Chanson.
Artist Biography by John D. Buchanan (Allmusic)
The music of Pierre Perret captured the lives of the French working class with uncommon precision. A supremely gifted lyricist renowned for his mordant wit and playful eroticism, his songs employed everyday slang to startlingly poetic effect. Born in Castelsarrazin on July 9, 1934, Perret spent a sizable chunk of his adolescence in his father's restaurant, Le Café du Pont, absorbing the street-smart patois of the local workers who comprised its core clientele. At the same time, he studied music theory and saxophone, and later attended the Toulouse Conservatoire. Beginning in 1953, Perret served a three-year term in the French military. Assigned to the army music corps, he began writing his first songs, and during a subsequent stint playing guitar in support of aspiring singer Françoise Lô (later known as Sophie Makhno), he occasionally performed his own material in between sets. In time Perret came to the attention of agent Emile Hebey, who introduced him to label owner Eddie Barclay. His debut single, "Moi J'Attends Adèle," was released in 1957, but despite a regular presence on the Paris nightclub circuit, most notably an extended residency at the Colombe on the Ile de la Cité, the record failed to catch on.
After a 1958 tour of Africa and France in support of the immortal American R&B vocal quintet the Platters, Perret was diagnosed with pleurisy. He spent the better part of two years in a sanatorium, writing the songs that comprised his 1960 debut LP, Le Bonheur Conjugal, but sales were again middling and Barclay terminated his contract. Perret resurfaced on Vogue in 1963 with "Le Tord Boyaux" ("Rot Gut"). The single proved a blockbuster hit, selling more than 100,000 copies and establishing the acerbic wit that would remain the hallmark of his lyrics for the duration of his career. A series of follow-up hits including "Trop Contente" and "La Corrida" culminated with 1966's "Les Jolies Colonies de Vacances," the biggest and most beloved French pop song of its year. That November, Perret headlined his first performance at the famed Olympia Theatre, returning two years later to cut a live album. After co-starring in Claude Autant-Lara's 1969 feature film Les Patates, Perret resumed his music career with 1971's "La Cage aux Oiseaux." His biggest hit to date, 1974's "Le Zizi" ("The Willy") sold more than five million copies, but in the years to follow his music grew more thoughtful, with 1977's "Lily" winning the Prix de la Ligue Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme for its attack on racism.
Perret subsequently explored suburban malaise ("Y'a des Gosses Dans l'Escalier"), abortion ("Elle Attend Son Petit"), and famine ("Riz Pile"), and spent much of the 1980s channeling his energy into books, most notably Le Petit Perret Illustré par l'Exemple. In 1983 Perret traveled to China, the inspiration behind the album Comment C'Est la Chine? In 1987, he published a cookbook, Au Petit Perret Gourmand, and continued work on a three-volume update of The Fables of La Fontaine written in contemporary slang. He did not release a new LP until 1992's Bercy Madeleine, returning a year later with Chansons de Toute une Vie, a compendium assembling 250 of his songs. The 1995 release of Anthologie de la Chanson Érotique was overshadowed by the death of Perret's youngest daughter, Julie, and after more than a year out of the limelight, he resurfaced in late 1996 with an extended stay at the Casino de Paris, recorded for a subsequent live album. That same year, he also earned the Grand Prix de la Chanson Française and published a book on the art of eating titled La Cuisine de Ma Femme.
Perret finally returned to recording with 1998's La Bête Est Revenue, a blistering meditation on the rise of the far-right French National Front. 2002's Cui-La continued to tackle weighty themes such as globalization, but on 2006's Mélangez-Vous he returned to the playful wit of his early work. During the next few years, as well as a children's album, Pierrot Chante pour les Gamins, he released a trio of records which were decidely not for children: Le Plaisir des Dieux (2007), Les Dieux Paillards (2008) and Trésors de la Paillardise (2009) collected the bawdiest and most lecherous of French songs and bore the legend "Oreilles chastes s'abstenir" ("Chaste ears should abstain"). In 2010 he returned to a more politicized style with the album La Femme Grillagée, which spoke out against the maltreatment and subordination of women.
Song:
In the mid-1970s, Pierre Perret became known in France as a comic singer through a few popular hits (Les Jolies Colonies de vacances, Le Zizi). In 1977, he published Lily, a song about racism and the integration of foreigners that marked a shift towards more committed songs. It thus highlights the situation of immigrants who are victims of violence and discrimination.
Lily tells the story of a woman who came from Somalis (now Djibouti) with other immigrants "who all came voluntarily to empty the garbage in Paris". Losing her illusions, she courageously faced racism and emigrated to the United States where she faced the same difficulties, and found some comfort in Angela Davis.
Pierre Perret came up with the idea for this song after attending a conference of the latter in New York. When he began writing the song, France still favoured economic immigration. In 1977, when Lily was published, France put an end to economic immigration three years ago in favour of family reunification, at the initiative of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
According to Pierre Perret, the song earned him many letters of insults. He received the "1978 Peace Prize" from the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
The League for Human Rights selects Lily for the book Hundred Poems Against Racism published in 1992. The singer Barbara pays tribute to Pierre Perret in her singing tour at Le Châtelet in 1993, by taking Lily back to the piano voice.
The song's text, which has become a "classic", was presented at the 2005 Technology Baccalaureate early test.
On May 6 and 7, 2011, "La fête à Lily", an anti-racism event held in the Bas-Rhin region, was launched with simultaneous interpretation of the song by Pierre Perret and nearly 1,500 people at 18 sites.
Elle arrivait des Somalies, Lily,
Dans un bateau plein d’émigrés
Qui venaient tous de leur plein gré
Vider les poubelles à Paris.
Elle croyait qu'on était égaux, Lily,
Au pays de Voltaire et d’Hugo, Lily,
Mais pour Debussy en revanche
Il faut deux noires pour une blanche
Ça fait un sacré distinguo.
Elle aimait tant la liberté, Lily,
Elle rêvait de fraternité, Lily,
Un hôtelier rue Secrétan
Lui a précisé en arrivant
Qu’on ne recevait que des blancs.
Elle a déchargé des cageots, Lily,
Elle s’est tapé les sales boulots, Lily,
Elle crie pour vendre des choux-fleurs,
Dans la rue, ses frères de couleur
L’accompagnent au marteau-piqueur.
Et quand on l’appelait Blanche-Neige, Lily,
Elle se laissait plus prendre au piège, Lily,
Elle trouvait ça très amusant,
Même s’il fallait serrer les dents,
Ils auraient été trop contents.
Elle aima un beau blond frisé, Lily,
Qui était tout prêt à l'épouser, Lily,
Mais la belle-famille lui dit : « Nous
Ne sommes pas racistes pour deux sous
Mais on ne veut pas de ça chez nous. »
Elle a essayé l’Amérique, Lily,
Ce grand pays démocratique, Lily,
Elle aurait pas cru sans le voir
Que la couleur du désespoir
Là-bas aussi ce fût le noir.
Mais, dans un meeting à Memphis, Lily,
Elle a vu Angela Davis, Lily,
Qui lui dit : « Viens ma petite sœur,
En s’unissant, on a moins peur
Des loups qui guettent le trappeur. »
Et c’est pour conjurer sa peur, Lily,
Qu’elle lève aussi un poing rageur, Lily,
Au milieu de tous ces gugusses,
Qui foutent le feu aux autobus
Interdits aux gens de couleur.
Mais, dans ton combat quotidien, Lily,
Tu connaîtras un type bien, Lily,
Et l’enfant qui naîtra un jour
Aura la couleur de l’amour
Contre laquelle on ne peut rien.
On la trouvait plutôt jolie, Lily,
Elle arrivait des Somalies, Lily,
Dans un bateau plein d’émigrés
Qui venaient tous de leur plein gré
Vider les poubelles à Paris.
She looked rather cute, Lily
She came from Somalia, Lily
in a ship full of immigrants
who all came willingly
to sweep the streets of Paris.
She thought we were all equal, Lily,
in Voltaire and Hugo's country, Lily,
yet on Debussy's keyboard still
white keys outnumber black ones1,
that's quite a difference.
She loved freedom so much, Lily,
she dreamed of brotherhood, Lily,
a hotel clerk in Secrétan street
made it clear to her that coloured people
were not welcome here.
She hauled crates, Lily,
she did all the dirty works, Lily,
she barks to sell her cauliflowers
while in the street her coloured brothers
accompany her on their jackhammers.
And when they called her Snow White, Lily,
she did not fall for the old trick, Lily,
she found it quite amusing,
though she had to grit her teeth,
she would not give them the satisfaction.
She met a handsome blond guy, Lily,
who would gladly have married her, Lily,
but the in-laws-to-be said "we are
anything but racist, still
that kind does not belong here".
She had a go at America, Lily,
this great democratic country, Lily,
she had to see with her own eyes
that the color of despair
was black even there.
Now in a meeting in Memphis, Lily,
she met Angela Davis, Lily,
who said "come, little sister
together we are less frightened.
of the wolves circling the trapper".
So it is to soothe her fear, Lily,
that she too raises an angry fist, Lily,
among all these crackpots
who burn to the ground
these white-only busses.
Still, amidst your daily strife, Lily,
you will meet a good man, Lily,
and the child who will be born someday
will be the color of love
that nothing can reach.
She looked rather cute, Lily
She came from Somalia, Lily
in a ship full of immigrants
who all came willingly
to sweep the streets of Paris.
1. lit. "you need two quarter notes to make a half note". Quarter notes are called "black" and half notes "white" in French