If you’re like a lot of people who romance the idea of Paris’ golden age (think, Owen Wilson in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris), the disappointment of the present might leave you unsatisfied. Culture these days is flighty, largely superficial, and gone in a Snap(chat).
Let’s return, briefly, to an era of enchantment, hm? Of Montmartre in the rain. Of gas lighting on Broadway. Of no CNN alerts on our phones causing us crazy anxiety 24 hours a day.
French songstress Sarah Lassez’s wandering spirit, immortalized in her autobiography Psychic Junkie, can be traced back to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Her great-grandfather was a cubist painter who counted Picasso, Man Ray, and Gertrude Stein as pals. Meanwhile, her grandfather composed for Edith Piaf, rounding out an impressive Parisian pedigree and informing her own whimsical musical choices.
Her track “Ziegfeld Girl” from her new album Paris in Tears conjures up images of the past from its title alone. Its cabaret-inspired melody plays well into Lassez’s persona as a “gypsy,” while its lyrics tell the story of a wayward young gal who would have existed in the world of her great-grandparents. Augmented by a charming clarinet and swirling arrangement, it’s truly a piece from another time.
Check out “Ziegfeld Girl” below, and for more on Sarah Lassez, head over to her website.
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