1) The English two-tone ska band The Beat known as The English Beat in North America and The British Beat in Australia.
2) The American power-pop band became known as Paul Collins' Beat in Europe.
1. The Beat are a band founded in Birmingham, England, in 1978. Their music fuses ska, pop, soul, reggae and punk rock.
The Beat, consisting of Dave Wakeling (vocals, guitar), Ranking Roger (vocals), Andy Cox (guitar), David Steele (bass), Everett Morton (drums), and Saxa a.k.a. Lionel Augustus Martin (1930 – 2017) (saxophone), released three studio albums in the early 1980s: I Just Can't Stop It (1980), Wha'ppen? (1981) and Special Beat Service (1982), and a string of singles, including "Mirror in the Bathroom", "Too Nice to Talk To", "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Hands Off, She's Mine" and "All Out to Get You".[3]
Although the group’s main fan-base was in the UK, they were also popular in Australia thanks to regular exposure on the government-owned rock radio station Triple J and the nationally-broadcast TV pop show Countdown. They had a sizeable following in the U.S., and a strong presence on that country’s college radio.
After the break-up of The Beat, Dave Wakeling (guitar, lead vocals) and Ranking Roger (vocals) went on to form General Public, while Andy Cox (guitar) and David Steele (bass guitar) formed Fine Young Cannibals with vocalist Roland Gift.
Members of the band often collaborated on stage with The Specials and performed together on tracks such as “Free Nelson Mandela”. In the early 1990s, Roger joined members of The Specials to form the new band The Special Beat, which released two live albums.
Ranking Roger’s son, Ranking Junior, has followed in his father’s footsteps. In 2005, he appeared on The Ordinary Boys’ single “Boys Will Be Boys”. In 2003, The Beat’s original line-up, minus Cox and Steele but with the addition of Junior, played a sold-out one-off gig at the Royal Festival Hall. As of 2005, The Beat has reformed, counting Roger, Blockhead and Morton of the original line-up, with Ranking Junior also on vocals. The band is said to have the blessing of Cox, Steele and Saxa (of Desmond Dekker fame).
The Beat’s lead singer Dave Wakeling also continues to tour as The English Beat, as he has done for the last three decades, with an amazing all-star ska backing band playing the hits of The English Beat, General Public, and his new songs.
Saxa died on 3 May 2017, Ranking Roger died on 26 March 2019.
2. The Beat (known in Europe as The Paul Collins Beat or Paul Collins' Beat), were an American rock and power pop group from Los Angeles, California that formed in the late 1970s. The Beat resurfaced in the 1990s and continues to tour and record new material as Paul Collins' Beat. Frontman Paul Collins has released several projects with his alternative country group The Paul Collins Band, who play Americana music inspired by country rock and folk rock.
French Toast
The Beat Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ou le vent les amènent, mon amour
Le soir tombé, qu'on voit flotté
Des pétales de roses
Mon amour et des murs se gercent mon amour
Au soleil au vent à l'averse et aux années qui vont passant
Depuis le matin de mai qu'ils sont venus
Mon amour, le rosier suit les traces, mon amour
Sur le mur et enlace, mon amour
Leurs noms gravés et chaque été
D'un beau rouge sont les roses
Mon amour, sèche les fontaines, mon amour
Au soleil au vent de la plaine et aux années qui vont passant
Depuis le matin de mai qu'il sont venus
La fleur au cœur, les pieds nus, le pas lent
Et les yeux éclairés d'un étrange sourire
Et sur ce mur lorsque le soir descend
On croirait voir des taches de sang
Ce ne sont que des roses!
Aranjuez, mon amour
2 minutes ago · Sent from Web
The lyrics to The Beat's song "French Toast" are about the lasting impact of love and memories. The song begins by expressing how the singer's love travels with the water of fountains, and how even at night, one can see petals of roses float by. This imagery illustrates how love is a force that cannot be contained and can be found in unexpected places. The next verse speaks of how walls crack over time due to weather and the years that pass, but the names of lovers are still etched into the wall alongside the roses that bloom every summer. The mention of the strange things written on the wall with the point of a gun refers to how people have used graffiti to express their emotions and ideas, even if it means defacing public spaces.
The chorus repeats the idea of how love affects the world around it, with the rose bush following the traces of the lovers and the fontaines drying up in the sun and wind. The last verse speaks of how even though the lovers come and go, their love and memories remain in the spot where they carved their names on the wall. The imagery of seeing spots of blood on the wall is a powerful one, but upon closer inspection, one can see that it is only the beautiful red roses blooming there.
Overall, "French Toast" is a song about eternal love and the memories that are left behind. The lyrics use beautiful imagery to convey the idea that love is a force that cannot be contained or destroyed by time, weather or even violence.
Line by Line Meaning
Mon amour, sur l'eau des fontaines, mon amour
My love, on the water of the fountains, my love
Ou le vent les amènent, mon amour
Where the wind takes them, my love
Le soir tombé, qu'on voit flotter
When night falls and you see floating
Des pétales de roses
Rose petals
Mon amour et des murs se gercent mon amour
My love, and the walls crack, my love
Au soleil au vent à l'averse et aux années qui vont passant
In the sun, the wind, the rain, and passing years
Depuis le matin de mai qu'ils sont venus
Since the morning in May when they came
Et quand chantant, soudain ils ont écrit sur les murs du bout de leur fusil De bien étranges choses
And when singing, suddenly they wrote on the walls with the end of their guns very strange things
Mon amour, le rosier suit les traces, mon amour
My love, the rose bush follows the tracks, my love
Sur le mur et enlace, mon amour
On the wall and embraces, my love
Leurs noms gravés et chaque été
Their names carved and every summer
D'un beau rouge sont les roses
Are the roses of a beautiful red
Mon amour, sèche les fontaines, mon amour
My love, dries up the fountains, my love
Au soleil au vent de la plaine et aux années qui vont passant
In the sun, the wind of the plain, and the passing years
Depuis le matin de mai qu'il sont venus
Since the morning in May when they came
La fleur au cœur, les pieds nus, le pas lent
With the flower in their hearts, bare feet, and slow pace
Et les yeux éclairés d'un étrange sourire
And their eyes lit up with a strange smile
Et sur ce mur lorsque le soir descend
And on this wall when the evening falls
On croirait voir des taches de sang
One would think to see bloodstains
Ce ne sont que des roses!
But they are only roses!
Aranjuez, mon amour
Aranjuez, my love
Writer(s): J. Jefferson
Contributed by Alice Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@delphi202002
Wonderful. I've just been playing the album. I was 12 or 13 when i bought it. I later got into jazz (and a host of other things) and have always wondered how that journey started. I was listening to the album "WHA'PPEN ?" this evening and this track came on. It's been a long time since i have listened to this album....maybe 25 years :) It was great listening to this album and this track in particular and understanding that it helped me be more open to music of the world. I remember Salif Keita was also big in the 80's. Great days :) Thanks for the upload
@bencoat124
Superb ! I've been searching for the lyrics in either French or English - any ideas ?
@bobh1208
Given that it has the same lilting/rolling instrumental vibe as some of the music on small Florida Haitian-Stations, maybe it's Haitian Creole, in part? (As opposed to French gibberish, a la "Ca Plane Pour Moi"?) (After all, the colonial French were indeed "Toast" in Haiti... and the white world didn't feel like forgiving Haiti for winning... and, in fact, dive bombing, it turns out, was originated in 1918 by the U.S., not in Europe, but in HAITI... not that I'd be guessing the lyrics are about any of THAT!) Then again, I always figured the Clash's "Junco Partner", with its "I was born in Angola" line, written back when Cuba was expeditioning in Angola, was the Clash reaching outside of England for political pretentions... 'til I heard the original, from the 50's, and realized that the narrator was declaring himself to have been born in "Angola State", as it were, not the country... or in other words, in the pen... in Louisiana, not Africa! But, in a NON-cover that got covered (by someone featured in the lyrics, no less!), I know the Clash more originally shouted out a famous Spanish Harlem race horse from the 1800's, whose name had made it across the pond (after having become a sarcastic slang term for a slow-to-arrive ambulance cart)... although Strummer mispronounced it "Black Mariah"... but the "You see he feels like Ivan/At the end of 'The Harder They Come" man, Jimmy Cliff himself, historically corrected it for them, to "Black Maria"... when he (no doubt much to their delight) wound up covering "Guns of Brixton". But, in other words, I have no idea what The BEAT are on about, in THIS one... even though I listen to plenty of Haitian music on the radio... but I've sure never heard CONTINENTAL French music that sounds like this!
@bobh1208
Whoops, try Dominican Creole (from Dominica, not the Spanish speaking Dominican Republic of Hispanola)... though I swear The Beat's [cover, as it turns out... "I did not know that"] version instrumentally sounds more like some modern Haitian music (which Dominica may have influenced, being another former-French-colony in the Carribean)... anyhow, various sites promise lyrics to this original? version, if you sign up with them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJuHBMTY4I
@bobh1208
On second listen, though, the Haitian music I had in mind, even though it sounds more like The Beat's version of that song, does very much have some lilting similarities to the style of that Dominican (original? Who knows?! I suppose it's even possible that the song CAME from Haiti, but that there was nowhere to record earlier versions, in Haiti) song. Anyway, if you suss out any clues, from any lyrics sites or wherever, please mention.