Video
Françoise 70 (15): Francoise au Pays-Bas
The television broadcast in which Françoise Hardy made her first appearance (well as far as we know) on Dutch television, has gained a mythical status.
Unfortunately not because of Françoise….
It was on October 12, 1963 when she received an Edison in Scheveningen. The television registration of this “Grand Gala du Disque” as it was called is still known in the minds of viewers (and those who only heard about it). That was mainly because of the presenter, writer and comedian Godfried Bomans. Not only did he look drunk (or at least tipsy), it was especially what he said to the award winners that made it legendary.
Especially the remark he made before the star of the evening Marlene Dietrich came on stage: “ Oh how I wish my wife had only one leg like that”. In the following days this became the talk of the town. People were talking about it, newspapers writing articles about what happened and even serious editorials comments appeared in the papers.
But what about Françoise?
I couldn’t find any references to whether she actually performed that night. Couldn’t find the complete show, and the papers don’t mention it, so I guess she only showed up to accept her award. I did find this picture in which she sings with the same dress, she wears in the show, but that was dated October 1964…
In his speech Bomans starts by staring at here saying: “my dad used to say that it is OK to stare”. Françoise seems to be at ease, and surprised but during the talk she seems pretty much a relaxed 19 year old girl.
After some chit chat about her name and the non pronunciation of the “H” in “Ardy, he gives her the Edison in the category youth, by saying: “And why, mademoiselle? Because you are an idol for the youth in France, but it is mainly because you had the courage not to imitate the Americans in your genre. You kept your original style; you write your own texts, compose your own melodies and you are a creative artist. That’s rare. It is for all that that I have the honour to present to you our sincere tribute”.
Here you can see the whole show (FH entering at 9:50)
Emilie Simon, Coeur de Pirate
We interrupt our Françoise Hardy week for two announcements. There’s a new Emilie Simon clip, for a song that’s surprisingly good:
And Coeur de Pirate’s coveralbum is out, featuring songs by Amy Winehouse, Bon Iver and Bill Withers. Songs she recorded for the Canadian tv-series Trauma. No French songs, alas. But this version of Wayne Cochran’s ‘Last Kiss‘ (best known for the cover version by Pearl Jam) is tres, tres jolie:
And there’s a video:
Françoise 70 (11): To the End/La comedie
Continuing the guestposts to commemorate Françoise Hardy’s 70th birthday, this Friday. Here’s fellow Dutch journalist Norbert Pek on his favourite Hardy-duet:
‘A few French lines on a Blur album: in 1994 it was quite a thing. More remarkable even then Jamaicans entering the Olympics with a bobsled. Exaggeration, you say? Let me take you back to the 1991-tour after the release of Blur’s mediocre debut album Leisure. At one point the band members all ended up with a black eye. Not because of some angry Oasis-fans (they didn’t exist at that time), but the band members themselves fought with each other out of pure frustration: they had the skills, but they didn’t have the noteworthy sound. The album, the tour: it was a failure. Now what to do? Singer Damon Albarn said he had a plan and the rest should trust him. He wrote a bunch of songs that were very, very British. The other members complained loudly, but played along. The album ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ (1993) was concepated. The songs were about life in England. Together with the selftitled Suede-debut, Modern Life…. was the starting point of a huge Britpop-revival.
Blur then started to work on on the album that would become a mega-success: Parklife. The songs were again about ordinary Engelish people living their ordinary lives. The most British Britpop was Blur’s golden ticket to success, their unique selling point, but this album featured, all of a sudden, some French lines. Cor blimey!
But it doesn’t sound like eating escargots in a hamburger joint. The French part fits like a glove in ‘To The End’. Because, like every Parklife-song, it’s very refined and well-crafted. And Damon Albarn had a stroke of genius when he decided that the song didn’t need some extra love, it needed l’amour.
Francoise Hardy is not singing the song on Parklife. The band asked Laetitia Sadier from the indieband Stereolab for the French part. It isn’t exactly singing. It’s more like answering in a most sensual way, while Albarn does all the vocal work. In 1995 the song was re-recorded: Francoise Hardy agreed to a duet. The English blokes knew it wasn’t just a simple re-take, so some big changes had to be made.
The result is impressive. The string section was changed, now it’s more theatrical. The main difference is the shift in lyrics. Albarn drops some of his own lines and lets Hardy sing her own French version. Thank Dieu, it’s not a simple translation, but the big words about love also work in French. Of course they do. But Francoise Hardy gives every word in ‘To The End (La Comedie)’ depth en sensuality. That’s what happens when you ask a living legend.
So Francoise: cheers. Now up to 80. I know you can make it to the end. Vraiment.
Françoise 70 (10): Voila
Lord Knows Best by Dirty Beaches is the best song to use a sample of Françoise’s ‘Voila’ (boy does she look gorgeous in the video), I think. But did you know Robbie Williams and Sharleen Spiteri (of Texas) used it too?
Françoise 70 (9): At the movies
As St. Paul and Dear Eyes mentioned before, Françoise’s songs work very well in movies.
My own favourite is ‘L’Amitié’ in Les Invasions Barbares, a very touching movie about the last days of dying man that won an Academy Award in 2003. ‘L’Amitié’ is played over the last scenes and the end credits:
‘Tous les garçons’ is the chanson that is used the most in movies. See this incomplete list on IMDB. Metroland is probably the film in which the song fits best:
Very recent is the use of four Hardy songs in François Ozon’s ‘Jeune et Jolie‘. Ozon also used a Hardy-song in ‘8 Femmes’. One of the songs in ‘Jeune et Jolie’ is ‘Je suis moi’:
And, in addition to the Wes Anderson/Moonrise Kingdom clips shared earlier, Le temps de l’amour is used also in the 2013 documentary Ne Me Quitte Pas, about two Belgian friends:
Françoise 70 (7): Le temps de l’amour
Another guestpost! St. Paul is one hell of a DJ, and a musical omivore. Just try one of his brilliant Perfect Kippevel (Perfect Goosebumps) compilations on Perfects.nl (this one, or this one). For this blog, he wrote a touching and highly personal post on his favourite Françoise-track:
“My girlfriend’s parents owned a second house in the south of France. They were a typical wine drinking, culturally engaged and fun loving family, while I was busy fighting off teenage angst listening to Nirvana. I lived alone with my mother and, because there was never enough money, I had never been on a holiday, not even within our own country.
So when I got a call from my girlfriend to come over to their house in France, an almost uncontrollable burst of excitement came over me. Armed with a carefully selected tape full of French songs and a rose for every day that we would be together I travelled a thousand miles to see her. As I reached the land of romance and finesse I found out that the love of my life had slept with the local guitar teacher.
I’m not a Francophile. What I still cherish though, are the songs. The songs from that tape. And the songs that i got to know in the years to come. My favorite Francoise Hardy tune would be Le Temps De L’Amour. For all the obvious reasons, such as the bouncy but delicate backbeat and of course the bittersweet vocals.
But it also works wonderfully in one of the greatest movies of all time. That classic dancing scene in Moonrise Kingdom only confirms the vivid qualities of the song. To me the scene feels more like an image track to the music than the other way around. It’s as director Wes Anderson tried to make the perfect music video, just like Spike Jonze recently did with Arcade Fire’s Afterlife.
Many of Hardy’s songs evoke an instant mental picture. They invade the heart as much as the mind. A lot of it has to do with the highly romantic delivery. As a DJ I consider myself to be a professional escapist, thus falling in love with your favorite female artists would be the easiest thing to do. Except it’s not. Take Beyoncé, she runs the world with her looks, songs and charm. But she remains too much of a star to feel closely connected to. With Francoise Hardy it’s different. When you see her walking down the street, rowing a boat or simply looking into the camera it’s as if she’s addressing you and only you. Like ‘messages personnels’, her songs have an immediate power. It’s like first love all over again. But this time everything’s alright.’
Quand le temps va et vient,
on ne pense a rien malgre ses blessures.
Françoise 70 (6): Destiny’s Hardy
Watch this, a cover of Destiny’s Child ‘Bills Bills Bills’ set to the music of Françoise’s ‘Le temps d’amour’. This mash-up cover (remember Sugababes redoing the Adina Howard/Gary Numan-mashup) was sung by British singer Whinnie Williams.
Françoise 70 (3): Tous les garçons et les filles
FillesSouirires.com marks the 70th birthday of Françoise Hardy (on Jan. 17th) with guestposts, special covers (just wait) and exposés like this one, by Mark Sullivan:
1962 has been called the year that the modern world began – the year of space flight and satellites, the Cuba Crisis, the first Beatles record (Love me do) – and the year that the modern woman appeared in the form of Françoise Hardy. In France it was the year of OAS terrorism, departure from Algeria, the emigration of the pied-noirs, and the completion of the Fifth Republic by direct election of the President. On 28 October 1962, a referendum to approve that change was held, the same day that the end of the Cuba Crisis was announced. This meant that the then single-channel French TV was being watched that night by more than the usual audience. In an interval between voting results, Françoise Hardy sang live her new song, ‘Tous les garçons et les filles‘.
While the song had already had some sales and airplay, this national publicity rocketed her EP of four tracks to the top of the charts. By summer 1963 it had sold 2 million. Good luck and an international crisis added to the skill and talent of Françoise had made her a star.
Françoise’s first TV appearance was in February 1962, on ‘La Petite Conservatoire de la Chanson’, run by Mireille Hartush. This is a quite remarkable piece of historic film, showing that she had everything from the start – charm, beauty, reticence, composing skill and a fine voice. She sang ‘La fille avec toi’ and there is some wonderful conversation with Mireille before and after the song, including about ‘ye-ye’ and her style of dress.
When ‘Tous les garçons’ was recorded, Françoise had been required to use Vogue Records’ in-house arranger Roger Samyn, whose musicians produced the somewhat clunky accompaniment (and who got his name on the record as joint composer, when he wasn’t). Francoise’s solo performance in September 1962, when she aoppeared again on Mireille’s programme conveys her original idea and remains the most personal version.
By February 1963, she was a national figure, though her fashion style had yet to emerge. In the winter 1962-63, her publicity photos show her in a famously drab coat, but she was still a remarkable new star, with her long hair and tall thin frame. On 3 February took place her first major concert, at the Olympia in Paris. Stills from it and another concert have survived, and are matched with the Europe 1 live transmission, very recently been placed on the internet.
The songs Françoise performed were “Ça a raté”, “J’ai jeté mon cœur”, “J’suis d’accord”, “Ton meilleur ami” et “Tous les garçons et les filles”. And here the live ‘Tous les garçons’, with an orchestra out of sight, sounds better than on the standard record (it starts at 8m35s).
Videos of the classic song use the Hardy-Samyn 1962 recording, and this continues to be the version that appear on CDs and Itunes to this day. Film of Françoise’s live performances of ‘Tous les garçons’ in 1964 and 1965 have not been kept, but she was finally able to present live a fully-orchestrated version of her own in April 1966 at the Palmarès des Hits.
One can imagine that this is the version that Françoise would like to be put in a time capsule.
Françoise in modern interviews has rather disparaged ‘Tous les garçons’, calling it ‘trite’ – and one can understand that she would have preferred not to have recorded the English-language version, which is (and which you won’t find here!). Her 1963 Italian version, ‘Quelli della mia eta’ is however excellent.
‘Tous les garcons’ was certain to attact cover versions. The Eurythmics cover (1985) on CD is quite good, with Annie Lennox aiming at a good French accent, and it has a fine ending (here)
But their live version becomes ever more burlesque as it proceeds, Annie Lennox loses her French accent, and the song is not finished. The song’s whole conclusion with the famous lines. It is Coeur de Pirate (Béatrice Martin), a singer who has spoken about how Françoise Hardy has influenced her, who has made the most effective 21st century cover, here.
Filmed in 2010 for a ‘back-to-the-future’ type time-travel TV series in Québec called ‘Les Rescapés’, and having been watched 1½ million times, this performance by the best popular writer-singer of the present generation reminds us how fine this historic song was, and is.
EXTRA:
From the comments, this is a great Tous les garçons cover as well, by Le Prince Miiaou: