2023-07-14 16:00:00
THE SUMMER PLAYLIST. An air of freedom blows over our week with Grace Jones, Daniel Balavoine, La Rappresentante di Lista, Madonna and John Denver.
By Anne-Sophie Jahn What do we listen to when packing? Follow the leader ! © LAURE BOYER / Hans Lucas via AFP Published on 07/14/2023 at 4:00 p.m.
That’s it, summer vacation has begun, your days are settled, you’re ready to throw your bathing suits in the bottom of your suitcase, the music blaring in your apartment, sliding on the floor like Tom Cruise in Risky Business. But what songs?
« I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango) » de Grace Jones (1981)
Taken from the album Nightclubbing, it is one of the best hits of the spectacular Jamaican singer and actress Grace Jones. A hit that you can spend days humming and that gives an inexpressible feeling of freedom. Is it because it is based on Astor Piazolla’s heady melody, “Libertango”, a contraction of “liberty” and “tango”, a symbol of his distancing from classical tango for “tango nuovo” ? Anyway, that’s his boyfriend of the time, Jean-Paul Goude, who made him discover it, and who will realize the cover and the clip (turned in front of his New York loft). The tune of the Argentinian composer is here revisited with dub, club and emerging new wave sauce. The lyrics are signed by Grace Jones herself and Barry Raynolds, known for his work with Marianne Faithfull and hired by the sleuth Chris Blackwell (who also discovered Bob Marley), founder of the Def Jam label, to produce the album of the model, disco icon of the 1970s. There are even two verses in French, evoking the dark side of Parisian nights, translated by Blackwell’s girlfriend at the time, Nathalie Delon: “In his room, Joel and his suitcase / A look at his clothes / On the walls, photos / Without regret, without melodrama / The door is slammed / Joel is barred. »
READ ALSO5 songs for booking a hotel
« Bye Bye » from The List Representative (2022)
There are few tunes as uplifting as this song written by Sicilian pop-rock duo La Rappresentante di Lista. Presented at the San Remo Festival 2022, the famous Italian song contest, gateway to Eurovision, it unfortunately only reached seventh place at the latter (that year, the Ukrainians of Kalush Orchestra had won setting). Terribly dancing, it describes an atmosphere of celebration and revolution in a context of general crisis. Sounds like a vacation…
« The Power of Good-Bye » de Madonna (1998)
« There’s nothing left to try / There’s no more places to hide / There’s no greater power / Than the power of goodbye… This richly arranged song is one of Madonna’s most peaceful. The diva, who had just played in Evita (she appears here brown and natural), had also given birth to her daughter, discovered Kabbalah, Buddhism and yoga. In short, she was fine and it shows. Everything in this piece is an invitation to let go and freedom. It is one of the best titles of the acclaimed Ray of Lighthis seventh album, where we feel the influence of electronic music and surrounding trip hop, before it became mainstream.
“Goodbye” by Daniel Balavoine (1982)
Reggae touches, bouncy, guitar solos, we think of “D’yer Mak’er” by Led Zeppelin, but these are very French lyrics that emerge: “Au revoir au revoir / S’en aller de la ville / Sans autres longing / Just a little comfort / Quiet…” In this farewell to the city in the form of a cry from the heart rising in the treble (to be reproduced only at home if you do not have the vocal range of three octaves and a half of the singer), Daniel Balavoine went to Ibiza (high resort!) with new musicians to record this song and his sixth album sellers of tears (that of “Live or survive”). He was then at the height of his career, his previous album was a hit thanks to “My son my battle”, “I am not a hero”, “Life teaches me nothing”… He can therefore afford a few hobbies.
« Leaving On A Jet Plane » de John Denver (1966)
“Astronauts! It’s time to go ! “In his orange spacesuit, Ben Affleck then takes Liv Tyler in his arms and sings:” All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go… He must save the Earth from an asteroid the size of Texas which is about to crash into it and bids farewell to his sweetheart, soon joined (in song and in orbit) by his colleagues. It is one of the most striking scenes ofArmageddon, Michael Bay’s disaster movie, and few lyrics capture the mixed feelings (the melancholy of what’s left and the excitement of what’s to come) of setting out on a long journey so well as “Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver. The American wrote and recorded these lyrics in 1966, at the age of 23, and it’s the perfect piece to look out the window of a taxi or a Boeing 737, during an unloved departure: ” So kiss me and smile for me / Tell me that you’ll wait for me / Hold me like you’ll never let me go »…
#songs #pack