Louis Armstrong plays and sings Edith Piaf’s love song “La vie en rose”. Not only does he manage to convey the romantic message of the lyrics with his gruff and gravelly voice but he proceeds to offer a masterclass in jazz trumpet…..
Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose
When you kiss me, Heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose….
Almost impossible to avoid slowing the pace down when you hear these two telling you to take it easy. What I love about the song is the reminder that in this modern world, when so much of our daily life appears to happen in the fast lane, there is a need to sometimes drop down through the gears and just unwind.
The beauty of angling is that it provides an excuse to just sit by a river, stream or lake and pretend to be doing something when in actual fact you are just gazing across the water at peace with the world.
Who cares if you don’t actually catch anything….
One other reason I like it – it’s a bloody good song sung by two masters of the genre….
” What would a blind man give to see the pleasant rivers, and meadows, and flowers, and fountains, that we have met with since we met together ?”
” And for the most of them, because they be so common, most men forget to pay their praises:
but let not us; because it is a sacrifice so pleasing to Him that made that sun and us, and still protects us, and gives us flowers, and showers, and stomachs, and meat, and content,
and leisure to go a-fishing. ”