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Félix Leclerc, 20 years on
A Quebecois chanson legend
Montréal
08/08/2008 -
The morning newspapers on August, 8, 1988 carried a strange story: a veritable "epidemic" of weddings had struck China. It was the eight day of the eighth month of the year 88, which was supposed to bring luck and prosperity. And yet in Quebec, it was a day of mourning. At 8.08 am, Félix Leclerc had died on his beloved Orleans Island, near the province's capital Quebec City.
Twenty years later, while China opens the 29th Olympic Games on this supposedly propitious day, Quebec considers the legacy of its national bard, playwright, novelist, actor, poet and artist, who was steadfastly committed to the future of Quebec.
"What’s really surprising is that for the younger generation, he’s just a trophy," says Monique Giroux, presenter at Radio Canada and expert in Francophone music, referring to the "Prix Félix", which is the Quebecois equivalent of the Grammy Awards. This prize has been awarded by ADISQ, the Quebec recording and entertainment industry organisation, since 1979.
"Félix" is a trophy, but it is also a monument set in the beautiful Lafontaine Park in the heart of Montreal, as well as the name of Highway 40, which crosses Quebec from east to west. There are also a number of parks named in Leclerc’s honour, plus a library and at least five schools, including one in the neighbouring province of Ontario, where French speakers are actually in a minority.
Je me souviens
For the 20th anniversary of his death, fourteen artists - including Gilles Vigneault, Chloé Ste-Marie, Karkwa and Patrick Bruel - got together to record their versions of Félix Leclerc songs on album entitled Je me souviens (I remember), released on 2nd September. "The fact that artists of different generations are interpreting my father’s work, often in very surprising and modern ways, is a mark of its continuing relevance and importance," says Nathalie Leclerc, director of the Espace Félix-Leclerc cultural centre and the Fondation Félix-Leclerc. She is also the daughter of "Félix Leclerc the Canadian", as he was presented to the Paris public for the first time in 1950, at the ABC theatre, and then later at the Trois Baudets in 1951.
The new album, and the commemorative show at the Montreal FrancoFolies last week, are obviously tied to the 20th anniversary of Félix Leclerc’s death. But the wider truth is that as Quebecois Francophone music becomes increasingly modern, it also becomes increasingly removed from the world of Félix Leclerc.
"He’s hardly played on the radio any more," laments Monique Giroux. But for Nathalie Leclerc, his music doesn’t have to be heard every day for people to remember his work. "The Francophone world is bursting with new talent, and we have to give it room."
Leclerc, the trailblazer
That new talent includes the likes of Catherine Major, whose second album, Rose Sang, was a huge critical success, winning the Prix Félix-Leclerc for chanson on August 1st, during the FrancoFolies festival.
Major, who is also involved in the Je me souviens project, has cultivated strong ties with the artist and his work. Coincidentally, she is also scheduled to perform at the Trois Baudets in Paris in the coming autumn, the same theatre where Leclerc triumphed. "I have strong memories of Félix’s songs because they were always played in the house when I was young." It was indeed for Catherine Major's grandmother, one of his first loves, that Félix Leclerc wrote the song Notre Sentier (our path)… which Catherine in turn covers on the Je me souviens album!
There are exceptions, but the new generation of Quebec singer-songwriters aren't especially interested in Félix Leclerc’s work or his songwriting style. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Leclerc has had an influence on them, just as he had on Richard Séguin, Beau Dommage or Sylvain Lelièvre, and even on Brel, Brassens or Béart on the other side of the Atlantic. "The Quebecois say that they are the children of Félix," explains Monique Giroux. "The French will say they’re the children of Brassens. But Brassens himself was a child of Félix in a certain way, even if some will say that this is a bit of an exaggeration."
What did the public, the artists and the Parisian critics see in this artist brought over from Quebec by Jacques Canetti? In 1951 a Paris Match critic commented on Radio Canada that "I immediately felt that he had a freshness and naiveté about him that was quite new to chanson. […] He is admired by everyone." In that same report, a colleague claimed that "apart from Charles Trenet, I don’t know any singer or artist as consummate as he is."
At a time when chanson and French variety was more about teamwork, when you didn’t climb up on stage without a backing orchestra, Félix Leclerc’s style seemed liberating. Alone on stage, accompanying himself on guitar, singing his own songs, he broke the "music hall" mould of Maurice Chevalier or Charles Trenet. The message was that anyone who aspired to success had a chance. Many followed in his footsteps, and Francophone chanson spun off in new directions.
Perhaps one of those directions was America. Thomas Hellman, a Montreal native who spoke at a Félix Leclerc conference in Paris last spring, believes that Leclerc introduced a typically North American style to French chanson. "I see a direct link between his musical style and American folk, in the sound of his guitar, the choice of chords and the song structures," he claims, even going so far as to cite Woody Guthrie’s style.
Félix was a trailblazer. As he put it himself in an interview on Radio Canada, "I guess someone had to do it, and it ended up being me, but we have to continue with it now. I think we have now established a dialogue between the French-Canadians and the French."
The prophet and the adage…
Although he has become a symbol of national identity, and has left his mark on Francophone chanson, for the Quebecois, Félix Leclerc’s legacy is best summed by an old adage: No one is a prophet in his own country. In Quebec there is such a thing as the "Félix Leclerc syndrome", which, as Monique Giroux explains, is "when one of our artists succeeds abroad. And it’s only when he’s had that overseas success and comes back that his compatriots think he might have something special."
Before he’d gone to Paris, Félix Leclerc – as an author and songwriter - had come under severe criticism. "Going to France saved him," his daughter believes. Nearly sixty years after his first overseas concert, Quebecois artists still sometimes have to find success away from their homeland before finding it in Quebec. That was indeed the case with Corneille, Malajube, Arcade Fire and so many other young musicians who probably don’t understand their connection with the late, great Félix Leclerc…
Philippe Renaud
31/07/2008 -
