Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Bonjour Chanson Series 34 Episode 167

Bonjour Chanson Series 34, Episode 167

Play Track 01 for 20 seconds “Replais Moi La Vie”

Start Text segment 1 ? Welcome to “Bonjour Chanson”! Let yourself be transported into a different world through French Chanson. You’ll learn how the French live and love. The voices and melodies are beautiful. My name is Charles Spira and I’ll be your host. We heard an excerpt from “Make Me Like My Life Again” by La Lue. More about this artist at the end of the show when we’ll listen to the entire song.

The stage name « Ludéal » is close to an anagram for artist Vincent Delaleu’s real name. Born in the seventies he grew up in a family with little interest in music. He acquired his first musical experience by rummaging through his parents’ record collection. An album by “Queen” may have awakened in him the desire to become a singer. But, first he had to get the travel bug out of his system. He spent time on the island of Crete and in the U.S. before he got serious about music.
“In the late nineties, while selling records in Paris, he gained much songwriting experience. His contacts in the music industry allowed him to secure a contract. His first album was published in 2007. We listen to “Where You Dwell” from 2016 with his words and music. “Stretched out I wait for the evening and the night, that is stringing out its Milky Way overhead, to envelop me. You will say that I like darkness, that it saturates my thoughts. But dreams are the only place where your silhouette roams. ? End text segment 1

Play Track 02 ? Là Ou tu Restes

Start Text segment 2 ?

« Là Où Tu Restes » by Ludéal

Isabelle Mayereau, born in 1947 in a middle-class family in Bordeaux, built a guitar from three pieces of wood and a string, when she was 10. This happily earned her guitar lessons with a Spanish teacher who made her discover Paco Ibañez. While composing her first songs she also discovered artists like Georges Brassens, Barbara and Jimmy Hendrix.

She wanted to offer her songs to well-regarded artists, but her friends convinced her to take to the stage herself. In 1978 she won first prize at the festival of Spa, a small historic town in Belgium, famous for its mineral water and baths. She interprets “Purple Drops” from her album “Journey” published in 2016. The music and words are hers. “Mauve drops of tempered steel trickle on a square face. Yellow drops of crumpled steel run on a dark face. Black lava of burnt incense flows on cracked walls. Red cities of fiery concrete tell the story of an ancient world.” ? End Text segment 2.

Play Track 03 ? Des Gouttes Mauves

Text segment 3 ?

« Des Gouttes Mauves » by Isabelle Mayereau,

Gilles Roucaute was born in Montréal, Québec and grew up in Marseille, Brest and even lived in Poznan, Poland. In addition to being a singer/songwriter he has also worked as a telecommunications engineer and as an educator in the Prison Service.

Gilles is a virtuoso of the written word. His beautifully crafted texts are inspired by his life experiences, including his travels. We listen to “Bag of Marbles” from 2013 with his words and music. “I have shared my bag of marbles with the girl in the last row. The one with big shiny black eyes. The one who dresses a bit funny. The one who never speaks to anyone. I give her some of my snack, my mother always gives me too much. ? End of Text segment 3.

Play Track 04 ? Sac de Billes

Text segment 4 ?

« Sac de Billes » by Roucaute

Marion Roch, who grew up in Besançon, felt the urge to write songs and to play the guitar when she was fifteen. She started to perform in Franche-Comté and the French speaking Cantons of Switzerland. Marion’s subjects are the lives of the people around her. She is able to immerse herself in their personalities regardless of their age.
She interprets “Your Swallows” from her 2020 album “Echos”. The music and the lyrics are hers. “You are beautiful, you are beautiful in your big coats, under your glasses, in your jacket, you are beautiful, with your mischievous smile, keeping your chin raised. You have been beautiful for 74 years, the era of black and white. You are dignified, you are beautiful. Your hair shines from those years, of which you have not told me everything.” ? End of text segment 4.

Play Track 05 ? Tes Hirondelles

Text segment 5 ?

“Tes Hirondelles” by Marion Roch

The artist Léo Ferré, although born in Monaco, really knew how to conjure up Paris, and it’s unique romantic atmosphere in his songs. Not just a talented poet, but also a gifted musician, he did actually perform as a guest conductor for a symphonic orchestra.

Ferré took great delight in putting the work of celebrated poets to music. He interprets “The Sun” by Charles Baudelaire, which appeared in the second edition of “The Flowers of Evil” published in 1861. Several of the poems in the “Flowers of Evil” were banned in France, until (wait for it!) 1949. “Along the old neighborhood, with shutters hanging from hovels, shelters for secret debauchery, when the cruel sun, strikes with intense rays the city, the fields, the roofs and the fields of wheat, I go and practice my whimsical struggle, ferreting out from every corner, the chance of a rhyme, stumbling over words as over paving stones, bumping sometimes into verses dreamt of long ago.” ? End of text segment 5.

Play Track 06 ? Le Soleil

Text segment 6 ?

« Le Soleil » by Léo Ferré »

« La Lue » is the Nick Name given by her friends to Ludivine Faivre. Today it is her stage name. Lue is short for Ludivine and in the Haute Doubs region in the Jura mountains, near Switzerland, which she calls home, they often put the definite article in front of a name, hence “La Lue”. Ludivine started piano lessons at age 6 and she also learned to play the accordion, the trumpet and the guitar. But she discovered she loved writing and the theatre.

She obtained a Master’s degree from the school of Theatre Arts in Besançon. She has worked in a couple of theatre ensembles, one of them in Switzerland. But as time went by music became more important to her. She gained valuable stage experience when she joined Maggy Bolle and Clotilde Moulin to form a group “Cancoyote Girls”. She published her first album in 2009. We listen to “Make Me Like My Life Again” from her album “The Hour of Happiness” published in 2015. She wrote the words and the music is by Maurice Boguet. This song makes references to the poem “The Voyage” by Charles Baudelaire, the second time we encounter the poet today. “Like sailors on a quest to find paradise, lost in a vast ocean of emptiness, we turn in circles trapped by our worries. There are too many sordid thoughts in our nets. We don’t like life any more. Perhaps we left the harbor a little early, carrying in our hold too many pipe dreams. We are, for sure, pitching badly, sailor. We are out of breath when imploring life to please us again.” ? End of text segment 6

Play Track 01 ? Replais Moi la Vie

Text segment 7 ? With “Replais Moi La Vie” by La Lue our program comes to an end. “Bonjour Chanson” is recorded in Baltimore, Maryland. My name is Charles Spira. All previous episodes can be found at exchange.prx.org, the site of PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. We are working on the next episode. Please tune in!

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