Songs from (small) French bridges

The Baltimore disaster reminds us that the bridges that the pop songs sing about are not the dimensions of gigantic American works of art. Besides, most of them are in the same city.

Bridges here are more like that. These are not the enormous masses of steel like the Baltimore bridge, which collapsed during the night from Monday to Tuesday, hit by a cargo ship. A 300 meter long container ship which hits a 2600 meter motorway bridge is something other than a small wooden bridge, which holds “by a great mystery and two straight stakes”.

Yes, but for us, that’s what we have in our heads. Yves Duteil-style bridges, not gigantic bridges. The Millau viaduct, the Île de Ré bridge, they don’t make a fuss. And when an artist talks about Tancarville, it’s not about the bridge, it’s about a clothes horse.

On the other hand, there are bridges in our songs. Lots of bridges. But they are all in the same city…

In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:

Yves Duteil, The little wooden bridge, 1977

Josephine Baker, Under the bridges of Paris, 1961

Guillaume Apollinaire, The mirabeau Bridge, 1913

Edith Piaf, Under Paris Skies, 1954

Georges Brassens, The wind, 1953

Pierre Louki, The Kid with the Buttons, 1958

Renaud, The Gringalet, 1975

Crazy Seahorse, Heavenly freestyle, 2015

Julien Clerc, Mazarine Library, 1980

Vald, Residues, 2018

Yves Montand, The musician, 1953

Dinos, Notifications, 2008

Calogero, By choice or by chance, 2022

Vanessa Paradis and M, The Seine, 2011

Zebda, The Carrousel Bridge, 1998

Germaine Montero, The North Bridge, 1954

Juliette Gréco and Marc Lavoine, It’s there, 2012

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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.