Leo Ferré: C'Est Extra
According to legend, the erotic ballad "C'Est Extra" ("It's Great") was inspired by The Moody Blues’ song “Nights in White Satin” and a visit to a bar in Provence. In 1969, Ferré visited singer-songwriter-poet friend Jean Ferrat in the small Ardèche town of Antraigues-sur-Volane, north of Avignon. Its artist colony had earned the nickname “St. Tropez of the Ardèche.”
Ferré was reportedly impressed in a bar by a young lady “like a spindle” wearing a leather dress, who rocked the song by Moody Blues and constantly described things as C'est dégueulasse… C'est fantastique… C'est extra… (It's disgusting... It's fantastic... It's great...). Ferré adopted the title, wrote the music and lyrics and his long-time collaborator Jean-Michel Defaye made the arrangement. The piece is awash in sexual symbolism: “une robe de cuir comme un fuseau;” “une fille qui tangue et vient mouiller;” “ce touffe de noir jesus,” “d’la musique en bas des reins,” etc. It is an exemplar of Ferré’s eclectic inclusion of pop music in his repertoire.
Une robe de cuir comme un fuseau
Qu’aurait du chien sans faire l’expres
Et dedans comme un matelot
Une fille qui tangue un air anglais
C’est extra
Un Moody Blues qui chante la nuit
Comme un satin blanc d’marié
Et dans le port de cette nuit
Une fille qui tangue et vient mouiller
C’est extra
C’est extra
Des cheveux qui tombent comme le soir
Et d’la musique en bas des reins
Ce jazz qui d’jazze dans le noir
Et ce mal qui nous fait du bien
C’est extra
Ces mains qui jouent de l’arc-en-ciel
Sur la guitare de la vie
Et puis ces cris qui montent au ciel
Comme une cigarette qui brille
C’est extra
C’est extra
Ces bas qui tienne hautes perches
Comme les cordes d’un violon
Et cette chair qui vient troubler
L’archet qui coule ma chanson
C’est extra
Et sous la voile a peine clos
Cette touffe de noir jesus
Qui ruisselle dans son berceau
Comme un nageur qu’on attend plus
C’est extra
C’est extra
Une robe de cuir comme un oubli
Qu’aurait du chien sans l’faire exprès
Et dedans comme un matin gris
Une fille qui tangue et qui se tait
C’est extra
Le Moody Blues qui s’en balancent
Cette ampli qui n’veut plus rien dire
Et dans la musique du silence
Une fille qui tangue et vient mourir
C’est extra, c’est extra
C’est extra, c’est extra
A leather dress like a spindle
That would be unintentionally chic
And inside, like a sailor
A girl who sways to an English tune
It’s great
The Moody Blues singing in the night
Like the white satin of a newly wed
And in the harbor of this night
A girl who sways and comes to dock
It’s great
It’s great
Hair that falls like the night
And music below the loins
Jazz that jazzes in the dark
And this pain that does us good
It’s great
Hands that play like a rainbow
On the guitar of life
And then cries that rise to the sky
Like a burning cigarette
It’s great
It’s great
These stockings that hold high pegs
Like the strings of a violin
And this flesh that comes to disturb
The (violin) bow that flows my song
It’s great
And under the veil barely closed
This tuft of black jesus
That streams in its crib
Like a swimmer that one awaits no longer
It’s great
It’s great
A leather dress like an oversight
That would be unintentionally cool
And inside, like a grey morning
A girl who sways and staying silent
It’s great
The Moody Blues who don’t care
This amp that plays no more
And in the music of silence
A girl who sways and comes to die
It’s great, it’s great
It’s great, it’s great
NB:
- “Qu’aurait du chien sans l’faire exprès:” “avoir du chien” means to be “cool,” “desirable,” “have what it takes.” “sans l’faire exprès” means “without doing it intentionally.” Casual coolness.
- “Une fille qui tangue et vient mouiller:” “vient mouiller” literally means “to get wet,” which provokes the imagination. In naval terms, it means to “dock” or “drop anchor” and the reference in the previous line to “le port de cette nuit” bolsters the naval idiom.
- “Ce jazz qui d’jazze dans le noir.” The noun “ce jazz” somehow becomes a verb (“qui d’jazze”), if that’s what it is, in this line for which we can thank Ferré’s poetic licence.
- “Ces bas qui tienne hautes perches:” “These stockings that hold high pegs.” Those stockings are cinched up high, likely near the “touffe de noir jesus.”
- “L’archet qui coule ma chanson.” An “archet” is a violin’s bow. This line resonates with Ferré’s later comment in the Preface to his 1973 album “Il n’ya plus rien:” “Poetry…is given sex by the human voice, just like a violin touched by a bow.”
- “Cette touffe de noir jesus:” open to interpretation.
- “Le Moody Blues qui s’en balancent.” The expression “s’en balancer” means “don’t care.” Ferré is undoubtedly familiar with the lines in “Chanson de la Seine” by Jacques Prévert: “Mais la Seine s’en balance, Elle n’a pas de souci…”