Songs of Oldelaf and Mr D is a chanson band with a great sens of humor. The music is good but really less interesting if you cannot understand the lyrics. Their best songs are Raoul Le Pitbull about a dog eating a whole family, and Nathalie, a parody of cheesy love song between two catholic teenagers.
But the best one is definitely Le Café. There is no official movie clip but two students of the Art School of Angouleme (EMCA) made one which is really amazing; a great cartoon by itself. On Youtube and Dailymotion, the video has been watched more than 1,500,000 times!
Georges Brassens, the King of French music has been covered by so many artists that listening covers of him can be a good way to discover French singers. Actually there are also awful covers, like Fernande sung by the dull Carla Bruni (the wife of Sarkozy). So here's my selection, 14 songs among plenty.
Old chanson: Patachou - Brave Margot (Un Gamin de Paris) Renaud - je suis un voyou (Renaud chante Brassens) Le Forestier - Les châteaux de sable (12 nouvelles de Brassens) Nougaro - Bonhomme (Georges Brassens et ses interprètes)
New chanson: Têtes Raides - Pauvre Martin (Les oiseaux de Passage) Yann Tiersen (composer of the score of Amélie)- Le Parapluie (Les oiseaux de Passage) Juliette - la complainte des filles de joie (Putain de toi) Weepers Circus - Quatre-ving-quinze fois sur cent (Les Oiseaux de Passage)
There are others nice covers in other styles:
Reggae with Sinsemila, La mauvaise réputation (Sinsé part en live) and Magyd of Zebda, Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète (Putain de toi)
Rap with Joey Starr of NTM, Gare au Jaguarr (Gare au Jaguarr)
Rock with Noir Désir: Le Roi (Les Oiseaux de Passage) and Dionysos, La Cane de Jeanne (Putain de toi).
Metal with Lofofora : Les passantes (Les Oiseaux de Passage)
Jazz with a whole tribute album by Eddie Davis, Harry Edison, Joe Newman, and Cat Anderson- Je me suis fait tout petit (Giants of Jazz play Brassens). There have also been a jazz tribute album by Rodolphe Raffalli. They are really interesting to show the incredible swing of the music of Brassens.
If you are curious, you can find covers of Brassens in English, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew! There is also a good tribute album by the french singer Barbara but it was not available for the Jiwa player; you can listen to it on deezer. There is also atribute albumIls Chantent Brassens that I haven't listened but with very interesting singers (Michel Fugain, Françoise Hardy...).
Noir Désir (Black Desire) is unanimously considered as the best French rock band. If you wander in Paris on the Word Music Day (June, 21st), you would hear hundreds of kids covering their songs.
The band first achieved success with the 1989's hit Oh sombres héros de la mer, which means Oh dark heroes of the bitter. The title is a wordplay with La mer/L'amer, that is to say The Sea/The Bitter. As soon as their first LP, one can see grounds of the success of the band: strong and melodic rock, complex and romantic lyrics inspired by French Poets, left-wing political involvement and maybe most of all, the dark magnetism of the singer Bertrand Cantat, with his both angry and sensitive voice.
With their following albums, they gained both commercial and critic success, becoming one of the few bands to reconcile underground and mainstream. With the 2001's Des visages, des figures, Noir Désir moved to a calmer and more experimental sound. In 2003, Bertrand Cantat is sentenced to 8 years in prison for the accidental murder of his wife while he was drunk. As you might guess, the future of the band is quite uncertain.
From Des visages, des figures, 2001
Noir désir - Le vent l'emportera (The Wind Will Carry Tt Off). By the way Manu Chao is playing guitar on this song.
I’m a frozen model With a tanned skin Hurry man My bullshits uttered Are the destiny of the world I don’t have time, I go off My career is at stake I’m the media man I’m more than political I’m going fast, very fast I’m an universal human comet I cross time I’m a reference I’m omnipresent I invaded the world That I don’t know No matter, I talk about it No matter, I know Human are at my feet Potentially 8 billions of slave idiots Except some of my friends Of the same world than mine You can’t imagine Of happy they are Chorus:Who wants me And crumbs of my brain? Who wants to enter In the web of my network? Daily activist Of inhumanity Of instant profits Of medias’ favor I’m rich, very rich I’m in the real estate business I’m making money There’re some people who can pay I know the upper crust of Paris And the others also My unique friends And their women that I.. See, of course. I know stock exchange secrets There is no secret for me I’m the King of kings exploded audience ratings And what do you think It’s my way, it’s my luck I love shows On television No time to watch them But I make them We spit food On those starving eyes You see what they ask We know they are eager Of our rottenness Better than casting pearls Before swine. Chorus You know who I am An hurry man x3 I am An hurry man x3 Chorus Couplet
”Love Love Love” People say in America ”Lioubov” In Russia ”Amour” at the four corners of France
"I've got two news, a good one and a bad one. The good one is that I'm not HIV positive anymore, the bad one is that I have AIDS." Mano Solo, 1995.
Mano Solo is often introduced as as a depressive singer haunted by death and his disease but he's much more than that. His song are about love, about life, about the struggle against the whole world. He seems shouting with anger and passion, maybe I look weak and sad, but I'm still alive and I will enjoy my life until the last moment and I will fight for it. As he says in his song With giant steps, "Its not that I love mine, but for sure I love life".
His first three solo albums released from 1993 and 1997 (La marmaille nue (The Naked Rabble Of Kids), Les années sombres (The dark years) and Je sais pas trop (I Don't Really Now) are some of the greatest masterpieces of french chanson, alongside with those of Brel and Brassens. He does not just copy the old masters but he expresses a new way of writing and singing: deep, violent and passionate. He's influenced by chanson, but blends it with rock, gypsy and latin musics, african rythms... He even sang in a punk band, Les frères misères (Misery Brothers).
Here are two videos with english subtitles and three awesome mp3.
It has been months That I'm waiting for you So much and so long that I wasn't waiting anymore I was almost dead I painted 1000 times in my head The Picasso of your portrait One eye here, one ear there You seem from an other world But I was far from doubt This color on your skin The same that when we close the eyes Because everything is fine
Colors that men like me wear Colors of anarchy, of pirats You'll be the flag, and I'll be the skull And we'll flap in the breeze Among birds' calls In this life which is schrinking We will resist until the last rag You're so beautiful!
I dont know what to tell you I've in my mouth A cockroach's colony And if I open it They will jump on you To eat in your eyes To the least light of hope Your are so beautiful And I am so dark
Behind my skin, there's a cold night But fuck, thought I got fever I've seen myself, very close to you Darken my mouth on your skin But maybe you just see A little white toad attracted by you Full of venomous pustules And smoking so much that it'll blow out
But I've seen you in the dark, like a cat That you were beautiful to die But I haven't seen your heart jumping Neither your skin shouting toward me You're so beautiful You're so beautiful I don't know what to tell you
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