I was listening to my Jacques Brel channel on Pandora. I am used to a lot of (too much) Django Reinhardt and Edith Piaf. But suddenly, I was hearing Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday?! I switched over to my Pandora tab and immediately, I was face to face with… an ad for Santa Rosa singles between the ages of 30 and 39.

I don’t understand this. I am 48 and I know they know this. Why do they think I am looking for such young women? And why would I want one in Santa Rosa? I’m only here to prove to myself how low I can sink:

That’s from Jim Carroll’s City Drops Into the Night.[1]

Finally, I get my bearings and I see the song is J’ai Deux Amours by Madeleine Peyroux, a wonderful singer who doesn’t always channel Billie Holiday, but certainly does on the Careless Love album. Her last name appears to be pronounced like “Peru” but with a guttural “r.” Here is a nice bit of live music from her:

Up next on Pandora was Brel’s Les Bonbons. Does anyone have any insight into this song? It seems to be a meditation of the ephemeral nature of love: Je vous ai apporté des bonbons; parce que les fleurs c’est périssable. (I brought you candy; because flowers are perishable.) That seems to go along with the, “Hey! There’s my current girlfriend! There’s your current boyfriend!” Followed by, “Okay, go away with him. Hey Germaine [his old girlfriend], I brought you candy!” It’s all quite delightful. Ah, to be Frenchish.

[1] I’m sorry, but there seems to be no live version of the song: