The fight against the death penalty of the lawyer, then Minister of Justice, was accompanied by many voices from popular music.
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It was almost eighteen years ago already. Vincent Delerm saw the rise in France of a current of thought convinced that everything was better before – school, song, jam, society, before Simone Veil and before Robert Badinter.
And yesterday this man passed away, already making history for having abolished the death penalty. Of course, this formula is abusive, but this is what emotional parents say to their children: you know, it was he who abolished the death penalty in France.
But let us do the justice that he himself wanted to see done to all the others, to all the other voices who said the same thing as him.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:
Vincent Delerm, Fingers full of sepia, 2006
Julien Clerc, The Murdered Assassin, 1980
Léo Ferré, Neither God nor master, 1969
Michel Sardou, I am for, 1976
Pierre Dac, The Nazis’ Lament, 1943
Fernandel, The Schpountz, 1938
Michel Polnareff, The Laze Ball, 1969
Fernandel, The Schpountz, 1938
Georges Brassens, The gorilla, 1952
Georges Brassens, The Hanged Man’s Mass, 1976
MC Jean Gab’1, Eighty-One, 2010
Tepa, Thank you, 2014
Vincent Delerm, Fingers full of sepia, 2006
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And you can also find the podcast on this link Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.