I was sure you were mistaken, so I checked out. Sure enough, he does sing “marchez” . I tried to figure out an explanation (he’s a foreigner, so he deliberately replaced “marchons” by “marchez”???), listened to other versions… and half of them indeed alternate “marchons” and “marchez” . I never had noticed that. I was pretty sure I had lived in this country for the last 40 years or so, but now I’ve doubts.
By the way, the “comments” left on all the “marseillaise” pages are incredibly vile and stupid. I checked for other national anthems out of curiosity, and it was almost as bad, the British seemingly displaying the most self-restraint, with insults directed towards another commentator or some random group (race, nationality, political party, religion, soccer team) only every 3 or 4 message. Isn’t patriotism great?
I’ve also heard about the British King George III writing “nothing interesting happened today” in his diary on July 4[sup]th[/sup] 1776. So either I remember wrong, or kings have an unfortunate tendency to write comments that are later taken out of context.
Oh, and I know I’m late, but happy Bastille Day to our French friends!
No, as told about George III, it’s an urban legend piggy-backing off of the Louis XVI story. George III didn’t keep a diary.
As for Louis, I could swear I recently read an article disputing the traditional “unsuccessful hunt” interpretation. I had thought I read it in The Economist, but a search turned up, well . . . nothing. Perhaps I imagined it.
But I’m relieved to see that I didn’t imagine the alternating pronunciation in the Marseillaise!
Not to quibble, but while we all love Geddy’s base work, it’s certainly Alex Lifeson with the solo.
They actually played the song on KLOS out here in LA yesterday, too. Amazingly enough, 30 years after its release, Bastille Day is still in the Top 5 All-time best Canadian-written rock songs about late 18th century French politics.
Eh, I figured I was wrong. I’m just happy someone knew what the hell I was talking about!