As a musician, I’d be remiss to exclude the important subject of music and i’ll be posting several thoughts (not reviews) on French music (from Classical to Experimental) as time goes by. Despite the limited French musical choices we hear on TV and the radio (I mean, WHY do they make singers sing the same one or two songs on tv over the course of…FOREVER? You know what I’m talking about. Like, how many times will we hear Marc Lavoine sing, “J’ai tout oublie” or “Elle a les yeux revolver,” or Patrick Bruel sing, “Place des grandes hommes” or “Cassez la voix” or Florent Pagny belt out “Con te partiro” or “Savoir Aimer” or the legendary Aznavour’s “La Boheme” or EVERYBODY singing Clo Clo’s (Claude Francois)’s “Comme d’habitude” (the original ‘I Did it My Way’) or or or Renaud’s raspy, out of tune, “Mistral gagnant”?) Ok, this can go on an extended rant (like, for many years!!) and I’m digressing.

Anyway, France DOES have a rich selection of music, you just have to look a little deeper and a little harder. Of course, I have to start off with my all time favorite in France. Francis Cabrel. I just love him and luckily i did get to see him in concert just a few months ago.

They call Francis Cabrel the “Bob Dylan of France” but I find that not only an insult but extraordinarily inaccurate. Yes, he was greatly influenced by the folksy American singer but my Francis definitely outsings and outwrites Dylan by light years, hands down. Ok. I’m biased. I LOVE HIM. Admittedly, Dylan was before my time so I don’t know his entire repertoire but the songs I have heard by him, I gotta say, are sort of hard on the ears. To add even more insult to injury (sorry), well, France Dylan is WAY nicer on the EYES than American Dylan. (Don’t hate me, flower children, Dylan-lovin’ baby booming hippies out there!)

Francis Cabrel is a perfectionist and there’s a good reason why he releases new CDs only every five years. His songs have to be flawless, and they are. His perfect prose, symbiotic melodies and poetic lyrics go deep, and touch you where you feel joy, pain, love, anger, suffering and bliss. How many singers can do that?

There’s a poem by Hugues Royer that can closely match my (and millions of others’) feelings about Francis Cabrel.