“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that destined me to tell the story of rock groups like Offenbach and Corbeau,” explains Félix Rose. The documentary maker, known for his work around the Quebec Liberation Front, has just devoted four fascinating episodes to these rockers’ hearts.
“Everything starts from Pierre Harel. I met him because he made a film, silence men (1968), where my father appears. » He is seduced by Harel’s chatter. “The famous Blues hug that Gerry Boulet sings, these are Harel’s words. » Poet, director, musician, Harel will be part of the early days of Offenbach without being one of the founders. He made a film with them called Bulldozer. We hear the heartbreaking song I have to push myself.
A colorful character, Pierre Harel is an enchanter whose sides are those of a storyteller capable of handling all stories with genius. Like no other, he knows how to dazzle reality to adapt the light to his own reality as he wishes. He has a taste for the splendor of tales, of jokes, of magicians of words. Who besides him could imagine that Offenbach’s destiny is to play at the Saint-Joseph oratory, as he will do on the occasion of an unparalleled rock mass?
By first being interested in Pierre Harel, Félix Rose set off without really knowing it to discover Quebec rock. “From there, I started meeting everyone. » So here on the screen, brought together thanks to his care, the whole gang of Offenbach and Corbeau, from Wézo to Breen LeBoeuf, including Johnny Gravel, John McGale, Marjo and all the others.
“Harel is a bit like the intellectual of the group. In any case, it is the most politicized,” observes Félix Rose. The contrast is all the greater because the others are not at all. “They had no political sense,” confirms the documentary maker. These musicians never anticipate for themselves what they can represent on the scale of their society. To the point that they are the first to appear surprised to see their successes, while nevertheless multiplying missteps, as if they secretly wanted to sabotage everything.
Examples ? In 1976, just when the Parti Québécois was elected, Offenbach released a record in English. It’s hard to imagine a worse sense of appropriateness, as Félix Rose observes. And yet, they will do the same again during the 1980 referendum! How can we imagine that the sons of exploited workers believe that driving their van across a picket line held by union members constitutes a just manifestation of their freedom? However, they will do it in Sherbrooke, still hoping to be on television that evening.
“As much as they were not political, they found themselves, despite themselves, mixed up in political currents,” summarizes the documentary maker.
love and war
“With rare exceptions, they were not friends. They were not made to get along,” summarizes Félix Rose. “As soon as they didn’t play together, they yelled at each other. They were arguing all the time. »
When the members of Offenbach find themselves in France for a film project, deprived of their instruments, they cannot tolerate each other despite alcohol and drugs. As several witnesses affirm in the series, the magic between them only existed to the extent that they created on stage, above their storm clouds, the same musical sky.
The passage of time – Gerry’s death, too – will still end up softening the edges.
From the country
All these musicians come from very working-class backgrounds. Songs in French are not for them, neither the singers nor the yé-yé. On the other hand, they happily accept westerns in French. Félix Rose rightly points out: “Many rockers did not like Quebec music, except country. » And it is perhaps through this side door that they brought in a hitherto forgotten audience, thus broadening the scope of Quebec music. “They were rooted in their world. After their shows, they could have beers with their admirers. » The bonds were strong, unique. And it is clear that country, even from a distance, is no stranger to it.
For his part, Gerry Boulet has the genius to surround himself with top quality lyricists. Pierre Harel of course, but also Gilbert Langevin, Denise Boucher, Pierre Huet, Michel Rivard. Music can thus give hand to poetry.
Offenbach’s last contract with a record company called for the production of a record in English, but the project was abandoned. At the beginning of the 1980s, explains Félix Rose, “Gerry now regretted that groups did not sing more in French”. Times had changed; perceptions too.
“We have to admit that in English, what they were doing is quite banal,” observes Félix Rose. “But they brought from the United States a genre that they transformed, that they adopted. We must not forget that before Offenbach, there were no Quebec groups that filled the Forum. Some bands opened for others, but that was about it. Offenbach will change everything. »
Creative rivalry
The rivalry between Corbeau and Offenbach generated a kind of competition beneficial to music. From there, the spectrum of a truly Quebecois rock broadened, believes the documentary maker. So much so that Corbeau quickly became much more than the simple fact of a defection of members from Offenbach.
“Everyone sees Marjo as a singer. We forget that she is a wonderful songwriter,” emphasizes Félix Rose. In one of the episodes, Marjo describes what her life was like at that moment: “We lived like Americans. It was big! I opened for Journey, by The Police. » All these musicians actually hoped to find fame in the United States, in English. They will eventually change their minds.
It was a world of autodidacts in music, explains Félix Rose, they belonged body and soul to a popular world. Deep down, they’re not that different from people who frequented boxing gyms hoping their fists would lead them to another life. Their fists are music, thrown around them like bricks. Not everyone emerges unscathed from this life through which they aspired to taste another world.
Denis Boulet, Gerry’s brother, is going to leave Offenbach because he can’t stand the place that Pierre Harel takes there, especially since he can’t stand the idea of singing in ” French “. What does this say about his world? Denis Boulet will subsequently work in the factory, then as a cabinetmaker.
Pierre Harel will also leave the stage. He became a lumberjack in Abitibi, before going into exile again, after a stint with Corbeau, this time on the North Shore. When Marjo decrees that Corbeau is dead, drummer Roger “Wézo” Belval finds himself at the mercy of welfare. In short, this whole world of tough guys without filters turns out to be very fragile in what Félix Rose shows by interweaving interviews and archive documents.
“I wanted to tell all this by getting out of the usual “sex and rock’n’roll” world,” says the documentary maker. “I also didn’t want to bring it all back to Gerry and Marjo. » A very successful bet.