Needles & Grooves AoTM /// Vol. 8 - February 2020 /// Ibeyi - Ash

AotM that could have been #1 : Samedi soir sur la terre - Francis Cabrel

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The 8th album from Francis Cabrel was a staple of my childhood. My mom always played it, at home or in the car when it got out, and it remained, as most of Cabrel's other records, one of her favourite. It's one of thoses album where I know instinctively the lyrics to most of the songs, where the music is like a "madeleine de Proust" to me.

We already praised Cabrel's music with @Skalap on this forum, and probably on the former one, and I also PIF'd his first record that I bought specifically for that purpose to @Poly-Rythmo and you should absolutely dive into the man's discography, but alas it's not the AoTM because, even if @agutierrezb proved brillantly that we could select a non-english sung record, I didn't want to be too obvious in choosing a "chanson française" record, even such a great one.
 
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ChristoBee said:
AotM that could have been #1 : Samedi soir sur la terre - Francis Cabrel

View attachment 27988



The 8th album from Francis Cabrel was a staple of my childhood. My mom always played it, at home or in the car when it got out, and it remained, as most of Cabrel's other records, one of her favourite. It's one of thoses album where I know instinctively the lyrics to most of the songs, where the music is like a "madeleine de Proust" to me.

We already praised Cabrel musc with @Skalap on this forum, and probably on the former one, and I also PIF'd his first record that I bought specifically for that purpose to @Poly-Rythmo and you should absolutely dive into the man's discography, but alas it's not the AoTM because, even if @agutierrezb proved brillantly that we could select a non-english sung record, I didn't want to be too obvious in choosing a "chanson française" record, even such a great one.
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This is the one where I first fell for him. It's such a great record, and provided much of the soundtrack of my two years studying in France. Definitely worth checking out.
 
ChristoBee said:
AotM that could have been #1 : Samedi soir sur la terre - Francis Cabrel

View attachment 27988



The 8th album from Francis Cabrel was a staple of my childhood. My mom always played it, at home or in the car when it got out, and it remained, as most of Cabrel's other records, one of her favourite. It's one of thoses album where I know instinctively the lyrics to most of the songs, where the music is like a "madeleine de Proust" to me.

We already praised Cabrel musc with @Skalap on this forum, and probably on the former one, and I also PIF'd his first record that I bought specifically for that purpose to @Poly-Rythmo and you should absolutely dive into the man's discography, but alas it's not the AoTM because, even if @agutierrezb proved brillantly that we could select a non-english sung record, I didn't want to be too obvious in choosing a "chanson française" record, even such a great one.
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One of the best French albums of the 90s.
 
ChristoBee said:
AotM that could have been #1 : Samedi soir sur la terre - Francis Cabrel

View attachment 27988



The 8th album from Francis Cabrel was a staple of my childhood. My mom always played it, at home or in the car when it got out, and it remained, as most of Cabrel's other records, one of her favourite. It's one of thoses album where I know instinctively the lyrics to most of the songs, where the music is like a "madeleine de Proust" to me.

We already praised Cabrel's music with @Skalap on this forum, and probably on the former one, and I also PIF'd his first record that I bought specifically for that purpose to @Poly-Rythmo and you should absolutely dive into the man's discography, but alas it's not the AoTM because, even if @agutierrezb proved brillantly that we could select a non-english sung record, I didn't want to be too obvious in choosing a "chanson française" record, even such a great one.
Click to expand...

What does chanson francaise mean?

Super excited for all this sharing of music!!!!
 
Teeeee said:
What does chanson francaise mean?

Super excited for all this sharing of music!!!!
Click to expand...

Joe Mac said:
A song in french. I’m really excited to see which way this month goes too 🤔
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"Chanson Française" is the name of the, let's say, more traditional French pop and folk music (with a bit of poetry and/or meaningless lyrics sometimes).
 
Teeeee said:
What does chanson francaise mean?

Super excited for all this sharing of music!!!!
Click to expand...

Translated literally it means "french song", but it's more of a genre of french music that leans heavily into the importance of the lyrics. it is closely tied to poetry in that sense.

Musically it can vary quite a bit depending on the eras, the record you shared it pure pre-WWII "chanson française", the biggest artist from this era being Charles Trenet.

It evolved quite a bit during the second half of the 20th century to this day. It's kind of our regional pop music in the sense of popular music. There are a number of great artist there from Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Barbara, early Serge Gainsbourg to the yé-yé that draws a lot from chanson française too.

Cabrel is more from the 70s era, like Maxime Le Forestier, Bernard Lavilliers, Véronique Sanson, Bashung (one of the greatest of all, if you ask me). In the 80s you get Daniel Balavoine, Jean-Jacques Goldman and many others.

We should do a primer and a playlist with @Skalap if you want to dwelve into this very french genre.

One of the best thing is they can draw inspiration musically from everywhere, and I'll leave you with one of my favourites, Claude Nougaro's Le Jazz et La Java, inspired, almost sampling in 1962 (!), Dave Brubeck and Haydn :

 
ChristoBee said:
Translated literally it means "french song", but it's more of a genre of french music that leans heavily into the importance of the lyrics. it is closely tied to poetry in that sense.

Musically it can vary quite a bit depending on the eras, the record you shared it pure pre-WWII "chanson française", the biggest artist from this era being Charles Trenet.

It evolved quite a bit during the second half of the 20th century to this day. It's kind of our regional pop music in the sense of popular music. There are a number of great artist there from Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Barbara, early Serge Gainsbourg to the yé-yé that draws a lot from chanson française too.

Cabrel is more from the 70s era, like Maxime Le Forestier, Bernard Lavilliers, Véronique Sanson, Bashung (one of the greatest of all, if you ask me). In the 80s you get Daniel Balavoine, Jean-Jacques Goldman and many others.

We should do a primer and a playlist with @Skalap if you want to dwelve into this very french genre.

One of the best thing is they can draw inspiration musically from everywhere, and I'll leave you with one of my favourites, Claude Nougaro's Le Jazz et La Java, inspired, almost sampling in 1962 (!), Dave Brubeck and Haydn :

Click to expand...

OMG! YES! I WOULD LOVE A PLAYLIST!!

I know I'm yelling a lot. But seriously, this is a genre I adore but don't know enough about and always struggled to identify. Is chanson francaise a genre? Cause if so, it seems to me that that is the genre of french music that I love. I always thought it was ye ye but it seems that ye ye is a subset of chanson francaise?

Thank you all for the patience in explaining this to this yankee ass who really hopes I'm not offending anyone with these questions. It isn't my intention, but please let me know if I am and I'll adjust. :)
 
Teeeee said:
OMG! YES! I WOULD LOVE A PLAYLIST!!

I know I'm yelling a lot. But seriously, this is a genre I adore but don't know enough about and always struggled to identify. Is chanson francaise a genre? Cause if so, it seems to me that that is the genre of french music that I love. I always thought it was ye ye but it seems that ye ye is a subset of chanson francaise?

Thank you all for the patience in explaining this to this yankee ass who really hopes I'm not offending anyone with these questions. It isn't my intention, but please let me know if I am and I'll adjust. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, yé-yé is an era of the genre in itself, it's the french swinging 60s of sorts.

I haven't been completely detailed in my last message regarding the modern era, but since the 90s there is something we call "nouvelle chanson française" as well as the "variété" that keeps going from the 70s/80s. It's a bit the mainstream against the indie side of "chanson française". It's hard to draw a line of what fits into "chanson française" and not, because it very lyrics oriented, and can lean heavily into other genre for the music.

One famous recent example is Stromae, a belgian guy, with great electronics tracks but a very clear inspiration from Brel and other old school chanson française lyricists.

 
Teeeee said:
OMG! YES! I WOULD LOVE A PLAYLIST!!

I know I'm yelling a lot. But seriously, this is a genre I adore but don't know enough about and always struggled to identify. Is chanson francaise a genre? Cause if so, it seems to me that that is the genre of french music that I love. I always thought it was ye ye but it seems that ye ye is a subset of chanson francaise?

Thank you all for the patience in explaining this to this yankee ass who really hopes I'm not offending anyone with these questions. It isn't my intention, but please let me know if I am and I'll adjust. :)
Click to expand...

This Spotify might be an excellent start. Not everything is great but it's a great mix of great songs and hits from the 60/70/80.

open.spotify.com

Standards de la Chanson Française

Standards de la Chanson Française · Playlist · 60 songs · 344.4K likes
open.spotify.com open.spotify.com

This one too :

open.spotify.com

Chansons Françaises de Légende

Chansons Françaises de Légende · Playlist · 129 songs · 80.5K likes
open.spotify.com open.spotify.com
 
ChristoBee said:
I don't want to presume, but I think @Skalap answered with a joke to the hint. It's a famous summer song in France, often made fun of. But maybe he loves it secretly. In that case, no judgement.
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I just thought that was the answer to the hint you gave
 
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