Before he became a well-known author-composer-singer, Alain Souchon was a child, and his parents used to sing to him. They were “songs that told stories,” in which “the tune was very important”. Songs that in their special way fuelled his own.

Le jour et la nuit Alain Souchon 2000 Listen

“Like for every song, the music is crucial. I think that they influenced me a lot when I started writing. As a child, these were the only songs I knew. At home we used to listen to classical music, and in the 1950s music wasn’t everywhere like it is now. I really liked these tunes. When you’re five or six, you remember everything you’re told. It’s like La Fontaine’s fables, they stay with you all your life, because the French is so beautiful.”

He wasn’t particularly interested in putting them onto a CD until the idea of helping sick children by giving the proceeds to the Ligue Contre le Cancer gave meaning to the project. “It costs a fortune to provide all the researchers and laboratories, and to help families stay near sick children, so we have to try and help them.”

To add an artistic extra to the album, Souchon asked the cartoonist Sempé to lend a hand: “I asked the great Sempé! He said yes straight away, and did some original drawings and illustrated Le jour et la nuit with a flying shark, with me astride it. It’s pretty cool to be sitting on a fish drawn by Sempé – I’ve really made it!”

Child’s play

A cause d’elles gathers some of the poems and songs, traditional and less-known tunes that marked the singer’s tender years. Scout songs (Les Crapauds, L’Ecu), lyrics from the Middle Ages, the 1930s and just after the war feature alongside Chuck Berry (Memphis Tennessee) and ritornellos by Guy Béart (Les Enfants sages) and Félix Leclerc (La Mort de l’ours), in adapted or re-orchestrated versions. “Since I was afraid that everyone would laugh at me if I sang the old songs my mother used to sing, I went to see Renaud Létang, who I normally work with. He encouraged me and we did it together. He added a contemporary touch that I really like.”

Another song featured is J’ai dix ans, which was re-recorded for the occasion: “It’s part of my life, it changed my life, it was my first big hit. I’m always being asked to sing it and when I do, the audience goes wild.”

For Le Jour et la Nuit, the album’s only brand-new track, Alain asked his eldest son, Pierre Souchon, to lend a hand: “He has a gift of being able to create catchy tunes, so I often ask him to help me. Working with him is a real pleasure, we get on very well.” So a family atmosphere for this track, livened up with some backing vocals from the Petits Chanteurs d’Asnières.

School by day, dreams by night

Through this record, which he himself views as “a digression”, Alain Souchon lets his feelings about the importance of education filter through. Going to school might not always be fun, but it doesn’t stop you dreaming.

Biography Discography

“Life during the day, whether it’s at school or later on, means getting up at a time you don’t want to and doing things that you don’t necessarily want to do, that’s just how it is. On the other hand, at night we can do what we like. I think that school is indispensable and magnificent. Filling up children’s heads with a load of things that people have already found out is vital.”

On that subject, Alain Souchon has set to music Je plains le temps de ma jeunesse, the twenty-sixth verse of François Villon’s poem Grand Testament, written in 1461. “François Villon was a delinquent, he regretted not having gone to school, just like I regret not having gone there very much.”

On the whole, the songs are fairly melancholic, because Souchon has chosen those that moved him the most. They are short stories written in a delicate language, full of metaphors and poetry. They include one by Prévert (En sortant de l’école), another by Max Jacob (La Chanson de Marianne), and little paintings of life like depictions of human beliefs. “They aren’t necessarily songs for children. It’s like the end of a banquet, when you let go and start singing the songs of your youth.”

Alain Souchon Website

Alain Souchon A cause d’elles (EMI) 2011

Translate by: Anne-Marie Harper