Excuse my French is a special section of the musical blog masique.com. It was inspired by an article in La Blogotheque. Any Excuse my French post is dedicated to our beloved English-speaker friends who do appreciate that mysterious musical blog of ours, while cannot get a f*** ing clue about what we are writing about. I think you might get not the least excited about that, uh? My English is sometimes random, I know, but I’ll try my best. My musical tastes are quite random too, but nevermind the couilles, here is the Musique Française – should it be chanson or hip-hop. Enjoy!
Episode 0 – You shall know that I…
Jean-Jacques Goldman - Sache que je [En passant, 1997]
Goldman is a great songwriter. Every one of us French râleurs either listens to his music (without admitting it) or has spent his childhood listening to his music (without admitting it to anyone else apart from our psychoanalyst). So there is Jean-Jacques in everyone in France, even amongst the trash-metal fanbase of Loudblast. Enough for the useless words, let’s now pick up one good song from this Homme en Or.
It is not that easy to choose one song in the abundant discography of Jean-Jacques. I mean, not that all songs are masterpieces, I may say it is perhaps the contrary. I repeat, Goldman is a great songwriter (plus a nice and kind guy). His main problem is that he too often accepted concessions to demagogic arrangements of his songs — that might be true for some of his lyrics too. Many over-the-top love songs or rentre-dedans rock FM à la française. Sometimes Jean-Jacques makes you feel that he is far more subtle than his songs managed to be.
Still great songs remain. Sache que je seems a good example to me, a brilliant one I shall say, but je dois avoir mauvais goût. By the late 90′s, JJG had some problems with his first wife and paradoxically enough, in these times of emotional trouble, he went back to a more direct production of his songs, as polished as before but keeping more spontaneity in the process, in addition to a style more elliptic in the lyrics and in the interpretation. This is not a song full of joy, but the atmosphere of it all makes it one the most inspired song Goldman had recorded. It is also the most beautiful declaration of love, giving back to silence its real significance.
My friends, you better excuse my French, but I hope to have the pleasure to see again next week (or in two weeks time).
S’il te faut des phrases en otage, comme un sceau sur un parchemin…
Cheers. Peace. Love.
J’adore JJG…