Songs of prison reality

While France has been condemned once again by the European Court of Human Rights for degrading detention conditions, we take a look back at prisons as artists see them.

“4m² and dust”this number alone makes you think, and this was also Johnny Hallyday’s intention when he recorded this song, for his last album, My country is love, published in the fall of 2018, a little less than a year after his death. And, we know, long after recording The penitentiaryJohnny maintained a heartfelt solidarity with the inmates – the prison is the setting for around ten of his songs.

While France has once again been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights to compensate detainees for “degrading treatment”we inevitably think back to the consistency of Johnny Hallyday on this subject – which here exposes a motif close to that of a poem by Paul Verlaine, known to all high school students for generations.

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

Johnny Hallyday, 4 m², 2018

Elsa Zylberstein, From a prison, 1893 (2004 recording)

Jean-Baptiste Guégan, QHS, 2023

Trust, The Mitard, 1980

Bernard Lavilliers, QHS, 1983

Trust, The Mitard, 1980

Jul, My life, 2014

Jul, For the valiant, 2015

Jul, Gingst, 2016

Jul, Marseille Toulouse, 2017

Jul, Times change like people, 2018

Jul, Sangoten, 2018

Jul, JCVD, 2019

Passi, The guard is watching for me, 1997

Bernard Valdeneige and Michel Verschaeve, Duo of prison guards, 1997

Jean-Baptiste Guégan, QHS, 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.