In the excitement that reigned in the early 1970s around the affirmation of French, the Superfrancofête made its mark. In August 1974, representatives from 25 countries met in Quebec City. The pinnacle of this event? A unique concert on August 13, 1974: Robert Charlebois, Gilles Vigneault and Félix Leclerc. The challenge was to find out who had seen “the wolf, the fox and the lion” that evening, as they were nicknamed in that order.
“There was a 15-year age gap between each of them,” explains host Monique Giroux. “Félix was afraid of Robert, the guy who sent his drums flying into the Olympia audience… Robert was the little Hubert Lenoir of the time: he was more frightening than he was feared!”
In itself, the place was a strong symbol. The Plains of Abraham, associated with the defeat of September 13, 1759, were taken up in the name of the symbolic power of the song. “I think Montcalm was not far away in the air! He must have at least watched the scene,” Monique Giroux says with a laugh. “Yes, there were airs of revenge in all the symbolism.”
This 1974 show, as explained by Danick Trottier, professor of musicology in the Department of Music at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), was indeed taking on the appearance of symbolic revenge. “Everything was musical, in this Quebec of the early 1970s. Music was in full swing.”
That evening, they were 100,000, some will say, to gather to hear Leclerc, Vigneault and Charlebois. In an interview, Danick Trottier called for caution: “There were probably not 100,000, as some have claimed. Until then, large outdoor concerts, whose amplification was tamed, had never had more than 10,000 or 15,000 people in Quebec. So, in comparison, it’s true that it was huge. We still have a history of these large outdoor events to write.”
Three guys, no girl
“They were just three guys! At the time, we didn’t really wonder where the girls were,” notes Monique Giroux. “And since there were only three of them, it allowed them to take their space.” The event occupies such a place in the popular imagination, observes Professor Trottier, “that it eclipses almost everything else that happens” in this Superfrancofête of 1974. When the trio sings When men will live on lovethe humanist song par excellence of the Quebec repertoire, the public is already won over.
This show was not raised to the rank of major events that Quebec has known in its relationship with music for nothing, believes Professor Trottier. However, there would be much to consider to take a more accurate measure of what happened then.
What exactly were Prime Ministers Trudeau and Bourassa invited to that evening? Not just a concert. Beyond the music and its lyrical flights, the event was political in itself. The President’s Walksung by these singers who form a Holy Trinity, “transforms into a scathing critique of the current political situation, while Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Robert Bourassa are among the guests of honor,” notes Danick Trottier.
“After the show, Trudeau and Bourassa went to meet the three singers,” says Monique Giroux. Trudeau then allegedly told Charlebois that he was anything but an ordinary guy, as his song said. To which Charlebois allegedly replied, pointing at Bourassa: “In any case, he’s an ordinary prime minister.” The scene was corroborated.
Trudeau had invited the trio to have breakfast with him the next morning, in his suite at the Château Frontenac. “Félix, from a generation of well-bred people, was the first to accept. The idea was for the three of them to explain to Trudeau that the time had come to make room for Quebec.” But the next day, when they were greeted by a prime minister busy peeling an orange, he wouldn’t let them get a word in edgewise. And the three of them would leave empty-handed, their political considerations under their arms, summarizes Monique Giroux.
A French-speaking momentum
While this great show is the highlight of the 1974 Superfrancofête, it is not limited to that. The event is accompanied by several other cultural events, as well as sporting events and political meetings. A whole youth group works on it.
At the time, Jogues Sauriol, a young welder with tumultuous political opinions, had been hired, like other friends, by Gérard Bélanger and Lucien Gagnon. The latter was responsible for programming the event. Gérard Bélanger was the designer of an arts village created from scratch behind the old prison, now an integral part of the Musée national des beaux-arts. “We spent the summer there, setting everything up, assembling big modules. Bélanger and Gagnon had hired their sculptor and welder friends. People who were usually starving […] found themselves working to organize the event. It changed our lives.”
The following year, the metal modules and various installations of the Superfrancofête would make it possible, Jogues Sauriol recalls, to create another large-scale event in the same place: the Chant’août. From August 10 to 17, 1975, the public was able to see and hear several artists, including Sylvain Lelièvre, Claude Léveillée, André Gagnon, Monique Leyrac, Stéphane Venne, Raymond Lévesque, Pauline Julien, Louise Forestier and Renée Martel. In other words, the Superfrancofête would have set the stage for the transformation of the Plains of Abraham into a sort of grand theatre of French song.
In fact, explains Monique Giroux, the Superfrancofête triggered the waltz of major outdoor singing events that would follow, in Montreal and Quebec City, “as well as the Francofolies de La Rochelle.” The event is a landmark event, assures the host. “Even Léo Ferré, who is not the least, would have said then: ‘Why didn’t we have this idea before?'”
The host also observes that, “if we’re still talking about it today, it has to be said, it’s largely because there was a recording of the show. It would be forgotten, at least in large part, if there hadn’t been this record.”
In 1974, on the occasion of the Superfrancofête, 25 countries were invited by the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation, a prelude to what we now know as the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF). The Canadian federal government saw its involvement in this organization as a way to regain its position in the Francophonie and, thus, to reposition itself in relation to Quebec.
The language issue was then burning on everyone’s lips in French Canada. In 1974, the Quebec government of Robert Bourassa adopted Bill 22. Although this law made French the official language of Quebec, it satisfied neither Francophones nor Anglophones. Discontent rumbled. Music then became an outlet.
Fifty years later, from August 15 to 31, a new SuperFrancoFête will be held in Quebec City. The program is available online.
As a tribute to the Leclerc, Vigneault and Charlebois concert, we also organized the show on July 26 Plains of songswhich also featured several generations of musicians.
“The big show on July 26, designed for television, brought together a lot of people,” recalls Monique Giroux. Pierre Lapointe, Claude Dubois, Diane Dufresne, Hubert Lenoir, Robert Charlebois and many others were there. Too many people, thinks the host, for figures to have had time this time to impose themselves on today’s consciences.