The building permit song

Fewer and fewer homes are being built. Perhaps the erosion of a dream which the song has often echoed.

Few songs are so eloquent on the emotion of the family that builds. In Four walls and a roof, Bénabar depicts the young couple in front of their bare land, dreaming of what their house will be like. We can easily imagine the scene, but we must not forget, in the panning movement of the camera, to install the regulatory sign, mentioning the building permit.

Well – we told you about it this week on France Info, fewer and fewer building permits are being issued: minus 17.7% drop between May 2023 and April 2024. This therefore means fewer of these dreams .

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

Bénabar, Four walls and a roof, 2006

Bear, My parents’ house, 2007

Francoise Hardy, The house where I grew up, 1966

Graeme Allwright, Small Boxes, 1966

Eddie Mitchell, Anonimous society, 1966

Gilbert Bécaud, The Balloon Merchant, 1955

Claude Nougaro, His home, 1971

Diane Tell, If I was a man, 1980

Liz Van Deuq, The suburban suburbs, 2018

Claude Nougaro, His home, 1971

You can also follow the news of this column on Twitter.

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.