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Louie didn't have far to go ous surrealistic films of the day, why, it's absurdly wonderful to a geezer like Merci merci beaucoup no no me who has thumbed through many a © 2015 Said Kiki to Louie and Mo Mo paper card catalog of yore. Peter Berryman But they both wouldn't take no no The second but more diffuse point archived at louandpeter.com email [email protected] It was Kiki they wanted so is how folk music, in my mind, has much to do with the songs that haunt Me and the Kiki song, Part B Kiki, Kiki, there's nobody like Kiki us throughout our lives, that butt in conveniently as musical answers to Now where was I? This is part B of a Though I haven't nailed down "Rene," mundane daily questions, that bubble Google journey, about a song that has "Louie," or the one-eyed count, it up for no good reason in the shower haunted me since boyhood. Some- would be mighty strange if this song or on a walk, that trigger odd memo- times you have to stop and ogle those were NOT about Kiki of Montpar- ries of days gone by or places we've old familiar songs that swim just below nasse, as she died in 1953, and Cloo- been, that are, in other words, lodged the surface of your life, breaching like ney's recording -- lyrics by Charles in our craw ready to spring forth ap- whales now and then: the folk songs Tobias -- was released in 1955. It propriately at a moment's notice, of your own personal mythology. mentions her cabaret singing, her sometimes welcome, sometimes not. To summarize last month's col- "fiery charms," her being "Venus with I guess by that definition any music umn: My wife's nickname is Kiki; she loving arms," referring to the Venus de could be thought of as folk music, is a francophile. My sister Mary, when Milo statue whose pose was mimicked which renders the term pretty useless, we were kids, got hooked on a closely by Kiki in one of the many art I suppose. Ah well. strange song called "Kiki." In high photos taken of her by Man Ray. Incidentally, for anyone interested school I became interested in the art- Anyway, so not only did I find this in these wild and creative years in ists of 1920's Paris. The name "Kiki of recording, but I located a copy of Paris in the first third of the 1900s, the Montparnasse" kept coming up. Kiki's memoirs -- with the Venus de book KiKi's Paris, subtitled "Artists Some of the song lyrics of my sister's Milo-like pose on the cover -- written and Lovers 1900-1930," by Kluver and song fit with the life of this Parisian mostly in the 20s. The little book has Martin, is truly spectacular. Kiki, who was a model and lover for a weird intro by Hemingway, said to many artists, an artist herself, a char- be the only introduction he ever wrote. Betty Clooney singing Kiki: ismatic and erotic focus of the artistic It's in the Madison Public Library, if http://youtu.be/M83ZqCdLiTE enclave of the time, and a cabaret you're in the area and interested. The Kiki singing: Go to Amazon.com and singer. Recently I found a coffee table book was banned for many years, search for "Kiki Chante" book called KiKi's Paris -- an exciting though these days it only seems Book: Kiki's Memoirs, edited by Billy title for both me and my wife for rea- charmingly suggestive in places. Kluver and Julie Martin, Ecco Press Book: Kiki's Paris, by the same Kluver sons noted -- full of photographs of I also found a RECORDING of and Martin, Harry N. Abrams Inc., pub. the scene and additional information Kiki singing, accompanied by an ac- Kiki in film: Go to YouTube and search about Kiki of Montparnasse (real cordion. As of this writing, this is for "Alice Prin" name: Alice Prin). I also found, via available on Amazon as an mp3 al- Artwork OF Kiki and artwork BY Kiki: Google, a recording of Kiki herself, bum, or as individual tracks (see foot- search Google Images for "Alice Prin." singing six songs. note). She's a good singer, and, with I covered a bit more about the the accordion accompaniment, re- song and included two verses, and minds me of a subdued Edith Piaf, promised a third verse this month. who was fourteen years younger than The third verse is not part of the ver- Kiki. I wonder if they ever met... sion of the song I linked to last month, So. This may all have seemed a but since then, I have found the ver- little tedious, I'm afraid, but two things sion idolized by my sister. Sung by about the exercise have struck me. Betty Clooney, sister of Rosemary One, how lucky we are to have Clooney, as of this writing is on You- the internet; that with meager re- Tube (see link at end). Clooney sings search skills, it is easy to find a digital the verse my sister and I remember recording of this obscure song, to find that was not on the Winterhalter re- a used copy of a glorious book about cording I quoted in the last WZ: the song's subject and her environ- Kiki photos by ment, to find her actual memoirs in the Man Ray: Then from Deauville a count named local library via a digital library cata- Above L, 1924, Louie log, and then to locate and download Le Violon d'in- gres. Above R, With a glint in his one good eye tracks of the woman herself singing, to early 1930's, He just flipped when he looked at Kiki locate and view dozens of her art- Kiki and Andre And he got on one knee and cried works and hundreds of portraits of her Laroque. Left, by scads of artists of almost a hun- 1929, Queen of I've got franks in the banks for you dred years ago, to find articles about Montparnasse,. And a castle in old Bordeaux her in old magazines and newspapers And remember at 82 online, to view footage of Kiki in vari- WZ Feb 2015