No Regrets - Carolyn Burke [134]
11 “La Môme is dead!”: Duclos and Martin, p. 136.
12 “The ‘môme’ was charming”: Marc Blanquet, in Le Journal, Nov. 26, 1937; reprinted in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 11.
13 “She seemed to be standing”: Anon., Nov. 25, 1937; reprinted in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 11.
14 jazzy, lighthearted: Trenet, known as “le fou chantant” (the singing nut), became an immediate success with songs combining influences from jazz and swing with a popular lyricism and vision of happiness. He and Piaf were seen as the representative singers of their time in their contrasting but complementary ways of renewing la chanson.
15 “her perfect diction”: Gustave Fréjaville, Comoedia, n.d., in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 12.
16 “Edith Piaf has worked”: Feral, Granet, Lévy, n.d., no sources given, quoted in Duclos and Martin, pp. 138–39.
17 “Critics who acclaimed”: Adrian Rifkin, “Musical Moments,” p. 144.
18 “What news of the war?”: EP to RA letters, n.d., quoted in Duclos and Martin, pp. 142–44.
19 “I cried a lot”: Ibid.
20 “My dear love”: Ibid.
21 “For Suzanne”: Flon quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 146.
22 “my best friend”: EP, Au bal, p. 92.
23 “I think you would be wrong”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 153.
24 “Far from the noise”: JB quoted in EP, Au bal, pp. 191–92.
25 “moral jailer”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 151.
26 “the critic Léon-Martin”: Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 12.
CHAPTER SIX • 1939–1942
1 “We understood that terrible things”: Chevalier, p. 172.
2 “My job is to sing”: EP, in Notre Coeur, Oct. 28, 1940, in Duclos and Martin, p. 174.
3 “It’s better than anything”: EP to RA, c. Dec. 3, 1939, quoted in ibid., p. 156.
4 “not a word”: Paul Meurisse, Les Eperons de la liberté, pp. 106–107.
5 “Edith Piaf doesn’t”: Ibid., p. 110.
6 “She makes her way”: Salvador Reyes, in La Hora, Nov. 5, 1939, in Duclos and Martin, pp. 156–57.
7 “Ciel! Mon mari!”: Meurisse, p. 113. Asso’s resentment is apparent in his next song, “On danse sur ma chanson”: “They’re dancing / On my finest memories / On the taste of my desire.…”
8 “I won’t have to go to the composers’ ”: EP quoted in Meurisse, p. 114.
9 “It wasn’t so much that le savoir-vivre”: Ibid., p. 115.
10 “She would laugh and begin again”: Ibid., p. 116.
11 “shit”: Ibid., p. 130.
12 “The response was delirious”: Emer, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 103.
13 “Living with him”: EP, in Notre Coeur, Oct. 28, 1940, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 27.
14 “regal simplicity”: Jean Cocteau, “Je travaille avec Edith Piaf,” Paris-Midi, April 19, 1940.
15 “at the summit”: Meurisse, pp. 136–37.
16 “handsome, indifferent man”: Cocteau, “Le Bel Indifférent,” in Théâtre complet, p. 856.
17 “dream theater”: Cocteau, “Je travaille.”
18 “Mademoiselle Piaf”: Marianne, in Cocteau, Théâtre complet, p. 1742.
19 “Her acting is”: Le Figaro, in ibid.
20 “magnificent”: Les Nouvelles littéraires, in ibid.
21 “Krauts or no Krauts”: “Boches ou pas Boches, la capitale de la France, c’est Paris” (Meurisse, p. 148).
22 “It was a terrible shock”: Meurisse, p. 150.
23 “At this time”: Ibid., p. 152.
24 “the sharp wind”: Aujourd’hui, Sept. 22, 1940, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 26.
25 “excessively fearful”: EP quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 174.
26 “Edith Piaf has more”: Babette, “Salle Pleyel: Edith Piaf,” Paris-Soir, Oct. 1, 1940.
27 “On the one hand”: Henri Contet, in Duclos and Martin, p. 215.
28 “Everything she did”: Jean-Louis Barrault, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 20.
29 “Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle”: The sheet music for “Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle” identifies it as a song from Montmartre-sur-Seine. Though Piaf recorded the song in 1943, it was not included in any of her records and was rediscovered only in 2003 at the Bibliothèque Nationale.
30 “this false street set”: Henri Contet, “Edith Piaf chante dans la rue,” Paris-Midi, Sept. 16, 1941.
31 “What to do”: Henri Contet, “Edith Piaf pleure son amour perdu,” Ciné-Mondial [1941], in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p.