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MUSIC

‘Great poet’ Dylan to get French honour after all

Despite his reported fondnesss for weed and well-recorded warbashing, US folk music legend Bob Dylan has swayed offical France with his work, and the "great poet" will now become a member of the Légion d'Honneur, it was confirmed on Monday.

Published: 3 June 2013 14:38 CEST
'Great poet' Dylan to get French honour after all
Bob Dylan receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Barack Obama in May 2012. It was confirmed on June 3rd that Dylan will receive a similar French honour. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP

After weeks of controversy, the Legion d’Honneur awards committee confirmed on Monday the 72-year-old singer will indeed be given France's highest award.

The hallowed institution's initial reception to news that Dylan had been nominated by Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti was less positive.

Weekly satirical and investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchainé newspaper last month reported that Jean-Louis Georgelin, a French army general and Great Chancellor of the Légion d’honneur, was none too pleased to receive the name of Dylan, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman.

At the time, a representative from the Légion told The Local that there would be neither denial nor confirmation of any objections within the halls of the institution to the nomination of the anti-Vietnam War hero, which were said to be due to Dylan's pot-smoking, anti-war past.

The award's committee had since reviewed the "chaotic life and lyrics of an exceptional artist who is recognized in his own country and throughout the world as a major singer and a great poet,” Georgelin told Le Monde,

The general leads a 17-member panel that collectively decides whether to “receive” a nominee, based on that individual’s ”honour and morality.”

Having a criminal record, for example, would make a confirmation impossible.

"The board has now transmitted a favourable opinion to the president of the republic and the minister of culture will shortly be able to appoint Bob Dylan to the Légion d'Honneur," Georgelin confirmed.

While non-French citizens do not become full members of the Légion d’honneur, Dylan, if he accepts, will be allowed to wear the insignia alongside previous recipients such as noted anti-war activist Sir Paul McCartney.

The former Beatle was made an Officer of the Légiond’honneur by French President François Hollande in 2012.

Last year, Dylan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama, the highest available civilian honour in the United States.

Dylan was a pacifist icon and leading voice in the campaign against American military intervention in Vietnam during the 1960s and 70s, and his protest song "Blowin' in the Wind" was a constant feature of anti-war gatherings during that era.

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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