The manifest nostalgia of the Chinese ambassador in France for the defunct Soviet Union invites us to listen again to how the USSR was sung.
Today the song To the health of Maurice, causes more pity than it frightens. A few years ago, former militants of the French Communist Party wanted to leave a trace of the Stalinist hysteria in which they bathed, just after the Second World War, and they recorded, among other things, this song to the glory of Maurice Thorez, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union.
And perhaps the worst is that this song was composed by Joseph Kosma, to whom we owe the melody of Dead leaves, and a few other masterpieces. But it was the time when more than a quarter of French voters voted for a political party whose secretary general declared in 1949: “Life is always more beautiful in the workers’ housing estates and kolkhozes, where flowers line the lawns and brighten up all the accommodation, thanks to Stalin, the Soviet citizen already knows this happy world…”
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Choir of former communists, To the health of Maurice, 1990s
Speech by Maurice Thorez for the 70th birthday of Joseph Stalin, 1949
Jean Ferrat, Potemkin, 1965
Gilbert Becaud, Natalie, 1964
Dominique Walter, Johnsyne and Kossygone, 1967
Alain Souchon, Billy loves me 1983
Martin Circus, USSR-USA, 1983
Yves Simon, USA/USSR, 1980
Jean Ferrat, The balance sheet, 1980
Michel Sardo, Vladimir Illych, 1983
Indochina, Dizzidence Politik, 1980
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And you can also find on this link the podcast 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.