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Some French classics

Enjoy these videos uploaded and translated by Lightning494.

One of the most beautiful song of Edith Piaf: La Foule (cover of a peruvian waltz)


An early hit of Serge Gainsbourg, in chanson style, before he decided to sing pop: Le poinçonneur des Lilas


A great song of Brel: Les Vieux

Pissing In The Grass

The new single of Ignatus, Dans l'Herbe, from his 2009's LP Je remercie le hasard qui. The movie clip is really nice too.

Brassens, an umbrella and a Gorilla

A gem of a song, 50 years before Rihanna. Notice the repetition of the sound [i] which suggests the sound of the rain, and the slow down during the Chorus, like time has stopped under the umbrella.

Georges Brassens - Le Parapluie


One of the most famous song of Brassens, a funny tale against death penalty. The song is one of his most controversial and was banned of French radio for years.

Georges Brassens - Le Gorille (uploaded by Lightening494).

French Hip-hop may be bigger than you thought

© Michel Dhersin

Known abroad for the "Laser dance song" on Ocean Twelve, La Caution is a mainstay of the "French rap new wave" of the 00's (alongside with TTC, L'Armée des 12, Klub des Loosers, James Deleck) which melt electronic music with rap.

They released many good tracks, but I want to introduce you the vocal version of their hit Thé à la Menthe. The amazing beat has a really nice Arab flavor. The lyrics are about a very typical theme in French rap: immigration. Indeed, French rappers, contrary to American ones, are very often sons of immigrates, mostly from North and West Africa. The two rappers of La Caution, Hi-Tekk et Nikkfurie are of Moroccandescents.

For the subtitles, I used this good translation (I've just corrected some little mistakes but I think there are some left). Slang and wordplay are very difficult to translate, especially when they are melt with some arabic words. (actually many French words comes from Arabic). In the song, there are the words"srab" which means "friend", and "Salamalek" which means "Peace on you" and is used to say hello. Last thing, when they say "Albatross of Baudelaire", they refer to the famous poem of Baudelaire that many students have to learn in school.

La Caution - Thé à la menthe (from Peine de Maures, 2005)



Links: Myspace, Wikipedia, Peines de Maures on streaming

Chicken # 728120, I love you

A crazy singer Philippe Katerine, with a very very special humor. I hope you dont like chicken the way he does.

Poulet n°728120 (Chicken #728120)

Horse Teeth & Angel's Voice

Jacques Brel is one the top Master of French Chanson, and he is... Belgian! Indeed, Belgium is half French-speaking (in Wallonia and Brussels) and half Flemish-speaking (in Flanders).

Brel is highly regarded for his lyrics, romantic but often also ironic and bitter. He wrote beautiful, compassionate, and even funny portraits about all kind of people, prostitutes, alcoholics, but also middle classes and old people. His singing is also special: intense, dark, close to a melodramatic acting.

There are many videos of him with English subtitles, thanks to Lightning49!

Au Suivant (Next)

Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don't Go Away From Me)

Les Vieux (The Old People)

Links: wikipedia, many videos of him with English subtitles

The Black Queen of French Music

The most famous female voice after Edith Piaf, Barbara became famous in the early 60's and since is recognized as one of the best singers and songwriters with dark, autobiographical and poetic songs. Here are three of her most beautiful songs, with English subtitles as usual.

Dis Quand Reviendras-Tu? A song mixing love and threat message.

Gottingen about this German city


Nantes about the day she heard about her father's death.

Links: wikipedia article, lives of L'Aigle Noir, Ma Plus Belle Histoire d'Amour, Le Bel Age.

Brassens had a poor reputation

One of the most famous songs of Brassens, first released in his first LP in 1952.





You can also listen to the amazing cover in spanish by Paco Ibanez in 1969. Another popular cover is the one by the reggae-ska band, Sinsemilia.

When Movie clip And Song Match Perfectly

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!

Rock Made In France

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.

From 667.667 Club, 1996
Maybe the song with the most famous intro riff of French rock.
Noir désir - Un jour en France (A Day In France)

Noir désir - L'homme pressé (The Hurry Man)

Notice that in French, hurry man (homme pressé) and oppressed (oppressé) sound very similar.

A great song with a post-rock flavor and... english lyrics!
Noir désir - Twilight zone


Lyrics of The Hurry Man:

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

Links: buy on amazon - wikipedia

Mano Solo, the Last French Great Song-writer

"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.


From La Marmaille Nue, 1993
Mano Solo - Allo Paris


From the live album Internationale Sha La La, 1999
Mano Solo - Tu t'envoles (You Fly Off)

Mano Solo - Le drapeau (The Flag)



Lyrics of The Flag

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

Links: buy on Mano solo - wikipedia

Klub des Loosers - Under the V Sign (French rap)

Klub des Loosers (Losers' Club) is an atypical French rap band. Most of French rappers are used to same cliches. Some claims to be thugs, successful with women and money, almost all pretend to come from poor and violent cities and talk about social and political issues.

Klub des Loosers is all the contrary. The rapper Fuzati is depressive, unable to date any girl, and coming from a rich and fancy family. Nevertheless, like other rappers, he describes and criticizes his social environment.

His main hit is Under The V Sign. V for Versailles, a very fancy city in the West of Paris (famous for the Palace of Versailles) where Fuzati is from. He describes conservative and hypocrite habits of Versailles inhabitants stuck in the past. He also describes the bored youth, pretending to be rebel but having nothing to struggle against and unable to overcome the family pressure.

The song is produced by the world famous electro band Air.

KLUB DES LOOSERS - Sous le signe du V [with English subtitles]
sent by Nightmare_Theater

Let's Start By The Best

Here's the first post of French Kisses (the previous one was just copied from my French-speaking blog berceuse electrique). I'm glad to start with one of the most amazing French song, a classic among classics. Its called There is no happy love (Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux) by the chanson master, Georges Brassens.

Brassens has been covered hundreds times and his most famous songs are known by heart by most French people.

The lyrics are based on a poem of Louis Aragon, a great writer of the XXth century. Lyrics are extremely important in Brassens' songs so I'm glad I've found a video with English subtitles. Enjoy.

Georges Brassens - There Is No Happy Love



More on wikipedia - Buy on amazon