Mary Chapin Carpenter performed her hit “Down at the Twist and Shout” live at the 1997 Superbowl. It is included on one of her CDs, however, without a transcription of the lyrics.
She sang a portion of one of the choruses in French. I have searched the web exhaustively, have found someone’s guess as to what the lyric is, but I would like a definitive answer – preferably from a French-speaking person. And a translation would be nice, too.
(Mods – if this belongs in GQ, my apologies; feel free to move it.)
Pretty sure the line is in Cajun, not French (nitpicky, I know) but other than that I have no idea what it means/, and can’t even remember what it “sounds” like she’s saying.
I don’t have a definative copy of the lyrics, either, but I think I can help translate the Cajun. I speak French and lived in New Orleans, but I don’t “speak” Cajun - I just recognize the bits you hear a lot.
The transcriber has misspelled this, it’s “at the fais do-do,” which is a big party/dance.
Not sure if you know this already or not, but Lafayette and Baton Rouge are cities in Louisiana, so while those parts may sound like she’s speaking Cajun French, actually she’s naming the towns she passes on the way to New Orleans.
There’s another part where it sounds like she’s speaking French or Cajun, but isn’t - when she says “Beausoleil is coming to town” - that’s the name of a band.
There’s definitely a verse where she is singing solely in Cajun - apart from the more commonly played radio version. I’ll have to see if I can find a copy when I get home tonight…
I can tell it starts with “Samedi soir” (“Saturday night”) and ends with “ce soir” (“tonight”), so it’s some permutation of the English chorus, but it’s shorter and has different lyrics in the middle…
