Dave Clark Five - The Red Balloon

The last line of the chorus of this song has puzzled me for years - does
anyone know what the actual line is...?

In and out of the red balloon
Marry the farmer's daughter
Sleepy head in the afternoon
??? Callow la callow la vita ???

Steffen Buehler...

That's just it, and who should know, if not you? :-) The two of us spoke
about it several years ago.

Mark Rae...

Did we? I'm sorry - I have no recollection of that... :-(

The original by Raymond Froggatt was titled "Callow la vita".

Mark Rae...

Ah yes...now you come to mention it...

Concerning the meaning, hm, a native speaker could tell more here, but
"callow" means "immature", so why not stick to something like "young,
innocent time of life"?

Mark Rae...

Well, that'll do for me! Thanks a lot... :-)

web-search turns up the usual list of lyric sites, all of which have some
variation of the above.

Any assistance gratefully received.

John Dean...

All the English versions I can see show it is "callow la vita"
But I believe the song is a translation of a French original which has a
line in Spanish as title and chorus:
"Que calor la vida". Or it may be that the French song is a translation of
an earlier Spanish version.

(You see the reference to a red balloon in there)

I'm guessing it means something like "How hot, how passionate life is". But
you should try a Spanish speaking group. Or try alt.usage.english
(seriously) because there are several Spanish speakers there.

Mark Rae...

Interesting. After Steffen reminded me that this is, in fact, a Froggie
cover, I found the original on the Raymond Froggatt site, which also has
"Callow la callow la vita". I emailed the site with corrections for the
French, but I haven't had a reply back yet.

Your Spanish suggestion certainly makes sense (albeit not particularly
grammatically!), but it's maybe a little strange that a song about a
Parisian park with a whole verse in French should include a line in
Spanish...?

Or maybe it isn't - it was 1968 after all... ;-)

BTW, if anyone's interested, the correct French is:

Bonjour madame, bonjour monsieur
Je vous vois dans le parc main à main tous les jours
Il fait beau temps aujourd'hui et les fleurs sont si belles
J'espère qu'il ne pleut pas et (que) vous avez toujours l'amour

Literally translated:

Hello madam, hello sir
I see you in the park hand in hand every day
The weather's lovely today and the flowers are so beautiful
I hope it doesn't rain and (that) you always have love

Mark

P.S. some of the attempts at the French verse are just hilarious!