This is a song that resembles us. “Le Boudin”, for the foreign heroes of France

“Le Boudin” is certainly the most famous military song in the world, notably because the Foreign Legion, of which it is the marching song, is an elite corps whose recruitment is open to the world.

In partnership with the exhibition It’s a song that resembles us – Worldwide hits of French-language popular music At the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, these chronicles look in detail at each of the stories presented there.

“Here, here’s some black pudding!” In 2013, in a Parisian studio, the music of the Foreign Legion recorded an album for Dodge Gramophone, the most prestigious classical music label, with the English producer John Cohen at the helm.

The album Hero will be crowned with a platinum disc in France and ten years later, the Legion’s music will be performed at the Olympia, as a confirmation of a singular status. All this happens in a country that cannot be said to be obsessed with militarism, some thirty years after the end of compulsory military service.

It is because the Legion is the Legion that The blood sausage is probably the most famous military song in the world. The heroism, the feats of arms of course, but also this oddity. Men from all over the world can dream of entering the Legion, and France is the only country in the world to transform into heroes so many people who were not born on its soil.

And I say this at a time when, in France, the memory of the repertoire of songs in uniform tends to gradually fade. However, the French sang at the top of their voices and often remembered all their lives these great hits in fatigues. Some great classics: The Sambre and Meuse Regimenta café-concert song created shortly after the defeat of 1871, and adopted by the French army; In Saigonthe bawdy anthem of the marine infantry; The Little TrackAfrican song of the Foreign Legion.

Obviously, cinema does a lot to propagate the myths of the Legion, and therefore The blood sausage. In a 1977 film version, Once upon a time there was the Legion with Gene Hackman as the commander and Terence Hill as the heroic legionnaire. And you might not find that this pudding is sung in the norm.

In fact, it was the Republican Guard Orchestra that recorded the soundtrack of the film. But let’s not be too purist: The blood sausage was composed in the 1860s. Its text has been revised several times and bears the memory of the battles of Camerone in 1863 in Mexico, and of the question of Belgian neutrality during the war of 1870, and of the preferential recruitment of Alsatians and Lorrainers after this defeat.

In this episode of This song reminds me of usyou hear excerpts from:

Music of the Foreign Legion, The Blood Pudding, 2013

Armand Mestral, The Sambre and Meuse Regiment, 1958

Combined Arms Military School, In Saigon, 1988

Choir of the 6th^e Foreign Engineer Regiment, The Little Track, 1994

Choir of the 6th^e Foreign Engineer Regiment, The Blood Pudding, 1994

Excerpt fromOnce upon a time there was the legion by Dick Richards, 1977

Music of the Foreign Legion, The Blood Pudding, 2013

Music of the Foreign Legion, The Blood Pudding, 1999

Music of the Foreign Legion, The Blood Pudding, 1952

Music of the Foreign Legion, The Blood Pudding, 2013

You can also extend this column with the book This song reminds me of us published by Heritage Publishing.

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