Hélène Martin

Chanson des villes

1969 · Disques du Cavalier CVR LM 85 · Cabrières-d'Avignon, France

Artist
Hélène Martin
Title
Chanson des villes
Release
René Char - Terres mutilées
Year
1969
Label
Disques du Cavalier # CVR LM 85
Format
LP · Album
Language
French
Country
Cabrières-d'Avignon, France
Genre
Chanson · Chanson
Primary theme
Peace, Protest & Anti-War

Annotation

Chanson artist, born on 10 December 1928, in Paris, France, and died 21 February 2021, in Cordemais, France. This album featured the song "L'enfant mort" ("The Dead Child") (Disques du Cavalier # CVR LM 84). She also released this in 1973 on the charity single L'enfant mort / Bonnes vacances, discussed below. It took an anti-war position, looking at the perspective of a civilian suffering in a war zone, "they fired again, I have a dead child in my arms". Presumably a reference to Vietnam, the narrator says "we took the air in the bamboo, bowl of rice, it was a feast", while the "the children well fed from my carefree Paris".Also on this album is the song "Chanson des villes" ("Song of the Cities"), which was also a general anti-war song of the era, referencing several conflicts, including the well-known battle Dien Bien Phu, in the First Indo-China War, between France and Vietnamese forces: "My cities in blood, my cities shot... It's Dien Bien Phu... My bombarded cities".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — European Songs

Chanson artist, born on 10 December 1928, in Paris, France, and died 21 February 2021, in Cordemais, France. This album featured the song "L'enfant mort" ("The Dead Child") (Disques du Cavalier # CVR LM 84). She also released this in 1973 on the charity single L'enfant mort / Bonnes vacances, discussed below. It took an anti-war position, looking at the perspective of a civilian suffering in a war zone, "they fired again, I have a dead child in my arms". Presumably a reference to Vietnam, the narrator says "we took the air in the bamboo, bowl of rice, it was a feast", while the "the children well fed from my carefree Paris". Also on this album is the song "Chanson des villes" ("Song of the Cities"), which was also a general anti-war song of the era, referencing several conflicts, including the well-known battle Dien Bien Phu, in the First Indo-China War, between France and Vietnamese forces: "My cities in blood, my cities shot... It's Dien Bien Phu... My bombarded cities".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

Born on 10 December 1928, in Paris, France, and died 21 February 2021, in Cordemais, France

Themes

Anti-War

In collections

European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs