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"Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" ("It is five o'clock, Paris awakens") is a single by French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronc, released in 1968. It features on his self-titled second album.
Composition
[edit]
The song originated from an idea put forward by Jacques Wolfsohn, an artistic director at Disques Vogue, during a meal with songwriting partners Jacques Dutronc and Jacques Lanzmann at his home. He suggested a song on the subject of Paris in the morning. The other two Jacques began writing the song at around 11 pm that evening, and completed it at daybreak. It takes lyrical inspiration from "Tableau de Paris à cinq heures du matin", an 1802 song by Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers, updating its description of Parisian life in the early hours for the 1960s.[1]
The song describes well-known Parisian locations (such as the Place Dauphine and the Eiffel Tower and the activities of groups of people, including transvestites, strippers, bakers and café-owners. The Gare Montparnasse is described as "no more than a carcass" ("...n'est plus qu'une carcasse...") because, at the time the song was written, it was in the process of demolition. A new station was built nearby and, on the site of the old one, the Tour Montparnasse was built.[2]
The flute solo in the recording was added at the end of the session. Dutronc and Lanzmann were unhappy with the arrangement and felt that it lacked something. Dutronc had the idea of adding a manouche-style guitar part, but a flautist working elsewhere in the same building, Roger Bourdin, was asked to listen to the recording and agreed to improvise the solo the appears on the finished track.[1][3]
The lyrics to the song are co-credited to Lanzmann's wife at the time, Anne Ségalen.[4]
Release and promotion
[edit]"Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" was released as a four-track EP in France in March 1968.
Dutronc performed "Les play boys" on the French television show Palmarès des chansons, broadcast by Radiodiffusion Télévision Française on 16 November 1966, accompanied by the Orchestre Raymond Lefèvre.[5] He also toured to promote the single.[4]
Reception and legacy
[edit]"Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" reached number one in the French singles chart on 23 March 1968, where is stayed for one week. It also reached number two in Belgium and number four in The Netherlands.[6][7]
Although the song was not intended to have any political significance, it's refrain of "Paris s'éveille" ("Paris awakens") found an obvious resonance in the context of the events of May 1968, a few weeks after its release (the first campus occupation, at Paris X University Nanterre, began the day before the song reached number one). It has, therefore, been described as a "hymn" to those events.[1] A re-written version was mimeographed and sung at the barricades.[8] The song was withdrawn from the playlists of most radio stations and was quickly adapted by the protest singer Jacques Le Glou, with new verses depicting a city of overturned Peugeots and dead poicemen.[9][10]
In 1991, "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" was voted the best French-language single of all time in a poll of music critics organised by Le Nouvel Observateur for a TV special broadcast on Antenne 2, beating Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" into second place.[3][11] Rock critic Thierry Coljon describes Dutronc's song as "one of the most beautiful there is".[12]
Cover versions
[edit]As well as Jacques Le Glou, the song has been covered by Sylvie Vartan, Patrick Genet, Ange, Dominique Grange (Le Glou's version) and An Pierlé.[13][14][15]
Track listing
[edit]Words by Jacques Lanzmann and Anne Ségalen, music by Jacques Dutronc.
Side A
[edit]| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" | 02:55 |
| 2. | "L'augmentation" | 02:31 |
Side B
[edit]| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Comment elles dorment" | 03:09 |
| 2. | "Fais pas ci, fais pas ça" | 01:40 |
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Monssens, Olivier (27 July 2004). "Succès en tubes : « Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille »". Le Soir. p. 10.
- ^ "La Tour Montparnasse fête ses 40 ans". Le Télégramme. 14 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Jacques DUTRONC vainqueur des 45 tours". Institut National de l'Audiovisuel.
- ^ a b "Jacques Dutronc biography". RFI Music.
- ^ "Jacques Dutronc Les play boys". Institut National de l'Audiovisuel.
- ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. 27 April 1968. p. 53.
- ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. 15 June 1968. p. 60.
- ^ "Le travail en chansons - Il est cinq heures". La Cité des sciences et de l'industrie.
- ^ Kitschke, Beate (2013). Music and Protest in 1968. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 261.
- ^ Le Glou, Jacques (1974). Pour en finir avec le travail. Paris: EPM.
- ^ "Best title". Le Soir. 2 February 1991. p. 28.
- ^ Coljon, Thierry (30 December 1992). "Et moi, et moi, et moi". Le Soir. p. 31.
- ^ "Sylvie Vartan official website". Sony Music.
- ^ "Discographie". Ange official fanclub.
- ^ "An Pierlé : « Ce n'est pas une musique pour les radios »". Evene.fr.
External links
[edit]- Video of Jacques Dutronc performing "I est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" on the French TV show Palmarès des chansons, April 1968.