At the microphone of Monique Giroux, a few weeks ago, Roxane Filion, one of the singers ofLive from the universetold how the idea for the very beautiful record came about Forgotten songs which it has just put on the market.
During dinners with friends, including the author Luc Dionne, there is always a moment devoted to listening to songs. This is an opportunity for these music lovers to discover hidden gems to others.
I also like to experience this pleasure with my friends. Around a loud speaker Bluetooth, everyone takes out their cell phone and draws out songs that time has put on the service road, untraceable versions, unreleased recordings.
For the Diane Dufresne fan, it’s Here and Nowthe English version ofHe will come my love ; for another, it is Hey You Woman, which we learned about here thanks to Lucien Francoeur, but this time rendered by Michel Polnareff; for those nostalgic for the 1970s, it’s Legend of Mont-Rouge, which Serge Fiori, Monique Fauteux, Marie-Claire Séguin and Louis Valois sang during a tour with Neil Chotem; for the discerning collector, it is The butterfly hunt performed by Renée Claude during an audition for Radio-Canada in the early 1960s.
These rare song “battles” are one of my great pleasures. They give me the impression of bringing back to life voices that we thought were dead forever.
Nourished by Luc Dionne and the record team, Roxane Filion created a bouquet of songs that she is now bringing back to life: To pack lightby Richard Séguin; The island girlby Félix Leclerc, which Monique Leyrac performed; The ballby Robert Charlebois; Where do the flowers go?French version of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?which Juliette Gréco, Marlene Dietrich and Eva sang; This morning, sublime song by Diane Juster; as well as Poor loveby Marcel Lefebvre and François Cousineau, a little gem that can be found on the soundtrack of the film The initiation.
And then, you will find there To the time that no longer returns, by Raymond Lévesque. This is the song that we heard at the end of the last episode of District 31 and which made the whole of Quebec cry.
Roxane Filion also took the gamble of interpreting The world is crazyby Luc Plamondon and Christian Saint-Roch, seven-minute song created by Renée Claude in 1972, on her disc Tonight I make love with you. The part called Let’s not kill the beauty of the world was covered in 1979 by Diane Dufresne on her album Striptease.
The exercise that Roxane Filion lends herself to has become rare. Are artists afraid of confusing part of the public, particularly young people, by revisiting “old songs”? “We must not be afraid to present this repertoire to young people,” the singer told Monique Giroux. You have to trust them. »
She is absolutely right.
In fact, when we hear the original versions of certain forgotten songs, we discover the real reason which prevents the resurrection of these hidden gems: it is very difficult to imagine their revival. We have difficulty replanting them in our time with different sounds and arrangements.
Listen to the original versions of The island girl and Time that never comes back and you will understand what I mean. This jump in time is what Roxane Filion and her team managed to do.
Bravo to these “anthropologists of song” who unearth these treasures for our greatest pleasure. I think of Marie Michèle Desrosiers and her record This is where I want to live where she resumes The National Monumentby Robert Charlebois Watching over the steps (On the porch) , by Camille Andréa (popularized by our Dodo national), and Tell me about yourselfby Claude Gauthier.
There is also Marie Denise Pelletier and the record The appointment where she rocks songs like If the boatsby Gilles Vigneault, and The sky meets the seaby Jacques Blanchet, which his friend Lucille Dumont brilliantly carried.
We can also highlight the superb project of Unlikely duets, volumes 1 and 2, which allowed several songs to be reborn thanks to surprising tandems of performers. And then, we should not forget the numerous records of Star Academy which, thanks to the passion of Stéphane Laporte, once again propelled tunes that deserved a second life.
There are very good songs being made in Quebec. But there are also some very average ones, it must be admitted. I hear clumsy texts full of abstract images and words that mean nothing. And I hear too much.
What if we replaced some of these songs that deserve to be reworked with other, more solid ones that lie dormant in the cupboards of our collective heritage? It would honor the memory of those who created them. And that would be good for our ears.