a relationship with a gold fish. Something that would seem to be supported by the fact that at the point in the video where she is waving her arms behind her, she resembles a female fish laying eggs.
Then there is the interpretation by Anthony brought to our attention by Garconcanadien that speak of a relationship in much more Freudian terms.
Which kind of makes some sense when you look at some of the lines which don't make much sense otherwise. Plus you have to consider who wrote the songs, Mylene Farmer, who I've seen described on some web sites as being raunchy. I haven't seen enough of Mylene's material to be able to offer a qualified opinion of her. All I know is that a lot of the songs she wrote for Alizée are off the charts beautiful. But if these other opinions of Mylene are true, I think it's very possible that on the surface, Mylene wanted it to appear the song was about a relationship between Alizée and her gold fish, but deeper down, she was talking about what was going on with Alizée in the bath in Freudian terms.
The questions I'd like to ask here are, do you think there may be some truth in Anthony's interpretation of J'en ai marre and if you do believe this interpretation is correct, do you think Alizée knew about it?
I personally don't believe she did and I don't think she would have sung this song if she did know.

Last edited by Scruffydog777; 09-28-2008 at 06:15 PM..
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