Vogue beau marinier vogue vogue beau marinier ((MS2011-3223-062))

Vogue beau marinier vogue vogue beau marinier ((MS2011-3223-062))

Looseleaf French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223-062 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook.

“Vogue, beau marinier, vogue, vogue beau marinier” (“Steer, handsome bargeman, steer, steer handsome bargeman”) is the text of abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois’s rewriting of a well-known traditional song of Québécois origin, commonly titled “Le bal chez Boulé.” The song has been in circulation since at least the mid-19th century. This particular text is virtually identical to the setting of this song popularized in Franco-American New England in the late 1930s via La Bonne Chanson songbook series (vol. 7, p. 340), the ten-booklet series published between 1938 and 1954 by Quebecois priest, musician, publisher, composer, and impresario abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois (1906-1981). The earliest known printed setting of the traditional song appears in the supplement to the Chansonnier des Collèges (1851). The text of the traditional song relates the story of a servant, Louison Blé or, in some versions, José Blai(s), who goes off to a dance at Boulé’s home with his sweetheart, having completed his daily chores around the farm and changed his clothes. Gadbois’s version is a thorough rewrite which conserves only the opening stanza and the refrain, quite possibly in order for Gadbois to claim authorship and copyright privileges. In 1925, Montreal singer Charles Marchand recorded a version of this song under the title “Le bal chez Boulé” on the Starr label (issue # 15190, matritx # 1607). Marchand (1890-1930) founded a vocal quartet called “Le Carillon canadien” in order to promote French-Canadian folk songs and new songs inspired by traditional customs and settings. You can hear Marchand’s rendition on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone:
http://amicus.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?l=0&l_ef_l=-1&id=100104.348211&v=1&lvl=1&coll=24&rt=1&itm=31397978&rsn=S_WWWvgaWqjaFM&all=1&dt=AW+|le|+AND+|bal|+AND+|chez|+AND+|boul%E9|&spi=-&rp=1&v=1

[refrain: steer, handsome bargeman, steer, steer, handsome bargeman]; Sunday after Vespers, there will be a dance at the Bouley’s; but only whose who know how to dance are going; everyone danced their best without being asked; the fiddler’s daughter did not want to dance; why don’t you dance? Do your feet hurt? Or perhaps you don’t want to wear out your pretty shoes; No, it’s not that; I have a corn on my foot; I’ll be happy just watching you dance; Louis the fiddler didn’t waste any time to play his liveliest tune while tapping his feet; Sonny, who was calling the set, all in a sweat, cried out: Time to stop! All the women are feeling the heat.

VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Vogue beau marinier vogue vogue beau marinier

Vogue, beau marinier, vogue, vogue beau marinier

Le bal chez Boulé I, F-5

Steer, handsome bargeman, steer, steer handsome bargeman

Dimanche après les vepres il y aura bal chez Bouley

Dimanche après les vepres il y aura bal chez Bouley
Mais il n’ira personne que ceux qui savent dancer

2
Tout le monde dansait d’son mieux et s’faisait pas prier
La fille de gos violon ne voulut pas dance vogue

3
Pourquoi n’dansez vous avez vous mal aux pieds
Ou bien avez vous peur d’user vos beaux souliers

Marie ton gas quand tu voudra ta fille quand tu pourra
Refrain
Vogue

3
Non non se n’est pas cla, j’ai un p’tit cor aux pied
Je vais me contenter de vous rgarder dancer. Vogue

4
Louis le violoneux laissez-pas l’temps soufler
Pour mettre sa plus soulevant tappait de ses deux pieds
Refrain

5
Sonny qui callait lsettout trempe en navette
S’ecria domina tous les femmes ont chaud