The death of Karl Tremblay affects an entire generation of Quebecers for whom Les Cowboys Fringants were the group that best carried their anxieties and disillusionments. A generation that became adults after the 1995 referendum, tormented by the climate and globalization, disappointed with what Quebec has become. As if she had realized that she was not born at the right time.
Karl Tremblay will have been the voice of all those who are animated by a certain nostalgia when thinking of a time that they have not – or very little – known. As evidence Letter to Lévesque (2004), in which the members of the Cowboys lament the situation in Quebec by invoking the figure of the former prime minister, who died when they were still children. “Apart from that my Ti-Poil / Is life less flat in the sky? / Because times here are a little dark / I’ll tell you the same thing, but don’t turn back in your grave.
And what aboutAt half-mast (2002), which could almost convey Disenchanted by Mylène Farmer for the anthem of a generation that embraces modernity. “If this is modern Quebec, well, I’ll put my flag at half-mast / and fuck all the buffoons who govern us / If you dream of having a country, well, I’ll tell you that “You’re off to a bad start / You have a lot more chance of winning the lottery”, chanted Karl Tremblay in the chorus of this piece signed by the group’s guitarist, Jean-François Pauzé – like almost all of the Cowboys Fringants songs , Besides.
Their no future was all in all quite characteristic of the cynicism which inhabited those who today are old enough to have “returned”[és] frozen feet just in time to Master key “. Quite a difference compared to their parents, who believed they were witnessing “the beginning of a new time” in their youth, notes sociologist Jean-Philippe Warren.
“We feel in the Cowboys’ texts that they are still independentists, that they always dream of a better society… But we also feel that they are clearly disillusioned with everything that is happening. So they lock themselves into a kind of uchrony by imagining what Quebec could have been if it had been independent, if we had made different societal choices,” analyzes the man who teaches at Concordia University. .
The revival of committed song
The musicologist Danick Trottier was also interested in the work of the Cowboys. For him, the success of the group is part of the broader movement of revival of committed song that Quebec experienced at the beginning of the 2000s. Mes Aïeux and Loco Locass were also part of it, in the wake of Colocs, who paved the way for all these groups in the 1990s.
“Loco Locass, Mes Aïeux and, above all, Les Cowboys Fringants, these are all groups that claim to be independent. But unlike the singers of the 1960s and 1970s, we no longer sing about hope. We are far from Most beautiful trip by Claude Gauthier or Island tour by Félix Leclerc. On the contrary, these groups rather denounced the aplaventrism of Quebecers,” underlines Mr. Trottier, who is notably a professor in the Department of Music at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
The Cowboys Fringants were of that generation for whom global issues no longer seemed so far away. Concerns about globalization or climate change have colored several of their texts. Just think of the apocalyptic ballad Nothingecoanxious song before its time.
But the fact remains that at the beginning of the 2000s, the Cowboys were also part of the last generation of young French-speaking people who were mostly independentists. Since then, the concerns of young people have changed. Sovereignty today garners more support in older age groups and, inevitably, this is felt in the speech of today’s young singers.
This attachment to Quebec, as outdated as it may be, shines through a lot in the group’s artistic approach, emphasizes Danick Trottier. “Having transposed elements of Quebec folklore into a folk-rock group is really what made them original. To have added violin and accordion to their songs is a very strong identity signal. It’s a very strong desire to identify with Quebec,” adds the musicologist.
Irreplaceable Karl Tremblay
What future now for committed singers? There will, of course, always be artists to support this or that cause. The legacy of the Cowboys Fringants is also evident when you listen to certain artists — like Émile Bilodeau, who cites them as a source of inspiration.
But the fact remains that the disappearance of Karl Tremblay is a heavy loss, according to Danick Trottier, who is saddened by it. “It is also an earthquake for the musical economy. There are a lot of festivals that relied on the Cowboys to attract people, which allowed them to program smaller artists. »
An essential figure in Quebec music over the last 20 years, Karl Tremblay could be entitled to a national funeral. The Legault government offered it Thursday to the family of the singer, who died at the age of 47 following prostate cancer.