What’s it like up there, Mr. Ferland?

Like you, I love stories of people who start from the bottom of the ladder to reach the firmament. They are the truest, the most touching. This trajectory is that of Jean-Pierre Ferland who, from “skedule makers” at Radio-Canada, managed to rise to the rank of giants of Quebec song.

In the 1950s, while he was responsible for the schedules of Radio-Canada’s “advertisers”, the little guy from rue Chambord whose father, Armand, owned a garage on avenue du Mont-Royal knew that he had the soul of a poet.

He knew it, not the others.

The neighborhood of his 16th birthday, Ferland superbly immortalized it in Macadam flowers.

We grew in the shade of the chimneys
Feet in mortar
Nose in the smoke
Half fireplace, half cherry
Like a macadamia flower

This boy, neither handsome nor ugly, but armed with a strong desire to make songs on a guitar that he strummed modestly, experienced his epiphany with the Bozos, a group of crazy and inspired young artists made up of Clémence DesRochers, Claude Léveillée, Raymond Lévesque and Hervé Brousseau (later replaced by Jacques Blanchet).

We can never emphasize enough the role that this joyful quintet played in the flight of our song. The adventure only lasted a short year and a half. And yet, these children of Félix told Quebecers that nothing equals poetry that emanates from us. And who talks about us.

Like several artists of his generation, Ferland wanted to try his luck in France. He came back with a way of doing things that belonged only to him throughout his career. He is the one who wrote songs according to a highly French tradition, but who, in the manner of our Automatists, spread words with his spatula that aimed at the heart.

Showbusiness is a bus in a satin suit
One fine morning the driver stops you and asks you the time
There’s nothing you expected more, you pay for your place
You open your ears and you wish yourself the best
And when it comes, it’s the most beautiful moment of your life

We often say of an artist that we prefer one of his periods rather than another. Me, I love all the Ferlands. That of the beginnings (The immortals, Your face, On the side of the moon, Macadam flowers), that of the great days (When we love we are always 20 years old, A bit higher, You are beautiful), the one who knew how to kick the bottom of the pool with his heel when he thought he was out of his depth (The Café des artistes cat, Sing sing, On route 11, The world is parallel, If we got started, What good can it do?).

And then, there is the one who told us (along with Alain Leblanc and Bob Cohen) that he had not said his last word even though we thought he was finished (don’t listen to that, A chance we have, Love is work). This one threw me to the ground.

One summer day in 2019, I went to Saint-Norbert, between Berthierville and Saint-Gabriel, to his house protected from view by trees as tall as the Eiffel Tower. I wanted him to talk to me about Renée Claude, the subject of a biography I was working on (the singer had defended her song mistletoe leaves in a competition).

“Renée… She was so beautiful and sweet! » The legendary seducer that he always was couldn’t help but use his cooing voice to tell me about the woman who had been the inspiration for the song Your facesomeone whispered in my ear.

Holy Ferland! I later learned that several women had served as models for this song. His image as an eternal romantic was not just a show off. Without love and women, his legacy would be significantly thinner today.

In his old house where a dog was hanging around, I met an affable, gentle and laughing man. He took me around his beautiful estate. He sadly told me how he had to rebuild a building damaged by a storm, he showed me the pond he had created and the cabin transformed into a studio.

In his voice, I found more pride than that expressed an hour earlier when he spoke to me about writing his songs. That’s when I fell in love with this man.

Suddenly, the poet who had been part of my life since I was little took shape. Nature, love, the dizziness of life, the concern for the simple things in life… it all had meaning. Real meaning.

In November 2021, producer Martin Leclerc and director Pierre Séguin, a great friend of Ferland, imagined the show When we love we are always 20 years old with the creator of the title, but also with Yvon Deschamps, Clémence DesRochers, Claude Gauthier and several formidable performers.

At one point, Jean-Pierre Ferland stopped the musicians and wanted to tell us an anecdote. But the words didn’t come… We felt like the rug was slipping away from under our feet. He turned to his partner, Julie-Anne Saumur, who came to his rescue.

At the little party that took place afterwards, I felt him defeated, distant. I told myself that the crazy and fiery Ferland we had always known had left. The prince of Mount Royal, the Plains of Abraham and Place des Arts just wanted to go home.

Send home!

I have never stopped listening to Jean-Pierre Ferland’s songs. He is one of the few to have a repertoire that continues to take the wind into its head.

Thanks to the energy and determination of his niece, Ginette Ferland, Armand’s old garage where young Jean-Pierre washed tanks for 25 cents became the Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam.

In summer, we see young people relaxing on chairs. Do they know why this place has this name? Do they know the one who inspired this place that is today the cradle of their aspirations? Do they have some verses from his songs in mind?

Here is a verse. It will be a start!

Goodbye brick castles
Paper mache flowers
Anemic friendships
I found better to dream

Jean-Pierre Ferland had already reached the firmament, but as in his song, he wanted to see what it is like up there. It would be nice if he told us.