"J'attends un navire"
Song
LanguageFrench
English titleI Am Waiting for a Ship
Written1934
Songwriter(s)Kurt Weill and Jacques Deval

"J'attends un navire", also known as "I Am Waiting for a Ship", is a song written in 1934 by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Jacques Deval. The song was written for the musical Marie Galante but later became an unofficial anthem of the French Resistance.[1]

Background

The song was one of a number of musical numbers prepared by Weill for the stage adaptation of Deval's bestselling novel Marie Galante, about a French prostitute who becomes stranded in Panama and must work as a spy to earn enough money to return to France. Weill entered into the project enthusiastically, since he needed the work as a recent refugee from Nazi Germany, but the collaboration with Deval was contentious, with the two barely communicating.[2] Nevertheless, after a year of writing, the play premiered at the Théâtre de Paris on 22 December 1934. Poorly received by audiences and critics, the play ran only three weeks, but the song took on a life of its own through sheet music sales and a popular recording by the show's star Florelle.[3][4]

Musically, the song is part of the genre of chanson réaliste, a style of cabaret song written from the point of view of working class or otherwise abject women, popular in the first part of the 20th century in France. The lyrics are sung from the point-of-view of Marie, a prostitute, who is selling herself on the streets for two dollars ("Beautiful girl!/Beautiful French girl/Two dollars!/You will be pleased"). The singer goes on to say she is not waiting for a man, but for a ship to carry her away from her current life ("It is not you I'm waiting for./I wait for a ship/which will come and to drive it, this ship has the wind of my heart which sighs/the water of my tears will carry it").

Lyrics

Notable Versions

The song enjoyed a brief vogue in the 1930s, recorded by cabaret singers like Lys Gauty. It was translated into English by the theatre critic Michael Feingold for the 1972 Broadway revue Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill: A Musical Voyage.

Year Title Performer Genre Label Catalog #
1934 "J'attends un navire" Lys Gauty Pop Polydor 25853
1935 "Le Grand Lustecru/J'attends un navire" Florelle Pop Polydor 52401
1943 Six Songs by Kurt Weill Lotte Lenya Pop Bost Records BA 8
1972 "I Wait for a Ship" on Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill Margery Cohen (English lyrics by Michael Feingold) Pop Paramount PAS-4000
1986 Ute Lemper singt Kurt Weill Ute Lemper Pop Bayer BR 30 018

In other media

  • The song was used as the theme for the Edie Adams variety television show, Here's Edie.[5]
  • An instrumental version of the song was used as the theme for the ITV television series Wish Me Luck, about a trio of British spies.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Pensacola Wham". The New Yorker. June 10, 1944. pp. 14–15. Weill, a small, gentle man of forty-four who wears thick-lensed glasses and has only a fringe of hair remaining, is not especially elated by his coincidental popularity. 'Too many times there has not been anything of mine showing, even on Third Avenue', he told us when we called on him last week. He is elated, however, by the news that an old song of his, one he wrote back in 1934 for a French musical play called Marie Galante, has been adopted by the French underground. It is called 'J'attends un navire'—'I Am Waiting for a Ship'—and in the play was sung by a lonely prostitute, marooned in Panama, who longed to get back to Bordeaux (ah, the French drama!). As sung these days in the cafés of Paris, it connotes invasion barges.
  2. ↑ Mucci, John; Felnagle, Richard (1999). "Marie Galante: Still Waiting. . ". Retrieved March 1, 2019. Weill welcomed the contribution to his scanty income, but the relationship between the collaborators was anything but cordial. On 6 April 1934, he wrote to Lenya that 'Deval is causing major headaches. He is absolutely the worst literary schwein I've ever met, and that's saying a lot. [... H]e said he could concentrate on Marie Galante 100%. So I call him today, and he says he is taking off in two weeks—for Hollywood! In other words, he has no intention of writing the play.' It is evident that Deval's heart was not in the work, and the play he wrote is not up to his usual witty and incisive style—a real pity, when one considers the talent that was at work on the project.
  3. ↑ Gurewitsch, Matthew (November 7, 2008). "The Weill (Almost) Nobody Knows". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2019. It opened to mixed reviews
  4. ↑ Weill, Kurt (1996) [letter of September 23, 1934]. Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. University of California Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-520-21240-4. Florelle is going to play Marie Galante. That's a brilliant choice for her, because she's a box-office draw and will sing the chansons decently
  5. ↑ "Here's Edie (musical-variety, starring Edie Adams)". Retrieved March 2, 2019. This song from Marie Galante was apparently a favorite melody of Edie Adams who used it for her theme song
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