The word “tractor” was among those that were most pronounced on Franceinfo this week. This reminds us that the symbol of contemporary agriculture gives rise to many paradoxes in our popular culture.
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Tractors have been very much in the news in recent days – tractors in processions and blockades by angry farmers. Here, Gauvain Sers, always as relevant in his view of French society, does not depict a crowd of tractors but the solitude of a farmer who spends the day at the wheel, like his father before him and, undoubtedly his son after him.
And our popular culture does not often have this realistic and supportive outlook. If we put tractors in songs, it is generally to laugh about them, and not always with much kindness for the farmers.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:
Gauvain Sers, On your tractor, 2017
Ricet Barrier, The Cousins of Paris, 1970
The Charlots, Rock à la Marie, 1969
Ricet Barrier, Here comes spring, 1959
Choir of Lajos Toth, Onward tractors, 1951
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, The arrival of tractors in the collective farm by Alexander Mossolov, 1927 (2015 recording)
Jean Benedetti, “The tractors of anger”, 1961
Anne Sylvestre, The Worship of Tractors, nineteen eighty one
Seth Gueko, Gipsy King Kong, 2011
Seth Gueko, Carpet rugs, 2011
Seth Gueko, To start up, 2009
François Morel, The guy with the red tractor, 2020
Cayouche, The chain of my tractor, 1994
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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.