Video hit Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas - Les Hommes qui passent (Pavarotti & Friends, live, 1992) 

"Les Hommes qui passent" is a 1990 song recorded by the French singer Patricia Kaas. It was her first single from her second studio album, Scène de vie, on which it features as sixth track, and her seventh single overall. It was released in April 1990 and became a top ten hit in France. 

After the huge success of her debut album, Mademoiselle chante le blues, still well placed on the French album charts, Kaas decided to release her second studio album, Scène de vie, which was mainly written by the famous composer Didier Barbelivien.
The lead single, "Les Hommes qui passent", was released at the same time as the album, in April 1990. Written by Barbelivien, the music was composed by François Bernheim.

The song was part of Kaas's concerts tours in 1990, 1994 and 1998, and thus is available in a live version on the albums Carnets de scène, Tour de charme and Rendez-vous.
The song also features on the best of Rien ne s'arrête and Ma Liberté contre la tienne, and on the French compilation Les Plus Belles Victoires de la Musique.

"Les Hommes qui passent" was covered at first by Oya Bora (then Grup Denk), who is a Turkish group and consists from Oya Küçümen and Bora Ebeoğlu, in Turkish language under the title "Şu Adamlar Anne" ("These guys mother") in Tiryaki album in 1990 as 2nd track, and later by Haris Alexiou in Greek-language under the title of "I andres pernoun mama (les hommes qui passent)". This version is available on her 2006 best of Anthology (CD 1, 18th track).

The lyrics:

Les hommes qui passent Maman

M' envoient toujours des cartes postales

Des Bahamas Maman 

Les hommes qui passent tout l' temps

Sont musiciens artistes peintres ou comédiens

Souvent.

Les hommes qui passent Maman

M' offrent toujours une jolie chambre

Avec terrasse Maman

Les hommes qui passent je sens

Qu 'ils ont le coeur à marée basse des envies d' océan.

Les hommes qui passent pourtant

Qu' est-ce que j' aimerai en voler un

Pour un mois pour un an

Les hommes qui passent Maman

Ne m' donnent jamais rien que d'l'argent.

Les hommes qui passent Maman

Leurs nuits d' amour sont des étoiles

Qui laissent des traces Maman

Les hommes qui passent violents

Sont toujours ceux qui ont gardé

Un coeur d' enfant perdant.

Les hommes qui passent pourtant

Qu' est-ce que j' aimerai en voler un

Pour un mois pour un an

Les hommes qui passent Maman

Ne m' donnent jamais rien que d'l'argent.

Les hommes qui passent Maman

Ont des sourires qui sont un peu

Comme des grimaces Maman

Les hommes qui passent troublants

Me laissent toujours avec mes rêves

Et mes angoisses d' avant.

Les hommes qui passent pourtant

Les hommes qui passent Maman.

Video hit Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas & Jeremy Irons - If You Go Away

If You Go Away is an adaptation of the 1959 Jacques Brel song "Ne me quitte pas" with English lyrics by Rod McKuen.

Created as part of a larger project to translate Brel's work, "If You Go Away" is considered a pop standard and has been recorded by many artists, including Greta Keller, for whom some say McKuen wrote the lyrics.

Damita Jo reached #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 for her version of the song.

Terry Jacks recorded a version of the song which was released as a single in 1974 and reached #29 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, and went to #8 in the UK.

The complex melody is partly derivative of classical music - the poignant "But if you stay..." passage comes from Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6.

A sad but hopeful song, the lyrics are told from the perspective of someone telling their lover how much they'd be missed if they left. This is described in vivid, hyperbolic terms, such as "there'll be nothing left in the world to trust". If the lover stays, the narrator promises them both devotion and good times ("I'll make you a day / Like no day has been, or will be again"). Some lines show that the narrator is speaking to the lover as they already are leaving, or considering doing so ("Can I tell you now, as you turn to go..."). The lines "If you go, as I know you will" and later "...as I know you must" make clear that despite the narrator's protests, the lover's leaving is inevitable.

McKuen's translation is significantly different to the original Brel lyric. The English version is based around contrasting what would happen "if you go away" and what could happen "if you stay".

In the original French version, the singer begs for his lover not to leave him and is more supplicant and almost self-humiliating (the title "Ne me quitte pas" translates "Do not leave me").

Significant is the last image of the French version; although the McKuen version has lyrics that come close to the original sentiment, the French lyrics are far bleaker (as is the song in general): "Let me become the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog" (lit. translation of the original) as opposed to "I'd have been the shadow of your shadow if I thought it might have kept me by your side" (English lyrics).

The English version omits an interesting section of the original version in which the singer begs his lover to give their relationship a second chance, using examples derived from the natural world: "I will tell you of those lovers who saw their hearts catch fire twice;" "Fire has often been seen gushing out of an ancient volcano we thought too old"; "There are, people say, burnt lands that produce more wheat than the best of Aprils".

The lyrics:

If you go away On this summer day

Then you might as well Take the sun away

All the birds that flew In the summer sky

When our love was new And our hearts were high

When the day was young And the night was long

And the moon stood still For the night bird's song

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

But if you stay I'll make you a day

Like no day has been Or will be again

We'll sail the sun We'll ride on the rain

We'll talk to the trees We'll worship the wind

And if you go I'll understand

Leave me just enough love To hold in my hand

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

As I'm the real must There'll be nothing left

In the world to trust Just an empty room

Full of empty space Like the empty look

I see on your face I've been the shadow

Of your shadow I fell you might have kept me By your side

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

But if You stay I'll make you a day

Like no day has been Or will be again

We'll sail the sun We'll ride on the rain

We'll talk to the trees We'll worship the wind

And if you go I'll understand,

Leave me just enough love To hold in my hand

If you go away

If you go away

Ne me quite pas