coldhearted scientist وداد

Now it is the weekend, so it is time to sing! It is said that Allons à Lafayette is the first Cajun song ever to have been recorded. The recording was made in 1928 by Cleoma Breaux Falcon and her brothers. We can listen to some of the 1963 recording by Joe Falcon, made at the Triangle Club in Scott, Louisiana.

I am told that the reason the characters are going to Lafayette is that they must clean up their reputation in a town where they are not known. From the lyrics, you can guess why:

Allons à Lafayette mais pour changer ton nom.
On va t’appeler madame, madame Canaille Comeaux!
Petite, t’es trop mignonne pour faire ta criminelle!
Comment tu crois mais moi j’peux faire mais moi tout seul?
Mais toi, mais joli coeur, ‘garde donc mais quoi t’as fait!
Si loin comme moi j’su’d’ toi, mais ça, ça m’fait pitier!

Let’s go to Lafayette to change your name!
We’ll call you Madam, Madam Rascal Comeaux!
Little one, you’re too cute to do me wrong!
How come you believe that I can make it all alone?
But you, pretty heart, look what you’ve done!
So far as I am from you, why it’s pitiful!

Dewey Balfa’s recording is a classic version of this song. The recording by Gérard Dôle and Marie-Paule Vadunthun is authentically old-timey. My favorite of those I have found this afternoon, though, is by Beausoleil, with Canray Fontenot on creole violin.

But according to Jim Hobb’s Cajun, Louisiana Creole and zydeco song database, Allons à Lafayette has been recorded 51 times. I may have to go to Lafayette myself, to hear the song live. Straight, no chaser: live, no tourists.

Axé.