Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks

Poppy's Front Porch - in the Missouri Ozarks
This photo was taken in 1949. My cousins and I remember the porch after our grandfather walled it in, added a door and big screen windows.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Someone could tell

The name of the song from the Lyrics Game is indeed, as my sister said, "You Never Can Tell". It is, like most songs I favor, a happy little tune and it was composed by Chuck Berry.

A recurring line in the song is - "C'est la vie," say the old folks, "It goes to show you never can tell". Now here's what happens. I was googling like mad to find "C'est la vie" but that's not the name of the tune, though I think I've seen it as the title to the Bob Seger version, which is excellent, by the way. I love Chuck Berry, but Seger's take is better in some ways.

Anyway, it's not "C'est la vie" and so, I don't know if you know this, it's hard to find what you are looking for when you ask for the wrong thing. Eventually, I discovered my error and found lyrics, but no video of Berry doing it, except some very recent stuff and frankly, though Chuck has aged well, he has, nevertheless, aged. It's not the same. Couldn't find Seger, either.

The reason for the mention of lyrics is that the first clue I gave had the word 'jammed' in it, referring to the coolerator relative to the TV dinners and ginger ale. I think that's the way Seger sang it, though I might be wrong. Berry wrote and sang 'crammed'.

I did find video of Emmylou Harris' version, which my sister (no surprise) was aware of. I have now watched it three times and it's a very fine version, in my opinion. She also says 'crammed'.

You can watch it here. As I said, it's a happy little tune and Emmylou's version may convey joy better than them all.

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