Une chanson, qu'y a-t-il à l'intérieur d'une chanson?
Marcel Amont
Seuil1994
ISBN 2020225816
Back cover
What is a song?
How does it come about?
What makes a song a hit?
Marcel Amont, singer-songwriter and tireless questioner, met 120 of the most famous composers, musicians and singers of the time. The insights offered by Lebel, Lemesle, Aznavour, Delanoë, Nougaro, Moustaki, Lemarque and many others are fascinating. The list includes Mireille, Druon, Higelin, David McNeil, Françoise Giroud, Philippe Labro and Pierre Perret, alongside Scotto, Brassens, Trenet, Henri Contet, Souchon, Salvador, Roda-Gil, Gainsbourg, Les Rita Mitsouko, Les Négresses Vertes and (other) raccoons, but what really makes for success?
‘What holds true for a power station, a bicycle or a rabbit hutch does not apply to songs; or, more precisely, to their rise to what we now call a hit. Why do some take off? Because there are millions of them lying in drawers; some that never see the light of day, and others that end up back there. As long as popular success thwarts predictions, analyses, infallible formulas, five-year plans and elaborate strategies; as long as it is governed by the laws of mystery, the chance of encounters, the mood of the times and the whims of taste, as long as songwriters remain stuck in the realm of conjecture and the torments of uncertainty, the song has a bright future ahead of it. Should the ‘scientists’ and the trendsetters ever commercialise the very last word, the very last note, ‘the heavens will be struck by alignment’ and we shall have to find something else to dream about.”
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