Charles Trenet

[davemarc]

From: Eric Rosenbloom <ericr at sadlier.com>
>
> (Another giant of 20th-century art, Charles Trenet, also died this
> weekend but I can't see an immediate connection to Pynchon.)

Charles Aznavour was quoted as saying of Trenet, "Thanks to him, the public
discovered surrealism in song."

So maybe that's a connection.

Trenet was one of the well-springs of musical joy of the 20th Century.

Those with an interest in WWII might be interested to know how, unlike a
number of other French cabaret singers during WWII, Trenet was attacked by
French fascists during occupation.  From Reuters:

"His flamboyant homosexuality, penchant for jazz and friendship with Jewish
artists made him a marked man during the 1940-1944 Nazi occupation when the
collaborationist press attacked him as a bad influence on the young.

"The vitriolic pro-Nazi daily 'Je Suis Partout' alleged that Trenet was an
anagram for Netter, a common French Jewish name.

"But the fact that he performed in Paris during the Nazi occupation resulted
in his being banned from the boards for 10 months after the Liberation of
France."

d.