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Jean Ferrat
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Jean Ferrat was a French chansonnier, composer and poet, born in 1930 as Jean Tenenbaum in Vaucresson, near Paris. His father, a Jewish jeweller of Russian origin, was arrested in 1942 and murdered in Auschwitz. The family went into hiding in the south of France and was helped there by communists. From then on Ferrat felt a bond with the French Communist Party, although he did not always agree with it.
Music and breakthrough
In the early 1950s he began in the Parisian cabarets. In 1956 he set Les yeux d'Elsa, a poem by Louis Aragon, to music, and in 1960 he broke through with Ma môme. Nuit et brouillard (1963), about the deportations, and La montagne (1964), about life in the countryside of the Ardèche, where he went to live himself, followed. Ferrat adapted dozens of Aragon's poems into songs, such as Aimer à perdre la raison, and in 1971 Ferrat chante Aragon appeared. His song Ma France (1969) was for a time banned from French radio. In 1973 he stopped performing.
Influence
Ferrat was a committed singer, who showed that a chanson could be about anything, including war and injustice. His songs leaned on strong lyrics, with a warm voice and sober accompaniment by the orchestra of the arranger Alain Goraguer. He also had influence in the Netherlands: to the melody of La montagne, Friso Wiegersma wrote Het dorp, which made Wim Sonneveld famous. Ferrat died in 2010.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1961Jean Ferrat
- 1962Jean Ferrat
- 1963Jean Ferrat
- 1965Jean Ferrat
- 1965Jean Ferrat
- 1967Jean Ferrat
- 1967Jean Ferrat
- 1969Ma France
- 1970Camarade
- 1971Aimer à perdre la raison
- 1971Ferrat chante Aragon
- 1972Jean Ferrat
- 1975La femme est l’avenir de l’homme
- 19762 - Eh l'amour ! / Le P'tit Jardin - 1962
- 1979Enregistrement 1979
- 19801 - Deux Enfants au soleil / Ma môme - 1961
- 198010 - La Commune / Aimer à perdre la raison - 1971
- 198011 - À moi l'Afrique / Une femme honnête - 1972
- 19803 - Nuit et Brouillard / C'est beau la vie - 1963
- 19804 - La Montagne / Que serais-je sans toi - 1964
- 19805 - Potemkine / C'est toujours la première fois - 1965
- 19806 - Maria / Heureux celui qui meurt d'aimer - 1966
- 19807 - À Santiago / Cuba si - 1967
- 19808 - Ma France / Au printemps de quoi rêvais-tu - 68/69
- 19809 - Camarade / Sacré Félicien
- 1980Ferrat 80
- 1981Ferrat chante Aragon
- 1985Je ne suis qu’un cri
- 1991Ferrat 91
- 1994Ferrat 95 : 16 Nouveaux Poèmes d’Aragon
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 11: NederpopNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Het dorp Song
It is an adaptation of La montagne by the French chansonnier Jean Ferrat.