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Edith Piaf 1963-2003
Tributes on the Little Sparrow's 40th
Paris
10/10/2003 -
On 11 October 1963 the French public paid its last respects to Edith Piaf, the country's most popular music idol and most famous international star. The legendary French chanteuse died wasted away by cancer, alcohol and morphine. But forty years on her songs live on, as powerful and gut-wrenching as ever. RFI Musique presents a round-up of anniversary compilations, re-releases and tribute events.
-Compilations-Special theme albums
-Re-releases
-DVDs
-Other tributes
-Interview with Eric Didi, the man who discovered Piaf’s “forgotten” -songs
-Mini-interviews with a selection of artists featured on Hommage à la Môme
While many of the younger generation may dismiss Piaf as a music icon from their grandmothers' age, her songs live on from beyond the grave, still bowling listeners over with their incredible vocal intensity and authenticity. The 40th anniversary of Piaf's death is marked by a multitude of re-releases and compilations, largely from EMI Capitol (which took over from Piaf's original label Pathé Marconi). While the aim of this operation is not purely motivated by a desire to help French music fans rediscover their heritage, the 40th anniversary is the perfect occasion to rediscover the spell-binding songs of the Little Sparrow.
COMPILATIONS :
Eternelle, les plus grandes chansons d’Edith Piaf is a double CD compilation (rather pompously renamed "The Official Album") which features a bumper 43 songs. But the big event is Accordéon,l’intégrale which, if we are to believe the press dossier, is "the most complete works of Edith Piaf ever released!" Only 8,000 copies of the "complete works" will be pressed (and sold for 150 euros apiece). Accordéon,l’intégrale is released on 14 October.
The 413 tracks on Accordéon,l’intégrale include six previously unreleased songs (including four featured on the “Official Album” CDs). The songs, which Piaf recorded for the Polydor label, are hardly exceptional compared to her greatest hits. But committed fans will appreciate Je ne veux plus faire la vaisselle (I Don't Want To Do The Washing-Up Any More). The song, co-written by Piaf and Marguerite Monnot(listed as Marguerite Bonnot on the credits) is a fine example of early – albeit tongue-in-cheek – feminism. Unlike the "unfinished" Jacques Brel songs (released on the 25th anniversary of the singer's death), Piaf's "forgotten" works have caused no major polemic. The 50-year copyright on the songs ran out in the early 90s, so no-one stands to profit from their release now.
Music sleuth Eric Didi, who specialises in tracking down old chanson classics for record companies, came across the six “forgotten” Piaf songs while trawling through the archives of the French National Library in Paris. The extraordinary find made headlines across the world.
RFI Musique: How did it feel to make such a historic find? Eric Didi: We felt like gold diggers finally striking gold after months of long, hard search. The treasure we found consisted of six songs recorded between 1935 and 1940 including the original version of one of Piaf's greatest hits, L'Accordéoniste. This version, entitled La Fille de Joie est triste, is completely different from the one everyone knows. It's recorded in a different tempo and Piaf doesn't put the same emotion into her voice at all. The original song also has a different ending… The other songs are La valse de Paris, Chanson d'amour, Ses mains, C'était si bon and Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle. Piaf wrote the lyrics for the last two herself and Marguerite Monnot, one of the composers who worked with her throughout her career, wrote the music. Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle is an amazing song where you hear Piaf singing that she's tired of being a skivvy. She doesn't want to do the washing up or take the garbage out any more. And you don't know what to make of the song at all – it's like should you take the lyrics at face value or is Piaf trying to be droll?"
Droll isn't a word one readily associates with Piaf, the queen of tragedy…
Exactly and maybe that could account for the fact the song wasn't used at the time. Perhaps she thought it wasn't right for her image to sing a song like that. But, to be honest, we don't really know why the songs stayed on the shelf. It's strange, the orchestra plays perfectly and Piaf is spot on; there’s not one mistake or wrong note. The recording is absolutely flawless. Everything's perfect, both from a technical and an artistic point of view. I guess we'll never know why they weren't used in her lifetime.
How did you go about restoring the old copper 78s?
It was a very long, painstaking process. We worked in a Paris studio that specialises in restoring old recordings where the guys literally had to sit and wash the copper discs by hand to remove the rust. Then they had to make a sort of customised record-player with a special needle and a special deck so they could play the discs. The sound was then fed into a computer and run through several different programmes to clean it up. The major problem was to clean the sound without touching the music. That meant removing all the clicks and pops and surface noise but trying to keep the original ambience so that listeners are projected back into the world of wartime cabaret.
Interview: Julie Street
SPECIAL THEME ALBUMS :
Carnegie Hall 1956 and 1957: 37 songs (also included in the "complete works") from a series of concerts Piaf performed at New York's most prestigious music venue. This is the first time the concert recordings have been released in their entirety.
Hymn to Love: Piaf sings 16 English versions of her finest songs.
Piaf la môme de Paris: This compilation, produced in collaboration with Paris City Hall, features 22 songs about the French capital. An exhibition based on the Little Sparrow’s relationship with the French capital, runs at City Hall from 10 October to 30 January 2004.
RE-RELEASES:
13 original Piaf albums have been re-released as CDs but also as vinyl LPs (in the original 25 and 30cm formats). This gives fans the chance to collect some stunning album covers including those used on Le Bel indifférent (the play Jean Cocteau wrote specially for Piaf), L’Olympia 1961 and the dramatic photo used for Les Amants de Téruel in 1962.
DVDs:
Eternelle: Rare footage and interviews recounting Piaf's early life, her relationships with husbands and lovers, her stage performances and forays into theatre and film. Release date: 18 November (EMI).
Hits et légendes: Classic Piaf songs plus bonus interviews and behind-the-scenes exclusives. Release date: 21 October (Warner Vision).
Stage tributes:
Claudette Dion (Céline's sister) sings Piaf at L’Olympia (Paris) on 16 November. Album released on Up Music.
Michèle Torr sings Piaf in Liège (Belgium), April 2004.
Edith, la fille du père Gassion, stage play Le Théâtre du Renard, Paris (12 rue du Renard, Paris 4th) until 26 October.
CDs:
Mireille Mathieu sings Piaf (CD, EMI Capitol).
Charles Dumont, de Piaf à Dumont, (CD, XIII bis Records).
Ana Salazar, Un Himno al amor (Piaf in Portuguese, CD, Decca Universal, release date: 14 October 2003).
Books:
Edith Piaf: sans amour, on est rien du tout / Jean-Dominique Brierre (168-page biography, Hors Collection, 2003).
Edith Piaf / Henri-Jean Servat (photo album, Assouline, 2003).
Vivante: récit biographique / Isabelle Sobelman (biography, Melville, 2003)
Sur un air de Piaf / David Lelait (Payot, essay, 2003)
Piaf secrète/ Jean Noli (L’Archipel, 2003).
L’HYMNE A LA MÔME: Following musical homages to Brassens, Gainsbourg and Brel, the tribute trend continues with a compilation of Piaf covers recorded by contemporary artists. Listeners be warned, these are extremely variable in quality. Highlights include Isabelle Boulay (Les Mots d’amour), Stephan Eicher (La Goualante du Pauvre Jean), Etienne Daho (Mon Manège à moi, the 1993 version) and an interesting contribution from French actress Clotilde Courau (Les Amants d’un jour). But Raphael's duo with top model Laetitia Casta fails to hit the mark. And perhaps the kindest review of Jean-Louis Aubert's version of J’t’ai dans la peau is: no comment! Chimène Badi, a newcomer discovered on TV talent show Popstars, puts in a surprisingly good performance, however, her Georgette Lemaire-style vocals sounding wonderfully close to the spirit of Piaf's original.
RFI Musique asks Chimène Badi, Enrico Macias, Cheb Mami and Axelle Red about the covers they chose for the album:
ENRICO MACIAS:
Piaf: It's rare for a singer from the "variété" world to have a career that extends beyond death – and Piaf goes further than that even because she will always exist! That voice of hers that's partway between opera and "variété". She's a legend and an immortal one at that!
His cover: A song's like a painting really – you shouldn't change the colour in anyway! Sous le ciel de Paris has it's own special colour and you have to respect that. After all, the song's about Paris, not Andalusia! You can't go writing arrangements that don't fit the spirit of the melody and the lyrics.
AXELLE RED:
Piaf: You don't necessarily have to get out an accordion to be a modern Piaf. It's more a question of touching people's emotions, making them want to weep – and singing from your guts! Aretha Franklin does that like Piaf even though in other respects the two singers are diametrically opposed.
Her cover: I actually thought about turning down the invitation (to appear on the Piaf tribute), especially as last year there was this moment on Star Academy when one of the judges told a candidate who was singing out of tune that it sounded like "Axelle Red doing Piaf!" Personally, I think it would be a mistake to be inspired by Piaf's way of performing a song. You just fall into a trap that way. It's easy to imitate someone, but that's not the point of the exercise for me.
CHEB MAMI:
Piaf: I'd compare Piaf to Om Kalsom. People said Kalsom came to represent Arab music and I think it's the same for Piaf – she really epitomised French chanson.
His cover: I have to admit I was a bit nervous about it! Piaf's way of performing a song verges on the magical. I drove round listening to the song in my car for three days to try and really get to grips with the way she interpreted it. The scale hasn't been changed at all, you know – I do Piaf's note and let me tell you I had to go very high to get it!
I chose Rien de rien because there aren't too many words and my French isn't all that good… But the real reason I chose the song was because it has a bit of a Middle Eastern feel to it and I thought that's something I could bring out in the song.
CHIMENE BADI:
Piaf: There's no-one else like Piaf. She's completely unique. I really like Mireille Mathieu, too. I think she's more or less got the same kind of voice as Piaf but there's no doubt about it, Piaf was really something out of the ordinary! I don't care whether some people find her old-fashioned now. Personally,
16/02/2007 -
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