Musician Andrey Manukyan discovered in the episode “Dangerous Liaisons,” from a television show that reveals the secrets of songs, the surprising, disturbing, outrageous stories hidden behind famous impossible love songs.
Catherine Renger and Fred Schiessen were an original and striking musical duo, “La Rita Mitsuko.” She sang and he played. They were together off stage as well. Catherine betrayed Fred only in her fantasies. The couple’s bed was not abandoned in reality as in their song “The Lovers.” Only death separated Catherine and Fred, a perfect team under all circumstances. Fred’s spirit continues to live with Catherine.
The speaker in the song “The Little Women of Pigalle” is not the singer himself, Serge Lema, but rather the well-known lyricist, Claude Lemal, whose wife left him. A double betrayal of both the woman and the seductive man played by the husband’s friend. But instead of sinking into black bile, the horny man preferred to see the glass half full and take advantage of the situation to have fun with the professionals of Pigalle. In conversations and even more so.
Patricia Carli cries out the cry of the girl whose lover chose to marry someone else. Not because he fell in love with a rival but out of self-interest alone. The future bride is rich and respected. Also beautiful, the speaker admits, who, although she is still captivated by the groom's charms, has chosen to break off the relationship.
Belgian singer Claire Lippi, like Patricia Carli, did not find the strength to refuse. Trapped in a violent and destructive relationship, she remained shocked and broken for a long time. Her friend Izette, who witnessed the promising appearance of love that quickly turned out to be a lie, sang the experience in a deep, resonant voice, with poetic and poignant lyrics.
Sylvie Vertan, whose husband Johnny Alliday He betrayed her in public, she was furious with him but decided to give him a second chance. You don't give up on love like that easily. The famous couple got closer to each other again thanks to a love song that became a huge hit, "I Have a Problem."
Gabrielle Rossier, a literature teacher who had an illicit affair with a student, paid the ultimate price when she turned on the gas tap in her apartment in northern Marseille. Charles Aznavour Shocked by the tragedy, he rebelled against the paralyzing conservatism of much of French society and sang “Die à l’amour.”
The entire spectrum of failed, tormented, and agonizing loves is represented in French songs because French people and love is a love story… a French one, of course. Let’s get to the bottom of things and listen to the songs.
La Rita Mitsuko, The Lovers
Les Rita Mitsouko, Les amants
In 1993, ten years after the huge success of “Mercier Bayla,” the duo “La Rita Mitsuko” came along and presented what would become another hit: “The Lovers.”
The avant-garde pop-rock band “La Rita Mitsuko” consisted of guitarist Fred Schiessen and singer Catherine Renger. The couple met in the late 2007s and have been inseparable ever since. Artistic collaboration and a cloudless married life for thirty years with three children until death separated them. Fred died of cancer in XNUMX.
The song “The Lovers” tells the complete opposite. The lady turns around in her bed, burning with desire for her man, but he wanders the harbor, looking for young men. On one side are the couple who are becoming more and more similar to each other, on the other side are the occasional hot sailors.
Catherine was inspired by an Irish song (I'm not Irish), which Fred adapted, edited, renovated, and improved. Catherine composed the text, not immediately; it took two years for the song to take its final form and be performed on stage. Apparently, the straight and loyal Catherine had all kinds of repressed urges, hidden deep down, and she expressed them in the text in which the man goes out to receive same-sex gratification while the woman remains lonely and hungry, wrapped in sheets.
Is Catherine the man in the song, is Fred the woman in the song? In any case, this waltz is danced by more than two people. Too crowded, as Lady Di said in a different context. Not in Catherine and Fred's actual married life, which was free of infidelity.
Director Leos Carax, who heard “La Rita Mitsuko” on stage, was thrilled and included the song in the soundtrack of his film “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf” (1991), at the beginning and in its final scene. Not the same agony, not the same difficulties, but the song was fitting. Catherine and Fred were so proud to contribute to the film…
Meanwhile, the song was only heard in movie theaters and concerts. It was not until 1993 that it was recorded on CD, on La Rita Mitsuko's fourth studio album, called Système D.
Without Fred's renovations, the song would not have been so successful, according to Catherine. Her melody would have remained too simple. Each pulled to his own side, brought his nature, style, and difference, and this fruitful friction ignited a flame. Harmony reigned between Catherine and Fred. The apparent contradiction created the perfect combination between the two musicians, the team was on top form. Despite the wild text, Catherine and Fred were a couple of legends. As they say today, there is no such thing.
Catherine continues her journey alone, but Fred, who is with her in her heart, constantly whispers to her and guides her, encouraging her. When it seems to her that the well of inspiration has dried up, she hears Fred telling her to draw, draw, keep drawing. It will come. The dialogue with the beloved continues beyond death.
Serge Lema, Pigalle's Little Women
Serge Lama, Les P'tites Femmes de Pigalle
“La Rita Mitsuko” enters the intimate world of a couple in an original and lighthearted way. Serge Lema also chose an amusing way (although in a completely different style from “La Rita”) to document a crisis in a friend’s marital life.
In 1973, Serge Lema promotes his new song “The Little Women of Pigalle.” Serge is not yet the popular singer he will soon become. He is labeled as an intellectual singer from the Left Bank, sad and depressed (slowly recovering from a tragic accident). Therefore, many doors are closed to him. Serge burns with rage and insult, dreaming of success.
Then comes the turning point that will change the course of the singer's career. In the spring of 1972, Serge is about to appear on a radio show with Melina Mercury, Serge Reggiani, and a well-known lyricist named Claude Lemesle. The three have lunch together before the show.
Melina, always curious to hear about her friends’ private lives, asked Claude Lemel what was going on. Claude told her that two months earlier, a man, pretending to be a friend, had infiltrated his married life and stolen his wife. “He took advantage of my trust to seduce my wife, who left me for him. I was supposed to be sad, but I wasn’t at all. Every evening I go out to Pigalle, drink wine with the women of the neighborhood, chat, have fun, have fun, and sometimes get high…”
Claude Lemel's juicy story remained etched in Serge Lemel's mind. A few days later, while searching for songs for a new album, he wrote down on paper the confession he heard from Claude, the betrayed husband who found solace in Pigalle.
Comforts? Not exactly. Not even painful. One long beep. There's a line. In the first person, the horned husband tells how he began to pluck the petals of the flowers of evil, how he became a cricket from an ant, how he opened his eyes and realized that in love, up until now, he hadn't been worth a penny, he hadn't understood a thing or two. Thanks to the lessons of the women of Pigalle, he will learn everything. The future is promising.
And the present is enjoyable. The pimps invite him to drinks, the sailors call him Admiral. Thus he becomes addicted to sins that the Church condemns, to places it forbids entry to. Corrupted but content.
The melody composed by Jacques Dattan to words by Serge Lema stood in stark contrast to all of the singer's previous depressive songs. A sweeping, cheerful melody, of a popular dance ball or a funfair.
Bingo. The TV hosts, who had previously boycotted Serge, opened their doors wide. The invitations poured in like a shower of blessings. Serge broke the image of the tormented artist that had stubbornly clung to him and achieved the status of the sought-after folk singer that he so desired. Thanks to Claude Lemel, whose original response to the betrayal of his wife and best friend gave birth to the perfect hit.
Patricia Carley, you're getting married tomorrow.
Patricia Carli, Demain tu te maries
The young singer, Patricia Carley, 25 years old in 1963, cries out her love story that ends in disappointment. The guy she addresses in the song, with whom she experienced a passionate passion for the flesh, chose to marry another girl, rich (and also beautiful, the defeated one admits, and endowed with all the virtues) in order to secure his future and his old age and enjoy the respect he will gain thanks to his marriage.
The disappointed lover greets the groom with bittersweet greetings and announces that she has decided not to see him again. Why should he have the best of both worlds, why should she share him with the official wife? You have chosen the bourgeois path and not the path of passion and love, I refuse to continue our passionate meetings and tell you no.
The dramatic song left its mark, when it was released in 1963, on an entire generation that admired the brave decision of the girl who does not want to play it in the backyard. You turned your back on happiness, you chose ambition, fame and prosperity, accept responsibility! The defeated betrayed defends her honor and celebrates a certain victory. Not to mention the polished and emotional performance of Patricia Carley, whose eyes are sad and pleading, appropriate to the circumstances.
In the midst of a wave of hey-hey music, smooth, bland lyrics set to American melodies, Patricia Carli convinced her then-artistic director, Léo Missir, to take a chance on a different song, one that was unusual for the times. Patricia, the daughter of an Italian immigrant who wrote her own songs, music, and lyrics, insisted on recording a pathetic, dramatic song based on her personal life.
Patricia was right. The unknown artist burst into consciousness in 1963, becoming a star, thanks to the autobiographical song, which became the hot slow song of that blessed year. On a personal level, Patricia's life also seemingly took a desired turn when she escaped the dubious status of the secret woman and married her artistic director in the light.
But Patricia stopped singing herself, so suddenly, and composed songs for other singers, Tino Rossi, Nicoletta, Claude Francois, Mireille Mathieu, DelidaDaniel Guichard owes her the hit “La Tendresse” and David-Alexandre Winter “Oh Lady Mary.”
Why did the beautiful and talented singer disappear from the stage? Thirty years later, Patricia revealed that her partner was jealous of her success. The singer wanted to impress her husband, Leo Misir, a successful artistic director and well-known talent scout (Frank Elmo, Rika Zarai, Daniel Balboa, Nicoletta, Nino Pera and more) at Eddie Barclay's record company and continued to warn.
Too much. A paradoxical surprise: The partner, who initially did everything to make Patricia break out and succeed, ordered her to stop performing. Enough. Either you or me. And the in-love Patricia gave up her singing career for him and was content to compose hits for other singers.
The marriage ended in divorce. Patricia did not become a huge star despite the hysterical and historic hit of the summer of 1963. After difficult life events and the subsequent turning her back on the Parisian pop music world, she left the city and moved to Roquebrune, near the border with Monaco. Men were, indeed, a stumbling block in Patricia's life, but thanks to them she left an indelible mark in the form of the unforgettable song "Tomorrow You're Getting Married."
Izette, Bad Boy
Yseult, Bad boy
Patricia Carley said “no,” but the young woman of her age in Izzet’s song, “Bad Boy,” didn’t find the strength to immediately break off the relationship. Singer Izzet stepped into the shoes of a friend who tells in a submissive voice about her desperate infatuation with a bad guy who trampled her to the ground.
Izette, 26, is not afraid to declare herself to the jury that she is vulnerable and sensitive, independent and strong. This duality, strength and weakness, probably allowed her to identify with her friend, an artist like her. Izette is not afraid to cry and admit mistakes and at the same time demonstrate opinion, determination, independence and freedom.
Izette spent the first part of the lockdown in Brussels with singer Claire Laffut, who had experienced a toxic and destructive relationship under Rodin's boots. Izette slowly began to write a text for the story and add a melody to it. Her initial intention was to create a piece in the style of James Bond or Delilah, but with her own rules for inspiration.
A mournful song of coming to terms with falling in love, with the humiliating treatment of the bad guy who at the beginning of the relationship treated the girl like a queen and then like dust. Love shows its face unexpectedly, like a decree of fate, coming to the victim's house. There is no means of defense.
The poem is written in the form of a theatrical play: Someone knocked on my door, my pulse quickened, time stood still, it was love, the one I was waiting for. It turns on and off, does with me as it pleases. This is the hour when the sun enters into mourning, the night has changed its face, its hands are filled with rage. Where is the man I was waiting for? Don't ask me questions. Which of us will leave first?
In an era of female assertiveness, in 2020, it takes great courage to admit to such a relationship, even if it lasts a limited time. A slow, sad song, to the sound of simple, bare sounds, about weakness, submission, and bondage.
As mentioned, it was not a personal story for Izzet, but it touched her deeply and inspired her to write a song. Claire Leffi, who had experienced the destructive relationship, was fascinated and moved by her friend's song, which managed to translate a violent and traumatic experience into a refined musical language. She doesn't hear it often. Too difficult.
Johnny and Sylvie, I have a problem.
Johnny and Sylvie, I have a problem
While Izette appropriated a toxic love story, a famous singing couple, Johnny and Sylvie, dramatized the difficulties of their own marriage in a duet. For ten years, Johnny and Sylvie have played one of the French singer's most legendary couples.
The idyll began in the early 19s, Sylvie a promising 12-year-old singer, Johnny already a teen idol. On April 1965, 14, the two were married in front of a roaring crowd. Three years after they met, on August 1966, XNUMX, their son David was born.
The relationship has its ups and downs, its breakups and reconciliations. Johnny, restless, boundless, in love with his career, frequently leaves home. In the summer of 1972 (and perhaps earlier), Johnny embarked on a passionate affair with Canadian singer Nanette Workman. Their photos appear in the media. Johnny doesn't bother to hide.
Nanette Workman was professionally associated with Johnny. In 1971 she was his backing vocalist, on an album and on stage, and in 1972 she was part of the rock band “Ange,” which supported the “Johnny Circus” show. That same year, Johnny produced a record of hers that included a duet with him on the B-side, “Learning to Live Together.” How ironic… Johnny would later describe his relationship with Nanette as hell and express regret that he hadn’t broken it off sooner.
That same year, and some say even a year earlier, the professional relationship became personal. Johnny defined the beautiful blonde as his alter ego, his female double.
The unbalanced and the loser, both in love with risks, snorted cocaine together and one evening, when they overdid it, they played Russian roulette. Thanks to the ball in the right place. Johnny received his life as a gift, and not for the only time.
Betrayed Sylvie, doubly humiliated when she saw the photos of her husband and his girlfriend in the media, threatened to break up the marriage. Johnny panicked, quickly broke off his relationship with the other woman, and rushed to silence Sylvie. At the last minute, she changed her mind and did not leave. But damage was still done, and beyond that, the couple's image was severely damaged. The need to save the myth became urgent. How to silence the fans?
Then, their artistic director, Jean Renard, had a great idea: to dramatize the couple's rapprochement in a song. He had an old tune in his drawer that he had composed a few years ago. The lyrics would be written by Michel Mallory, a friend of Johnny and Sylvie who knows both of them together and each of them separately.
“I have a problem, I feel like I love you. Oh, I have a problem and it’s that I love you too.” That’s how Jean Renard and Michel Mallory turned the tables. Not a word about Johnny’s infidelities, let alone mentioning…
The discreet Sylvie refused to cooperate, but Jean Renard knew how to develop the right arguments. In the spring of 1973, Johnny and Sylvie promoted the duet on television. The audience, reassured about the stability of their marriage, went wild again, the song became a hit.
Seven years after their relationship, the couple broke up. But Sylvie never regretted agreeing to sing the duet. On the contrary. “You did well to insist,” she said to Jean, “otherwise we would have lost big…”
Charles Aznavour, To Die for Love
Charles Aznavour, Mourir d'aimer
There are facts of life that humor does not suit. Such is the love story between a 32-year-old teacher, Gabrielle Roussier (1937-1969), and her student Christian Roussier (1952), who were separated by fifteen years, against the backdrop of the May 1968 demonstrations. The teacher's suicide, for which a court sentenced her in July 1969 to a year's suspended sentence for seducing a minor, caused a huge uproar.
Gabrielle Rossier was released from prison, where she had spent several weeks twice, but could not withstand the pressure. The brilliant literature teacher, mother of twins, a son and a daughter (1959), sank into depression.
Gabrielle Rossier feared, beyond the unhappy love affair, that the stain would stick to her forever, that she would be expelled from the education system and left without a livelihood. In a desperate letter to her ex-husband, she asked him to take care of the twins. On September 1, 1969, she turned on the gas tap in her apartment after sealing all the openings. Her second suicide attempt was successful.
The tragic story of the high school teacher, what was then called the “Gabriel Roussier Affair,” gave rise to films and songs. The most famous in the films is “Die for Love” by André Caillat (1970) and the most famous in the songs is called by the same name, by agreement between the director and the singer, and was written by Charles Aznavour (1971).
Charles Aznavour, at the height of his fame, an international star, touring abroad, is in France at the end of the drama. “When a 70-year-old millionaire lives with a young girl, nothing is said,” he recalls his feelings and thoughts at the time. “But the unfortunate woman who has experienced an authentic love story with a young man, they drag her through the mud and push her to suicide.”
Charles saw right. How to accept what cannot be accepted? The hypocrisy of conservative society makes Charles boil. The song “To Die for Love” was written by itself in three days.
The good Charles, never shying away from tackling explosive social issues head-on, especially during that period. He courageously came out against what he called the follies and bourgeois mindset. And in this poem, as in his poem about the transvestite homosexual, he sings in the first person, sympathizing with the teacher against her hateful judges who left her no emergency exit to the open air.
Charles stood in front of a mirror, looking at his reflection in it and searching for Gabrielle's face, her hesitation and pain before committing the fatal act. A poignant, dramatic text, rising in crescendo to the inevitable end, "To die of love," three times.
Willingly to sink into the night
Pay for love with the price of life
To sin against the body but not against the spirit
To die of love
(...)
Leave with your head held high.
To emerge victorious from defeat
Transform all data
To die of love
Perfect orchestration, simple words, arranged in the right order, Aznavour's song overshadowed all other songs dedicated to the tragedy and remained forever in the memory.
There are, after all, happy loves
Charles Aznavour was happy in his private life. Sylvie Vartan, with whom Johnny was and remains an important part of his personal and artistic life, found a suitable partner. She lives happily with him to this day. Johnny found an anchor in the figure of Letizia. Her support for him cannot be denied. Letizia never left despite all the betrayals. Nanette Workman found love late and lived on a farm. Catherine and Fred lived a perfect married and family life with a fruitful and special artistic collaboration. This article focuses on songs that express the dark sides of male-female relationships but there are happy loves. And even complicated passages and periods can be rescued.
The article is based on the episode, “Dangerous Liaisons,” of the television series “The Secret Life of Songs,” hosted by Andrey Manukyan and directed by Chloe Chauvin. The episode aired on July 8, 2022 on France 3.
La Vie Secrète des Chansons, Les Liaisons dangereuses, animé par André Manoukian et réalisé par Chloé Chovin, diffused le ven. 08.07.22, à 23h24, France 3
Tami Kan-tor
What nostalgia… As a French speaker and in light of the article, I was exposed to the stories behind the songs.
Particularly moving was the context in which Charles Aznavour, my favorite singer and presenter, wrote the song “To Die for Love.” Thank you, Orna, for an interesting article.
Orna Lieberman
Thank you. It is true that Aznavour's song is the most moving of all the songs in the article because it talks about suicide and after death there is no more hope for the one who died. In the other songs there is a way back, to sanity and the good life. Aznavour's song is particularly tragic but also strives for the correction of society.
Rony Katz
As always, a fascinating article that goes beyond the interesting glimpse into the private lives of French female singers...
She mediates them to understand the immortal songs that we have been hearing for decades without knowing what is behind them.
You've closed a few circles for me here, dear Orna...thank you for that.
Orna Lieberman
She did indeed write to those who follow in the footsteps of the French singer, like you, like Judith who wrote me a similar response, and so on. Responses like these are my reward.
Rony Katz
Articles like this not only enrich me...they fill me with a nostalgic joy that only those who have lived French music can understand.
Orna Lieberman
You wrote me a response very similar to Judith's, who also responded to you by saying: I connect with every word and feeling of yours.
Judith Aflalo Tiano
Thank you very much, I have no words to explain how happy the text and the songs made me.
Orna Lieberman
Your comments are always sweet and encouraging.
Judith Aflalo Tiano
Overall, I accurately shared my feelings and… songs that I have known and sung for forty years received a “turn in awareness” this morning. The renewed listening accompanied by the explanations – was moving and fascinating.
Waiting and anticipating the next episode……… Thank you very much.
Interesting brings back memories of the past.
Thanks.
Thank you
Beautiful and interesting article. Good music!
Thank you
I thank all those who read the article. It received some excited responses, especially from those who lived in France, French and Jewish, and I was as delighted by them as I was by the article.
And thanks again, have a nice summer,
Orna
Sophie Rakhlenko
Thank you very much, Orna, for the beautiful article. I really enjoyed it, even though I watched many of Andriy Manukyan's programs at the time.
As usual, you know how to weave something unique that not only expands the mind but also reaches the heart. You reminded me of the human stories behind the songs,
Sometimes you also added details and innovated for me, and playing the songs, beyond illustrating your words, provided moments of magic for the soul.
Thank you very much, dear Sophie, for the exciting response!