0:00:02 > 0:00:11'This programme contains some strong language'
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Our guest is popular at home and on the Continent,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16where she is the top lady of song in France.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Please welcome to our programme Miss Petula Clark.
0:00:19 > 0:00:20# Boum
0:00:20 > 0:00:22# Quand notre coeur fait boum... #
0:00:22 > 0:00:25That's me in the 1960s singing Boum,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28one of the great French songs of the 1930s.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31I doubt whether more than a handful of the television audience
0:00:31 > 0:00:32knew the background of that song,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35just as very few of the people who bought My Way
0:00:35 > 0:00:38knew that was originally a French song.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42In fact, French popular music is remarkably little known in the UK,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46even though everyone has a powerful cliche image of Left Bank cabarets
0:00:46 > 0:00:50full of Gitanes smoke, accordions and black polo-necked singers,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52but there is more to it than that.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Gaining popularity in the 1920s and '30s,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58it reached its golden age after the Second World War.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02It was revolutionised in the '60s and is still thriving today.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13This is the legendary Olympia in Paris.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Anyone who's anyone has played here, including me.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20I first sang here in 1957.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22I went out on that stage,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24sang a few songs in English
0:01:24 > 0:01:27and the Parisienne crowd loved it.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29There began my career in France.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31# ..I only know that I can't let you go
0:01:31 > 0:01:34# Your effect upon me is terrific
0:01:34 > 0:01:36# Boum... #
0:01:36 > 0:01:41It was also here that I saw Edith Piaf in one of her final concerts.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44It was an amazing experience for me.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47# Quand il me prend dans ses bras... #
0:01:47 > 0:01:51And, on that stage, was this tiny woman
0:01:51 > 0:01:53in her not-really-chic black dress,
0:01:53 > 0:01:54hardly moving,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57just a few discreet hand movements and singing...
0:01:57 > 0:02:00# ..Il me dit des mots d'amour
0:02:00 > 0:02:04# Des mots de tous les jours
0:02:04 > 0:02:07# Et ca me fait quelque chose... #
0:02:09 > 0:02:11..but singing with her whole being.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Of course, she sang about love.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17She also sang about hate, betrayal,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19sex, life and death,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21not to a handful of intellectuals
0:02:21 > 0:02:25but here, to a real-life down-to-earth audience.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29I was spellbound.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Well, that was a world away from what I did.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22You see, performing, as I knew it, meant coming on in a flashy dress,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26starting off with a bright and cheerful number, nothing too heavy.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Then a few more songs, maybe a bit of comedy,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32and finishing with a big ballad to bring the house down.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Piaf was different. She used to say, "Have you found a new idea where,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40"I don't know, somebody's dying and I can sing it?'
0:03:40 > 0:03:42She wanted to have dramatic stories.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00She was a human person on stage,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03not a singer.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08She used to sing what was your life, my life,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10almost not her life.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13She sings the true songs.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18The songs spoke of the lively, poor people of Paris of popular cliche,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21but she took them into a much more plaintiff portrayal
0:04:21 > 0:04:24of human emotion.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Piaf pulled them down because she stayed with the popular song.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59"Whaa-aaa," the thing from the gut.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01And, finally, all those...
0:05:01 > 0:05:04SHE IMITATES PIAF
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Pow! Pow!
0:05:06 > 0:05:12She was one of the most wonderful interpretes of that sort of drama,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14songs with drama in it
0:05:14 > 0:05:16and being a loser.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18She was wonderful.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
0:05:21 > 0:05:24is among the best-known French songs of all time
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and a great example of Piaf as interprete,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30that is a singer of other people's songs.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09So what is la chanson francaise?
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Well, it's not traditional French music,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14it's not folk music,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17it's la musique populaire.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23The way to sing in France come from the troubadours.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27The middle-aged troubadours that are telling stories,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30poetical stories with music.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34There's celebrations of life and death and love and the street.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37The thing about la chanson francaise
0:06:37 > 0:06:41is that it combines poetry and music,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43though, in general, it's the language
0:06:43 > 0:06:46that is more important than the melody.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50La chanson francaise is good lyric and, if possible, good music.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Chanson anglaise, the Americans say,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57"Good music and, if it's possible, good lyric."
0:06:58 > 0:07:01That's the real difference is there.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The music, very often, is not very sophisticated in France.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07They're not singers' songs, they're kind of performers' songs,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09they're actors' songs.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13People who use their bodies, who use their face, their eyes,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17the way they move to express the lyrical meaning of these songs.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21I heard, once, Mick Jagger on the radio. He said,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25"Well, in England and in America, we make rock and roll
0:07:25 > 0:07:29"and, in France, they better make wine. It's OK for wine."
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And I understood why he said that
0:07:32 > 0:07:38because, if you just hear the music, I mean, it's nice but it...
0:07:38 > 0:07:41But, in fact, if you understand the lyrics
0:07:41 > 0:07:44of Serge Gainsbourg or Claude Nougaro,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46you understand it's magical.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13The language is very rich and you can do a lot of things.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17You can evoke a lot of images. It's very subtle.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21There is always more mystery, I think, in French writing.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23You play a lot with the form.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25The form brings you the story.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29This poster shop in Paris
0:08:29 > 0:08:32probably seems a world away from French music,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36but this famous Toulouse-Lautrec image from 1893
0:08:36 > 0:08:39is where our story starts.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41The black-clad figure in the red scarf
0:08:41 > 0:08:44is the great chansonnier Aristide Bruant,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47one of the pioneers of la chanson realiste.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30They made chansons realistes which is about a prostitute,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34prostitute, prostitute!
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Sailors and prostitute!
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Singing about prostitutes, the sailors, the street.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45A very kind of profound, kind of, very deeply...
0:09:45 > 0:09:47And the kind of romance of the street.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Through the 1920s and '30s great women realist singers,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58such as the glamorous Damia and the booze-steeped Frehel,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01established the style of theatrical performance
0:10:01 > 0:10:04that would reach its pinnacle with Edith Piaf.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10Jean Sablon, known as the French Bing Crosby,
0:10:10 > 0:10:15was the first French singer to rely on a microphone and croon.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33# Un seul couvert, please James... #
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Charles Trenet, nicknamed Le Fou Chantant,
0:10:40 > 0:10:42also rocketed to stardom.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46A bundle of zany energy with his trilby, top blond curls,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51he wrote the most covered chanson ever - La Mer.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53# La mer... #
0:11:14 > 0:11:20La Mer was recorded much later by Bobby Darin as Beyond The Sea.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22In an era in which it was unusual for singers
0:11:22 > 0:11:26to write their own material, Trenet wrote prolifically
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and declined to record any but his own songs.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34He changed everything in the songs business.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Before that, we had writers only
0:11:38 > 0:11:40or singers.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43There is this line between the interprete,
0:11:43 > 0:11:45the people who sing only other people's songs,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and what we would think of nowadays as the singer-songwriter,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51and France was doing this very early.
0:11:51 > 0:11:57He was very much a bright young, interesting, dynamic performer
0:11:57 > 0:11:59with very good fresh songs.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13He also wrote one of my personal favourites,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19In English, I Wish You Love.
0:12:19 > 0:12:20Perfect.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24# Que reste-t-il
0:12:25 > 0:12:27# De nos amours... #
0:12:43 > 0:12:45After the Nazi occupation,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48the liberated Paris discovered itself anew.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Certainly, after the war,
0:12:51 > 0:12:57Saint-Germain-des-Pres became the centre of the world.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03Paris has always been a place where artists, film directors, actors,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05American jazz men have mingled.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08I mean, from the '20s through to now.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12And, in that particular zone, Saint-Germain was where people met.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14It was a village, really.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19A church, a butcher,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21little old ladies,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25old men with a hat,
0:13:25 > 0:13:26crazy poets.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32I went one day to Saint-Germain-des-Pres,
0:13:32 > 0:13:37to Flore and Les Deux Magots, and I sat down and, you know, I said,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40"Well, this looks like I'm in the right place now,"
0:13:40 > 0:13:46because everybody was cool and it was full of artists
0:13:46 > 0:13:48and, you know, of fun and...
0:13:48 > 0:13:55The best happened to pass through this little village.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Picasso,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Orson Welles, Jean Cocteau, Andre Gide.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05It's a very long list.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08In the mid '50s, the great trinity
0:14:08 > 0:14:14of Leo Ferre, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel were raising chanson
0:14:14 > 0:14:18to its peak of intellectual prestige,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23introducing a degree of poetic aspiration that was its golden age.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Leo Ferre has his own language.
0:14:28 > 0:14:29He's a poet.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33The voice of revolution, in a certain way.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38At the end of the Algerian war, there is a song.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41He says, "Tu vas parler, mon petit Youssef,
0:14:41 > 0:14:43"ou j'te branch, sur l'EDF."
0:14:57 > 0:15:02You don't have much songs that speak
0:15:02 > 0:15:03so violently
0:15:03 > 0:15:06of the situation.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10It tells the truth, with a beautiful language.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Leo Ferre became a symbol for bohemian freedom.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38He released over 40 albums in his career and is seen as the epitome
0:15:38 > 0:15:40of the French protest singer,
0:15:40 > 0:15:45combining revolt, love and melancholic lyrics.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Some of his songs, such as Avec Le Temps, C'est Extra
0:15:49 > 0:15:53or Jolie Mome have become classics of the French chanson repertoire.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59Jolie Mome? It's a very popular girl, it's a prostitute.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05And it's, you know, saying this girl is wonderful
0:16:05 > 0:16:09and she's generous for all men and that sort of thing.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14The France of De Gaulle, you couldn't show the front hair
0:16:14 > 0:16:17of a woman in a photo - it has to be repaint.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23So...Jolie Mome was something of a scandal.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Leo Ferre, Jolie Mome.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58He gave me the song and he said,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02"I wrote something yesterday.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08"I think it's a gift for you."
0:17:11 > 0:17:13I heard that. It was...
0:17:13 > 0:17:15a beautiful gift.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36And it was the subversiveness of the songs that really, really
0:17:36 > 0:17:39attracted me - how they were provocative and singing about...
0:17:39 > 0:17:44I mean, Serge... There's a song called Les Glav -
0:17:44 > 0:17:47he dreams of being in a cage like a dog, and a black slave will come
0:17:47 > 0:17:50and basically...kind of make love to him. And, you know...
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and this was kind of something that would be seen
0:17:53 > 0:17:58on Saturday night television on a French variety show or something.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00It was quite amazing.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Georges Brassens had a rather cosy image, with his pipe and moustache,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09strumming away at his guitar, but he found his own way with words
0:18:09 > 0:18:14and delivery, and was just as radical and bawdy as any of them.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37The salacious comments on prudishness
0:18:37 > 0:18:42and taking a pop at authority, all these things run through his songs.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46But again, that's why he appeals to provincial as well as urban France,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48cocking a snoot at authority.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50It was a way to be...
0:18:52 > 0:18:54- Different.- Different, yes.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56But it's never rude,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00it's always funny.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02You had the death penalty in France,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05we had it longer after Great Britain.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08He wrote a song called Gare au Gorille.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14It's about a gorilla who goes away from his cage.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18At the end of the song, the gorilla has fucked the judge!
0:19:49 > 0:19:53The thing is...is how you attack respectability.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58Brassens sung the attack... respectability.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Jacques Brel was in fact Belgian, and to me he seemed to be
0:20:33 > 0:20:37the most percussive and passionate of these three great writers.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41He started performing here at Le Trois Baudets in Pigalle
0:20:41 > 0:20:46and he became a huge star by 1958.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52A year later, he wrote one of the most famous of all French classics -
0:20:52 > 0:20:53Ne Me Quitte Pas.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Ne Me Quitte Pas is a brilliant song,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36but only when performed by Brel or somebody of his stature.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42I always think of him as a very early punk performer,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45the way he used...the way he spat out his lyrics, the way he was...
0:22:45 > 0:22:50the way he kind of was very aggressive and very tender.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54And he was kind of very extreme.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14I was fortunate to be on tour with Brel and so I got to see him
0:23:14 > 0:23:18sing those fantastic songs live, every night.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23At the end of the tour, he gave me a very special gift of a song,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25which I treasure - Un Enfant.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47However, this time wasn't exclusively a man's world
0:23:47 > 0:23:48in French music.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09'Paris's Left Bank cabaret scene was showcasing sultry new divas
0:24:09 > 0:24:11'such as Juliette Greco,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15'the bohemian beatnik muse of Jean Paul Sartre.'
0:24:15 > 0:24:21Sartre said that Juliette Greco had a million poems in her voice.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25They said...they thought I was...
0:24:26 > 0:24:30..the image of the youth, at that time.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37And everybody followed me, I don't know why.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41She told a story with her body and a story with her eyes
0:24:41 > 0:24:43and her face - she drew you in.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45And so you didn't have to know this French language.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47She sang Brel, she was a...
0:24:49 > 0:24:53..a classy singer of very good songs and so she became very popular.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56But she was essentially an interpreter of other people's songs.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17And then there was Barbara, a great lady of song.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Strange, mystical, sensual.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26She was able to allude to events in her own life
0:25:26 > 0:25:31and events in France's history, but in her music.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34In the early '60s, she had two albums - Barbara Chante Brassens,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36Barbara Chante Brel.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39But her next album was Barbara Chante Barbara,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42so she became a singer-songwriter.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46Barbara stood apart because she was actually writing
0:25:46 > 0:25:49her own story in music.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53Mon Enfance recounts her family's plights,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56where, as Jews, they were hiding from the Nazis.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Nantes tells of her desperate attempt
0:25:58 > 0:26:02to get to see her father before his death.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06She was sexually abused by her father, at around age ten,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09so during the Second World War, around 1940 here.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11She spent the Second World War in hiding.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Her songs are very...they can be very mysterious
0:26:27 > 0:26:30but they're very simple.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32And it's great,
0:26:32 > 0:26:33and it would take your heart.
0:26:33 > 0:26:40She was...a completely instinctual and driven composer and performer,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42also extremely dramatic.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45It was so incredible. When you're on stage it was...
0:26:47 > 0:26:48..it was amazing.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Every release by Barbara was eagerly awaited.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55A particular high point for her happened in 1970,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59when the release of L'Aigle Noir made history by selling
0:26:59 > 0:27:02over a million copies in 24 hours.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08It's the story of the black shadow of her father looming
0:27:08 > 0:27:13over her throughout her life, the father that abused her.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19I'm not sure, in British pop, we had albums that were that cutting,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23that heartfelt, that real, that confessional,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25exposing so much of your own life.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12It could really drive you mad when you get into her world
0:29:12 > 0:29:15and try to take the journey with her.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17There was a lot of darkness to it.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22But there is such a beautiful way of seeing things that could only
0:29:22 > 0:29:23be hers, and that's her strength.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC
0:30:04 > 0:30:11In the '60s, Anglo-American rock and pop, known as Ye-ye in France,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14which comes from the "yeah-yeahs" of British bands,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17forced la chanson to respond to this music.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28Some, like Jacques Brel, Juliette Greco and Barbara
0:30:28 > 0:30:30simply ignored it.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33But the new singers with their pretend Anglo names,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37such as Johnny Hallyday, Eddy Mitchell and Dick Rivers,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40mimicked the new sound and were reviled for it.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44In fact, some radio stations simply refused to play it.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Johnny Hallyday's status continued to grow
0:30:46 > 0:30:50and nowadays, of course, he is fondly revered
0:30:50 > 0:30:55and to date is the only French singer to fill the Stade de France.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59While Hallyday may well be the biggest star in France,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02the great Charles Aznavour is still one of France's
0:31:02 > 0:31:07most enduring and beloved singers, who has survived
0:31:07 > 0:31:09all the different trends through the years.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13My songs are very solid. I write about everything.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18I write about... Often my wife says,
0:31:18 > 0:31:19"You're not going to say that in the song!"
0:31:19 > 0:31:21I say, "Yes, I'm going to say it."
0:31:21 > 0:31:23I'm not a realist singer,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25I'm a realist writer.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I love Charles Aznavour.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03Charles Aznavour is probably
0:32:03 > 0:32:04my ultimate favourite artist
0:32:04 > 0:32:06of all time.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Whatever it is an artist has, he has that something,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49the way he can sing a French song to an English audience
0:32:49 > 0:32:53and they will kind of eat it up and accept it.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58He's written more than 1,200 songs, sung in seven languages
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and sold more than 180 million records.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06His song, She, was a number one hit in Britain,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09though, strangely enough, not in his own country.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11I sing it in English everywhere.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16You don't want it in French, so I sing it in English,
0:33:16 > 0:33:17even in France.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22# She may be the face I can't forget
0:33:22 > 0:33:25# A place of pleasure or regret
0:33:25 > 0:33:32# May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
0:33:32 > 0:33:36# She may be the song that summer sings
0:33:36 > 0:33:39# May be the chill that autumn brings
0:33:39 > 0:33:43# May be 100 different things
0:33:43 > 0:33:45# Within the measure of a day. #
0:33:45 > 0:33:51During the '50s and '60s, one of the greats was Gilbert Becaud,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54a wonderfully charismatic mixture of well-crafted,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58very popular songs with just a touch of rock and roll.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02He wrote Je T'appartiens, which became Let It Be Me,
0:34:02 > 0:34:06and Et Maintenant, which became What Now, My Love?
0:34:06 > 0:34:08and many, many more.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27The same month The Beatles burst onto the scene with Love Me Do,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30across the Channel, 22-year-old Francoise Hardy
0:34:30 > 0:34:34was charming the country with her wistful songs of love and loss.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51'Here is somebody in 1962 who is the renewal of the young
0:34:51 > 0:34:53'chanson francaise.'
0:34:53 > 0:34:58She's speaking for the young people, she's speaking with their voice.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02And the existential lyrics of that first breakthrough record -
0:35:02 > 0:35:05"I'm on my own, nobody understands me" -
0:35:05 > 0:35:09it is a yearning song, that comes from chanson.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34She has written some wonderful songs and they
0:35:34 > 0:35:39tell frustrations coming from a girl's point of view.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42And she was very young when she wrote some of these songs
0:35:42 > 0:35:47and she had a very, very mature understanding of feelings.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59She was so, so singular. To see this girl
0:35:59 > 0:36:01standing in front of a microphone as if she couldn't care less
0:36:01 > 0:36:03and not smile at all...
0:36:03 > 0:36:05and wasn't sort of trying to make people feel good.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Just like that, and that was...
0:36:08 > 0:36:11..that was Francoise and quite, quite beautiful.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Then came a deeply talented writer who had much to do with
0:36:15 > 0:36:18redesigning of French rock -
0:36:18 > 0:36:20Serge Gainsbourg.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24Serge Gainsbourg was before David Bowie -
0:36:24 > 0:36:25he was all things to all people,
0:36:25 > 0:36:30he was all images and, perhaps, whatever people wanted him to be.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49He had been writing wonderful songs before the Ye-ye era,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53but was enamoured with the Anglo-American feel.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56And between him and a young musician named Michel Berger,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59changed the whole construction of French pop music.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03He always had great taste
0:37:03 > 0:37:06for clever lyrics.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10So even his simplest pop songs, he at least liked to try
0:37:10 > 0:37:13and put in something a bit classy.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23There's a thing in France that we call "jeux de mots", which is,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27like, word playing.
0:37:27 > 0:37:28There were at least two meanings,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32if not three, that for his rhyme he'd cut words in half
0:37:32 > 0:37:37and put them on the other line, a bit like Cole Porter's things.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41# Flying too high with some guy, is my I...DEA of nothing to do...#
0:37:41 > 0:37:46Serge used to cut words into... Used a lot of English words
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and was just an extraordinary writer.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16He became very rich writing simple throwaway pop songs
0:38:16 > 0:38:21for Eurovision stars and people like that - that's how he became a hit.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24In 1965, Serge Gainsbourg wrote a French language entrant
0:38:24 > 0:38:28for the Eurovision Song Contest, got in there by proxy,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31it was for Luxembourg, but the performer was France Gall.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33He'd already written songs for France Gall,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36they were beat-y, jazz pop songs.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38But this was his pop entrant.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56"Poupee de cire, poupee de son" - "I'm a singing wax doll".
0:38:56 > 0:38:59He completely subverted the idea of Eurovision,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02before anyone was actually thinking of subversion in pop.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07'And there is the writer, Serge Gainsbourg.'
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son, to me,
0:39:11 > 0:39:17is the first of those boomity-bang Eurovision songs.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22When you listen to songs which came later, like Boom Banga Bang or...
0:39:22 > 0:39:26And it bleeds through later into Waterloo by Abba...
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Serge Gainsbourg invented that martial beat Euro pop.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57Serge Gainsbourg's speciality was writing for women -
0:39:57 > 0:40:04beautiful, young women, like Brigitte Bardot, France Gall,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Jane Birkin, of course.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12Francoise Hardy and later Vanessa Paradis and...
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Oh, yes! He wrote five songs for me.
0:40:46 > 0:40:47He loved women.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52That was his...battle.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01All he wanted was to be loved and admired.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04Serge Gainsbourg was very well respected with...
0:41:06 > 0:41:09..singers like Juliette Greco or people like that. But...
0:41:12 > 0:41:15..the public didn't like him, you know?
0:41:15 > 0:41:18He was very rejected. Like, people say, well...
0:41:18 > 0:41:22that he was a drug addict,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25an alcoholic, that he was dirty.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27You know, they hated him.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41It took a long time - until the '80s he wasn't
0:41:41 > 0:41:44respected at all by, you know,
0:41:44 > 0:41:46the "large" public, as he is now.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Gainsbourg's classically derived melodies,
0:41:51 > 0:41:56his clever punning lyrics and the close-mic, murmured singing style
0:41:56 > 0:42:00he both affected himself and imposed on many young female singers
0:42:00 > 0:42:04he wrote for all marked him as one of the major forces
0:42:04 > 0:42:06of pop-era chanson.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09He had a technique that he told me to do,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12which is sing very, very close to the microphone.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14They mustn't project in any way,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18like some of the kind of showbiz belters of the time,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21they absolutely had to keep a natural, little-girl voice.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Lady singers that didn't knew well how to sings, and to make them
0:42:25 > 0:42:27sing in the breath...
0:42:27 > 0:42:30SHE SINGS BREATHILY IN FRENCH
0:42:31 > 0:42:33You know, all that sort of things.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38With Jane Birkin...
0:42:38 > 0:42:41But when you've got ten who do like that.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44When you've got 100 that do like that.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46When you've got one thousand that...
0:42:46 > 0:42:48SHE PANTS
0:42:50 > 0:42:53We want voice back!
0:43:05 > 0:43:09'It was revolutionary, because beyond the writing,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14'beyond the poetry that he brought, he actually brought production.'
0:43:14 > 0:43:20Until Serge Gainsbourg released his records, I can't put my finger
0:43:20 > 0:43:24on any French artist that took that risk
0:43:24 > 0:43:26within soundscapes.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32In 1967, Serge Gainsbourg came up with another of his strange moves,
0:43:32 > 0:43:37he writes a TV film to star Anna Karina -
0:43:37 > 0:43:42John Luc Godard's former wife and the darling of the French new wave.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45I was very excited. That musical - it was my dream, you know.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49I always loved Judy Garland and, you know, all the...
0:43:49 > 0:43:51all the singers and all that,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53so I was very, very excited.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58In what other country could somebody come up with an arty
0:43:58 > 0:44:00fictional film,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04starring somebody of this calibre
0:44:04 > 0:44:09and coming up with music which is just not...normal?
0:44:28 > 0:44:31The controversial Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus
0:44:31 > 0:44:34was his most famous song, a duet with English actress
0:44:34 > 0:44:38Jane Birkin, who had come to Paris to make a film with Gainsbourg.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42They became lovers and Birkin made Paris her home.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Serge wrote it for Bardot, who said that she wanted the most
0:44:45 > 0:44:49beautiful love song, the most erotic song. But she was married
0:44:49 > 0:44:52to Gunter Sachs and she pleaded with Serge not to bring it out.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56So the gentlemen always, Serge said OK, so that her marriage worked.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05SINGING IN FRENCH
0:45:17 > 0:45:22A year later, when I popped up, then I sang our version of it,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25which is the well-known version,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29an octave higher than Brigitte, just because I thought that if
0:45:29 > 0:45:32I sung high that was what Serge wanted.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09I think the Vatican and the BBC banned it
0:46:09 > 0:46:11just because of the heavy breathing, without realising
0:46:11 > 0:46:13the beauty of Serge's text,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15which was, "I love you, nor do I."
0:46:15 > 0:46:19Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus came from a quote by Salvador Dali,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23relating to a conversation he'd had with Picasso.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Picasso said, "I'm Spanish,"
0:46:26 > 0:46:30and Dali replies, "Me too" - "Moi aussi".
0:46:30 > 0:46:35Picasso - "I'm a genius," Dali - "Moi aussi."
0:46:35 > 0:46:40Picasso - "I'm a communist." Dali - "Moi non plus" - "Neither am I".
0:46:40 > 0:46:44And that was, you know...it was indicative of the kind
0:46:44 > 0:46:48of things that Gainsbourg thought about to put into his pop songs.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51I played it to my mother and father.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I used to do it jumping - the heavy breathing.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07So, Ma said, "What a beautiful tune," and it was, of course.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Then my brother came by the house and put the whole thing on,
0:47:10 > 0:47:11with the breathing.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14So, Ma kept to her thing of saying it's a beautiful tune
0:47:14 > 0:47:16and my father, too. They were stoic.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19But can you imagine having your daughter
0:47:19 > 0:47:23in such a scandalous thing, where it went up in the charts in England,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25where everybody talked about it -
0:47:25 > 0:47:27for them, it must have been a nightmare.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43He obviously did realise that
0:47:43 > 0:47:46well-judged...
0:47:47 > 0:47:50..small outrages could work well, because he did...
0:47:50 > 0:47:54he did kind of work that scene for the rest of his life.
0:47:54 > 0:48:00He had Lemon Incest with his daughter Charlotte, which now,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04I mean...I doubt whether he'd get away with doing that now.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Other artists emerged, keeping the essence of chanson
0:48:31 > 0:48:33but modernising it.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36In the 1970s, the French music business grew up a bit.
0:48:36 > 0:48:37People like Alain Souchon,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40who with his song-writing partner Laurent Voulzy
0:48:40 > 0:48:44were actually dubbed at one point the Lennon and McCartney of France -
0:48:44 > 0:48:48were actually more polished.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Their music was less edgy, ramshackled,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55than the chanson performers of the 1960s.
0:48:55 > 0:49:01The Foule Sentimentale is a song about the way the world
0:49:01 > 0:49:03is obliging us
0:49:03 > 0:49:05to buy things, to be happy.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28It's about happiness, in fact.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33And happiness the way our society proposes to be happy -
0:49:33 > 0:49:36it's just to buy a lot of things. And...
0:49:39 > 0:49:43I say no, we are better than that.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13By the mid '80s, new performers such as Etiene Daho
0:50:13 > 0:50:18were combining a chanson-imbued take on international pop
0:50:18 > 0:50:22with the beginnings of a cult re-appraisal of the past.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28Etiene Daho looked back to the history of chanson francaise,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32took from it and turned it into a modern form
0:50:32 > 0:50:35of slightly shiny pop.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40The influence of the Ye-ye had for result that we all
0:50:40 > 0:50:44started to want to... to work in a different way,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47to consider that it was very important to have a good
0:50:47 > 0:50:52rhythm track and a good sound, which was not the case before.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18French language is difficult to sing,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20because it's not rhythmic at all.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48When I saw the Tetes Raides, I saw people that would mix up
0:51:48 > 0:51:51their rock influence
0:51:51 > 0:51:54with this great '30s music.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56And then I was so happy, I was so happy.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22Through the 1990s, a fresh set of artists started creating
0:53:22 > 0:53:27distinctively French music for a new generation.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31Singer-songwriter Philippe Katerine recorded with actress Anna Karina.
0:53:31 > 0:53:37Around 11 o'clock in the morning, my phone rang and it said,
0:53:37 > 0:53:43"It's Philippe Katerine and I just wrote a song."
0:53:53 > 0:53:57And after a week, I had three songs
0:53:57 > 0:54:01and after three weeks, I had 12, 15 songs, you know.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Singer-songwriter Stromae is one of the biggest names
0:54:53 > 0:54:57in French music at the moment. He truly admires fellow Belgian
0:54:57 > 0:55:01Jacques Brel, who he says was a huge influence on him.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22If you sing in French - if you just have French lyrics,
0:56:22 > 0:56:24this is chanson francaise. The music can be
0:56:24 > 0:56:28inspired by Moroccan, African...
0:56:28 > 0:56:35- South American.- ..South American or Brazilian, this is French...
0:56:35 > 0:56:36This is chanson francaise.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Recently, a late contender, Zaz,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54has invigorated the chanson of today
0:56:54 > 0:56:56with a mix of jazz and soul.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15Her album, Paris, takes classic songs about the city by Piaf, Ferre,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18Aznavour and others and gives them a new twist.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57Saint-Germain-des-Pres, it was in the three blocks.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Now, you have got little cabaret all over France.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04People, they're devoted to music, because now I don't say
0:58:04 > 0:58:09chanson francaise, I say chanson Francophone, say Francophone songs.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11Why should I like chanson francaise?
0:58:13 > 0:58:15The question is a no-go,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19we all already like chanson francaise, we like My Way,
0:58:19 > 0:58:21it's Comme D'habitude, it's a French song,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24it was written by Claude Francois. You hear it in David Bowie
0:58:24 > 0:58:27with My Death. You hear it in with Marc Almond.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30French people love their own culture and they embrace their culture,
0:58:30 > 0:58:34they have their own film stars, their own music, their own...
0:58:34 > 0:58:37You know, there's no real room for British music.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40French music, French films always come first.
0:58:40 > 0:58:45Alors, as you can see, la chanson francaise is constantly
0:58:45 > 0:58:49evolving and yet somehow still managing to stay,
0:58:49 > 0:58:50well...
0:58:50 > 0:58:51French.
0:58:51 > 0:58:53Goodnight.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56MUSIC: Boum by Georges Brassens and Charles Aznavour