Charleston des déménageurs de piano [English translation]

It’s us the piano movers

Movers of Steinways, Pleyels and Gaveaus 1

When it come to the tinkling of miserly tips 2

We know the music

As for the rest that’s none of our beeswax 3

Artists, we’re not for two bits

When the music has broken your back

There’s no charleston that fits

To stir our emotions 4

You’d have to get up pretty early

To think that there are guys

Who, on this miserable machine

Manage to make all the idiots believe

That life is like it is on the piano

From love they’ve made a whole fantasy

Hearing them, really, you’d think that’s all there is

What would be left for the piano movers

Who have a ton of weight on the heart

All that’d be left is for us to get drunk at the bar

But there you still have to put up with the band

There’s always some loser amongst us

Who’ll blow his tips there

To make them all shut up

There’s really only way

Send them to make

A little trip to the coalface 5

On the massacring piano of reality

They’d touch the rottenness first hand

It’s us the piano movers

Movers of Steinways, Pleyels and Gaveaus

When it come to the tinkling of miserly tips

We know the music

In the end what’s the use of talking

As someone said “To each his own”

Shooting at the pianist, that’s not our job 6

We pull on the piano

We pull on the piano

1. All famous piano makers 2. Note that 'pourboires' is tips, pour + boire ie money for drinking3. Lit: Not our onions ie none of our business 4. Prendre aux tripes: To move the emotions, to overwhelm 5. aller au charbon - go and spend some time with the common people 6. ‘tirer sur’ - To shoot at OR to pull on. A play on words and probably a reference to the movie ‘Tirez sur le pianiste’

• Artist:Serge Gainsbourg
• Album:Du chant à la une