Belgian singer Marka imagines happiness in a hospice – that’s the word he uses. Certainly, we prefer to speak today of a retirement home or to use the acronym coined some twenty years ago – so after this song which dates from 1996.
And you heard it this week on France Info, a journalistic investigation into the Ehpad of the Orpea group moved even the government, due to terrible revelations. And that invites us to wonder what the ideal Ehpad would be, and if there is a poet to have described it. Well not really.
The singers describe moving scenes with characters of very old age, either in the register of pure emotion with Marie-Paule Belle, or comedy with the Nuns Troppo who imagine a dance competition at the hospice. Let’s alternate.
In the second episode of These songs that make the news airing this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
marka, The Hospice, 1996
The Troppo Nuns, The Third Age Quadrille, 1993
Marie-Paule Belle, Dancing old people, 2011
The Troppo Nuns, The Third Age Quadrille, 1993
Henry Tachan, A blowjob to Pepe, 1978
Suzy Solidor, The House of Sailors, 1934
Montehus, Come on Leon, 1936
Joyet and Roll Mops, We will never be old, 2001
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Remember: during the summer of 2019, La Playlist de Françoise Hardy was a crossing of the musical baggage of an author, composer and performer considered as the arbiter of the elegance of pop in France.
In July and August 2017, we spent A Summer in Souchon, during which Alain Souchon guided us on a tasty walk through a lifetime of love for song.
All summer 2016, in the company of Vincent Delerm, we wandered around in La Playlist Amoureuse de la Chanson, truant exploration of popular heritage. You can also extend the delicacies of this summer chronicle with the French song lovers dictionary, co-published by Plon and franceinfo.