Hey Blake, what are the lyrics to the Kid Ory song "L'autre Can Can"? What do they mean in English?
Hey Blake,
What are the lyrics to the Kid Ory song "L'autre Can Can"? What do they mean in English?
Richard Johnson
Dear Richard,
Edward "Kid" Ory was a trombonist and bandleader who played jazz in the traditional New Orleans style. In 1944, he recorded songs he had learned as a child, including "Creole Song," also known as "C'est L'autre Can Can," a story about a gossip in Storyville, New Orleans' former red-light district. It's the first documented performance of a jazz-informed song sung in Creole patois.
Here are the words in Creole French, Ory's native tongue. One line is impossible to understand.
Madame Pedot
Ca t'ape fait
(This line is unclear)
Toi parle en gens
Toi parle en moi
Madame Pedot
Toi plein can-can
C'est un l'aut' can-can
(paix donc)
En la rue Claiborne
(paix donc)
Ye pas l'aimer vous
(paix donc)
Oh, Madame Pedot
Toi plein can-can
Oh, Madame Pedot
Toi pas bon
Madame Pedot
Toi plein can-can
Toi parle en gens
Toi parle en moi
Madame Pedot
Toi plein can-can
Here is the English translation:
Madame Pedot
What are you doing?
(This line is unclear)
You talk about people
You talk about me
Madame Pedot
You gossip a lot
It's another can-can
(Shut up!)
On Claiborne Street
(Shut up!)
They don't like you
(Shut up!)
Oh, Madame Pedot
You gossip a lot
Oh, Madame Pedot
You're no good
Madame Pedot
You gossip a lot
You talk about people
You talk about me
Madame Pedot
You gossip a lot.
Ory was born on Christmas Day 1886 and grew up on the Woodland Plantation in LaPlace. His father was white and of French ancestry and his mother was Afro-Spaniard and Native American.
On the plantation, Ory and his friends played music on homemade instruments. By 1910, Ory had bought a real trombone and moved to New Orleans, eventually playing with musicians such as Joe "King" Oliver (who left Louisiana for Chicago in 1918), Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet.
Ory became the most popular jazz bandleader in the city, but he left New Orleans for California in the fall of 1919. It was rumored that he left for his health.
Armstrong left New Orleans in 1922, and in 1925 he organized his own band, the Hot Five, and sent for Ory. Perhaps the most popular trombonist of his day, Ory made recordings with Armstrong, Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton.
Life was good until the Great Depression. Ory returned to California in 1930, where he retired from music and became a postal sorter and operated a successful chicken ranch.
Then came the New Orleans Revival — a time when jazz made a comeback in popularity. In 1943 Ory, with his authentic jazz sound, was hired by Orson Welles for Welles' radio shows. A year later, Ory had his own radio show in Los Angeles and played at nightclubs all over that city.
Ory retired to Hawaii, but he made it back to New Orleans in 1971 to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He died on Jan. 23, 1973, in Honolulu — a long way from LaPlace.
