Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Bonjour Chanson Series 6, Episode 29

Bonjour Chanson Series 6, Episode 29

Play Track 01 seconds 00 to 29 ? “Les Saveurs Inconnues”.

Start text segment 1 ? Welcome to “Bonjour Chanson”. On vacation, or in a movie you may have heard fragments of French language songs. You may even have been intrigued. Yes, it is a wonderful genre and you can enjoy it although you do not speak French. My name is Charles Spira and I’ll be your host. You heard an excerpt from the song “The Unknown Flavors” by Gaetane Abrial. More about Gaetane at the end of the show when we’ll play the entire song.

When I was four years old there were few toys, but I did have a small shovel and one day digging in the yard I found a big glass marble with beautiful swirls of red, orange and yellow inside. What a treasure it was! I felt the same way while compiling the material for this show when I discovered a song by Marcel Mouloudji I had never heard before and it blew me away. This song “The Bird in the Islands of my Head” dates from 1974 and the music was composed by Gaby Verlor. Mouloudji was extremely talented. He was a painter, a writer, as well as an actor in the theatre and movies. All this in addition to his musical talents. He was 30 when his first record appeared. He had a very warm voice which infused his interpretations with intensity and emotion. “All it takes is to recall your laughter and your voice in the distance, to think of nothing but you. Bird of the islands in my head, you shout so loudly, you make the rules, between these annoying bars that are the prison of you and me ”. Here is Mouloudji.” ? End text segment 1

Play Track 02 ? Oiseau des Iles de ma Tete

Start Text segment 2 ? You heard Mouloudji in “L’oiseau des Iles de ma Tete.”

Marie Cherrier, Born in Blois, France, is the daughter of a physician who introduced her to the piano very early but after a few years she stopped because she did not like music theory. But when she was a teen he gave her a guitar and she practiced playing the songs of the singer Renaud. Soon she started her own compositions. After passing her baccalaureat, she spent some time studying cinema in Paris, then became a student of history in Orleans, but music was a constant magnet and at age 19 in 2004, she recorded her first CD. She opened for a number of artists all through France, gaining a following and in 2007 she recorded a second CD. Her songs have imagination and freshness.. Let’s listen to “The Bistrot” from 2004. “In a hazy pub of the boulevards, I smoke my cigarette waiting, for the snow descending on the sidewalk, to let up for a moment. From my coffee on the counter rises a plume of vapor. In it I imagine a lady in black dress, who invites me to dive in. But another one wakes up from my cigarette and joins the young woman. There go my two beautiful silhouettes that leave me for the sky. ” Ms. Marie Cherrier " ? End Text segment 2.

Play Track 03 ? Le Bistrot

Text segment 3 ? Marie Cherier interpreted “Le Bistrot”.

Francois Audrain, who lives in Brittany is a rising star on the French Music scene. A one time history teacher with a passion for music, he published his first album in 2001. His lyrics are poems and his sound is a mixture of electronic and acoustic. We’ll listen to the song “If They had Told Me” from his 2009 album “Summer Nights. “If one day they had told me that love was worth taking a detour, I would have come to see you. I would have followed you that evening to the end of that hallway in the house of your childhood. If they had told me I would have followed you into the churches and into the Tower Of Pisa. But if they had told me that you had a lover, I would not have been able to hold you back. The seasons are unraveling, I do not know any longer who I am.”

Here is Francois Audrain.. ? End of Text segment 3.

Play Track 04 ? Si on M’avait Dit.

Text segment 4 ? You listened to Francois Audrain in “Si on M’avait Dit”.

Linda Lemay, who was born in 1966 in a small town near Quebec City, is a phenomenon. She wrote her first song at age nine and has been a singer / songwriter ever since, with only one break, when she was a literature student. She writes finely crafted songs about the triumphs and indignities of life, very much like her French male counterpart Benabar. She is very well-known outside Canada and although she does not get a lot of airtime in France, Switzerland and Belgium, her concerts almost always sell out because of her compelling stage presence. Here is her song “It is only Wood” a tribute to her beloved instrument, the guitar. “It’s only wood with strings, it’s only a box with a hole, that one tunes and then plays. One performs the same motions a thousand times. We caress it with the tips of our fingers like a big cat, while it is in the hollow of our neck.” Ms. Linda Lemay." ? End of text segment 4.

Play Track 05 ? C’est que du bois.

Text segment 5 ? Linda Lemay performed “C’est que du Bois”

Etienne Daho was born in Algeria where his father was a soldier and his mother a chemist. When the marriage of his parents broke up, Etienne lived with his grandparents who operated a combination of a Grocery Store and a Bar. Etienne became familiar with the work of singers Sylvie Vartan and Francoise Hardy from the bar’s jukebox. Little did he know that he would work together with Vartan and Hardy some 20 years later. Inspired by the American and British rock movement, Etienne became one of the prominent figures of French Rock and Roll during the Eighties and Nineties after he had left Algeria to settle in France. Let’s listen to his song “A Wonderful Summer” from 2007. “Nothing seems capable of disturbing this wonderful summer. The house is wide open and airy. I have repaired the roof and repainted the walls. I have dressed my wounds and rebuilt my life. A wonderful perfume of blossoming flowers floats in the air and the blue of the sky is blinding like a splash of paint. And in this ideal setting you want to know today why I do not love you any longer, why for some time, we do not captivate each other and you cry in secret all the tears in your body, as if I were dead. ” Here is Etienne Daho.” ? End of text segment 5.

Play Track 06 ? Un Merveilleux Ete

Text segment 6 ? We heard Etienne Daho in “Un Merveilleux Ete”.

The French singer Gaetane Abrial, born in 1988 in Saint-Etienne in the Loire region will end our program. She reached the semi-finals of the “New Star” talent show in 2006. We’ll listen to her song “Unknown Flavors” which will make us realize why “Nouvelle Star” Jury Member Andre Manoukian decided to take her under his wing and encourage her to record an album. “Through you I discover places of great appetite. You exhilarate me still as much. Of all the intoxications I have experienced, you are the sweetest one. To drink a sip of you is like flying for an instant that stretches into eternity. ”) Ms.Gaetane Abrial. ? End of text segment 6

Play Track 01 ? Saveurs Inconnues

Text segment 7 ? You heard Gaetane Abrial in “Saveurs Inconnues”.

We have reached the end of our show. We wish to thank members of l’Alliance Française de Washington for using Bonjour Chanson! This program was recorded in the studios of WYPR in Baltimore. Jonathan Ehrens is the producer. I am Charles Spira. Make sure you catch the next episode. We do not want to miss you.!

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