The extraordinary trajectory of Rachid Taha, breathing rock on a bridge between Western and Eastern music, is retraced in a documentary scheduled this Friday, September 15 on France 5.
“He’s the last of the punks”, Patti Smith said of him. A beautiful tribute to this unique artist who shook up the French musical landscape. Author of an Arabic version of Rock the kasbah (Rock el kasbah), hit by The Clash, the artist who died on September 12, 2018 was dubbed by the giants of the pop/rock planet. As seen in “Rachid Taha, rocker without borders” by Thierry Guedj to discover on France 5 this Friday September 15 at 10:35 p.m.
When he sang this piece in London in 2005 in a concert against the war in Iraq, Taha was accompanied on guitar by Mick Jones (guitarist and co-leader of the Clash) and on keyboards by Brian Eno, a genius who collaborated notably with David Bowie . “I am very happy with Rachid’s international aura shown in the documentary”, comments for AFP Alain Lahana, concert producer who worked with Taha. And this, while show biz locks him in boxes in France “world music” And “service arab”as we hear the person concerned, who arrived at the age of 10 in Alsace from Algeria, curse in the documentary.
We see little-known behind-the-scenes images in the film, such as this tour in Algeria which allowed him to return to his native village of Sig. “When I set up the tour in Algeria, where he was labeled as a troublemaker, to get him to play, I went through the European Commission… To get a guy to play who had an Algerian passport!”reveals Alain Lahana.
Committed and visionary artist
The political dimension of Taha is well transcribed in the documentary. And not just for his version of “Sweet France” by Charles Trenet with his first group Residence permit or his song “There you go.” denouncing the resurgence of the far right in France.
We see him, visionary, at the beginning of the 1990s, warning against a fractured France, with “go home” launched to people with an immigrant background and born in France.
“It’s important that his message is carried”, insisted this week Hakim Hamadouche, Taha’s loyal musician, after the screening at Sacem, one of the documentary’s partners. With the disappearance of Taha, the musical horizon has also narrowed. In 1993, his version of “Ya rayah” (written in 1973 by the Algerian Dahmane El Harrachi) broadcast a song in Arabic on mainstream radio. Which is no longer the case today, regrets his son Lyès (producer under the alias Clyde P) in the documentary.