Sur le pont d'Avignon

And there I was. Sur le Pont.

 

Neither dancing on, under or near by, I'm way too inhibited. 

Nor would I allow myself to sing any of the verses, had I known any of the verses. So sad, but since I was old enough to be in a chorus I was told to just mouth the words. I think it had something to do with throwing off the rest of the kids.

Talk about the "bridge to nowhere." Does Sarah Palin come to mind?

Anyhow, what really struck me today is that I have been singing, okay mouthing, the words to Sur le Pont..forever.  Never did I  a) know what the words actually were and  b) knew that this was an actual real thing. Saint Benezet's Bridge.  Go know.

And there it was. 

This got me thinking about all the songs that we have sung, particularly rock and roll songs, where we thought we had it right only to find out that the words we were singing were all wrong. 

Except, of course, for MacArthur Park (...took so long to make it and we'll never have the recipe again...) where even if we did have all the correct words it still made absolutely no sense.

Anyway, in case you run into a small child and want to get it right, here is the first verse. You are on your own for the rest.

Sur le pont d’Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d’Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond

Comments

[Jim Matison]

Merci. This fills in a small gap in my appreciation of all things small.