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Features Disc of the day
Léo Ferré
Il N'Y A Plus Rien
(Barclay, 1973)
Anarchist chansonnier slays the teens with epic monologues of unremitting nihilism.
First up, a confession: I can neither speak French nor make much sense of it in its spoken form; well, no better than your average 11-year-old grammar school kid. So, when I'm doing the dishes at home and listening to Preface, the dramatic, echoing opening track on Léo Ferré's bleak 1973 masterpiece (the title of which translates, fellow students, as "There's Nothing Left"), where he recounts his Anarchistic poetic manifesto of 1956 ("Poetry is a clamour/ it must be heard like music!") over military drumming, swirling strings and stabbing horns, it's the emotional bite and fire of Ferré's astonishing delivery that's getting me through the suds routine, rather than wry amusement at his poetic imperatives. But this is perhaps the reason to mark Ferré's later work out for notice. Influenced by Charles Trenet, Ferré started out as a classic chansonnier, writing songs for Piaf, Juliet Greco and Charles Aznavour, but by the late '60s Ferré's communist and anarchist leanings and contempt for bourgeois society, along with his hatred of France's post-war governments and his fascination with the events of May 1968 had transformed him into an astonishing figure of ferocious cultural originality, whose ability to blend the worlds of love and passion with ruminations on death, revolution and pointless existence resulted in epic poem-lyrics more complex, brilliant and untranslatable than even those of Brel or Gainsbourg. However, Ferré was a true performer, so even when I can only glean fragments from his epic belle-lettrist narratives ("Under the paving stones, the beach / under the beach... Hell!", I think he sings on the title track), or interpret Ne Chantez Pas La Mort as a dismantling of Brel's My Death over a noir soundtrack, I can channel much of the rest from Ferré's impassioned romantic delivery, that switches from the adoring to the abhorred in an instant; and then figure out the rest with babelfish. As a late teach-yourself-French course, it takes some beating.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 26/11/2009
Further Listening
Léo Ferré - Amour Anarchie (Barclay, 1970)
Charles Aznavour - 20 Chansons D'Or (Musicrama. 1995)
Jacques Brel - J'Arrive (Barclay, 1968)
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Comments
Comment on this post
Oh, Ferré.......
The french is one of most wondeful songwriters of all time (alongside the italians, Gino Paoli and Fabrizio de André; the spanish, Joan Manuel Serrat and Luís Eduardo Aute; and, of course, the french, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel).
His songs, powerful and emotional, are a mix of love, desire, hate, anarchism. a must.
¡Poete vos papiers!
Posted by carneham at 6:17 PM GMT 28/11/2009 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Oh, Ferré.......
The french is one of most wondeful songwriters of all time (alongside the italians, Gino Paoli and Fabrizio de André; the spanish, Joan Manuel Serrat and Luís Eduardo Aute; and, of course, the french, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel).
His songs, powerful and emotional, are a mix of love, desire, hate, anarchism. a must.
¡Poete vos papiers!
Posted by carneham at 6:18 PM GMT 28/11/2009 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Oh, Ferré.......
The french is one of most wondeful songwriters of all time (alongside the italians, Gino Paoli and Fabrizio de André; the spanish, Joan Manuel Serrat and Luís Eduardo Aute; and, of course, the french, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel).
His songs, powerful and emotional, are a mix of love, desire, hate, anarchism. a must.
¡Poete vos papiers!
Posted by carneham at 6:18 PM GMT 28/11/2009 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Oh, Ferré.......
The french is one of most wondeful songwriters of all time (alongside the italians, Gino Paoli and Fabrizio de André; the spanish, Joan Manuel Serrat and Luís Eduardo Aute; and, of course, the french, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel).
His songs, powerful and emotional, are a mix of love, desire, hate, anarchism. a must.
¡Poete vos papiers!
Posted by carneham at 6:20 PM GMT 28/11/2009 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Comment on this post