Story Behind The Song

Parlez-vous Francais? Suggested by a girl of the same name, I remember my infatuation with her and with the composition as it came out on a baby grand piano somewhere in Southern California in 1975. Drawing upon my trip to France in August, 1998, and overwhelmed by...

Song Description

Well over a year in post-production and 20 years from its original iterative publication; for this remix and remaster I replaced the sampled drums and bass in my styled interpretation of the composition by replicating the original tracks with newly recorded drum and bass parts mirroring the characteristics of the original sampled tracks. The Notre Dame cathedral bells are heard in the introduction transitioning to a French lovers' cafe conversation that gives way to the full orchestral instrumentation of the arrangement that includes a full choir of voices. Ethnic instrumentation in the production includes Accordian, Hurdy Gurdy, Harpsichord and French Horn. Drawing upon my trip to France in August, 1998, and overwhelmed by the countryside in the north which bore the brunt of Nazi forces, I have included a generic lovers' conversation, to suggest perhaps that "all is fair in love and war," and that both 'should be declared...' Story Behind the Music: Written in 1975, and while I had an analog recording made a few years later, it wasn't until late in the 80's that I finally recorded the individual tracks in a digital format. But upon the completion of the basic tracks, no further production followed until Michael French and I began to lay out its production in Studio B early in June, 2001. After recording the basic instruments, we moved to Studio A and proceeded to create new tracks including many guitar parts, both electric and acoustic which had never been recorded. I had always envisioned a French ambience to the production to include French language dialogue as a way of creating that certain, yet elusive 'je ne sais quoi' of France... Arranged, Written and Produced by Leland Thomas Faegre Mixed and Mastered by Michael French, Patrick Collins and Leland Thomas Faegre at On Top Of a Cloud Studios, Lake Tahoe