Nashville or Belleville, aUP DATE with video and lyrics/translation

[Jean Pierre]

NEW video clip with lyrics and translation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o1UeUR0LTQ


The historico musical minute of Uncl'JP

Nashville is a city in the United States, the cradle of country and rock music.

Belleville is an eclectic and popular (now trendy and chic) suburb of Paris.

It was here that Eddy Mitchell, a leading figure in French Rock 'n Roll, grew up. 

1952, Bill Haley "Rock around the Clock
1956, Jerry Lee Lewis "Great balls of Fire
1956, Luis Mariano, Basque tenor and popular singer "Le Chanteur de Mexico" 


Eddy Mitchel, 81 years old, belongs to the post-war generation that grew up with rock'n'roll, an emerging music imported from the States, just like westerns and chewing gum.

A time when in France the music of our parents, including the iconic Luis Mariano, still reigned supreme.

At that time, like Eddy, I was discovering RnR music in my neighborhood in the "Etats Unis" (the name of my neighborhood in Lyon).

and like Eddy Mitchell, I discovered Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly on records imported from the USA   
and like Eddy, I used to go with my mother to my local cinema (le Bocage) to see Luis Mariano in ...La belle de Cadix and Le Chanteur de Mexico!

From 1974 onwards, Eddy Mitchell regularly recorded in Nashville, with studio music stars such as harmonica player Charlie McCoy.

In 1975, Eddy Mitchell was made an honorary citizen of Tennessee, the state's ambassador to France and ... sheriff of Nashville.

[the physics teacher]

Superbe JP it realy swings very ejoyable to listen to.

[Ted]

Thanks for the musical history lesson!

What a melting pot this song is. It sounds more like a piece of musical theater than, say, a song made for radio. The stops and starts all part of the choreography.

Also: It sounds like you are back in full form after your recent illness. That's great to hear.

[BerryPatch]

Great insights in the description! I wish I could feel what it was like growing up in France in the late 50s/60s. A time of change!

Excellent recording, I love the slinky guitar work here. I love the old rock n roll sound of this recording. Nice vocal as well! 

[Jean Pierre]

Merci Ted et BP
J'ai mis un clip video avec les paroles en français et leur traductions dans le premier message 

[Ted]

A fun video – interspersed with clips of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.

I wonder if younger musicians – at least in the USA and Europe – still struggle with "where are my roots." I think even I was born too late for confusion about musical identity – as I was not exposed to nearly any music at all that was not in English. By the time I was a pre-teen, the British Invasion was over, and music on the radio could have been from the UK or the USA. In spite of the variety in those days, I could hardly tell the difference between the sensibilities of either side; I couldn't hear a new song or band and instantly guess from which side of the Atlantic it originated. Perhaps punk re-introduced a new dual-identity dichotomy in English-language music. To oversimplify: Punk in the UK served a much more political role than it did in the USA. American punk was more of nonconformist attitude or posture. UK punk had a purpose.

Anyway: The identity struggles of non-English-speaking musicians never crossed my mind.

Here in Madagascar, I know many Malagasy musicians who are excellent players in rock, jazz, blues, and even punk. Andry (who played on one of my recent songs) is as good of a rock guitarist with whom I've ever played. I don't sense that he struggles with the question "Where are my roots." But I've never heard him play traditional Malagasy music. Perhaps he's firmly rooted in American traditions.

[Jean Pierre]

Thanks Ted for your very interesting comment... it's true that I'm a generation ahead of you (kid!).
And for my generation, little French kid from the suburbs, we went from the music of our parents Luis Mariano, Dalida, Charles Trenet, Maurice Chevalier, etc. (that I liked and that we heard exclusively on the radio)..to a music that was a 180° turn with the records of Bill haley, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, gene vincent, Elvis of course...

The cohabitation of these two cultures was very unsettling for us 10-15 year olds.
Eddy Mitchell, who's a little older than me (he's 45, but three years older when you're 14 is huge ), like all the young singers of his generation (Johnny Haliday, Dick Rivers...), belongs to that generation of variety singers who appeared during the yéyé period (the 60s) and most of whose hits were in fact adaptations of American (or even English) hits. He bears witness to the importance of American culture in France.
But some, like Eddy Mitchell, were torn between this American musical culture and the French variety music of the time.


Translated with DeepL.com (free version)