For generations, a parasitic insect has sparked abundant smiley production in our popular culture. But will the bedbug be able to supplant the flea?
Long before Parisian cinemas, metro benches and millions of homes, bedbugs were already there, at Arthur Rimbaud where “Giant snakes devoured by bedbugs pet twisted trees”as Léo Ferré sings in his 1982 recording of Drunken Boat.
But the poet is talking about tropical bugs, in a phantasmagorical jungle. If we want to talk about bedbugs, they have only been present for a few years in French record production. And mainly to describe the condition of the prisoners.
Because, as you know, the Republic does not guarantee good hygiene to its prisoners. Testimonies between 2015 and 2022, with the collective Shtar Academy, created in prison, with the rapper and ex-convict Six, and with the duo Onze.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:
Léo Ferré, The drunken Boat, 1982
Shtar Academy, Conceived, 2022
Six, D3, 2015
Eleven, Bye Bye, 2021
Alexis HK, The chip, 2023
The King’s Singers, A chip by Claude Le Jeune, 1583 (1973 recording)
Clément Janequin Ensemble, A chip by Claude Le Jeune, 1583 (2005 recording)
Sacha Distel, The Little Flea, 1966
Annie Cordy, The Little Flea, 1966
Colette Renard, The chip , 1963
Yves Duteil, The Flea and the Pianist, 1987
Alexis HK, The chip, 2023
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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.