| Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 1977 | |||
| Recorded | February 1977 | |||
| Studio | Studio Hoche, Paris [1] | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 36:23 | |||
| Label | Barclay | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Daniel Balavoine chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... | ||||
| ||||
Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... is the second album by French singer Daniel Balavoine, released in February 1977. It was a concept album based on the subject of two brothers separated by the Berlin Wall. [1] [2]
Balavoine signed with the record label Barclay in 1975 and recorded his first album De vous à elle en passant par moi. However, the album sold poorly and ended up being a commercial failure. In 1976, his girlfriend at the time, singer Catherine Ferry, was invited to Poland to perform on stage. During their trip to Poland, both Balavoine and Ferry were shocked to discover the poor standards of living and the lack of freedom people there had. [3] At the time, Poland was ruled by a communist government following the country's takeover by the Soviet Union's Red Army in World War II. In an interview, Balavoine later recounted that:
Sur les plateaux de la télévision, j'ai d'abord rencontré un chanteur dont le rêve était d'aller chanter à Paris, à l'Olympia, mais qui ne le pouvait pas... J'ai trouvé ça vraiment odieux et lamentable. Puis dans la ville, j'ai constaté de drôles de choses. Dans mon hôtel, j'ai vu des gens qui vendaient clandestinement des revues pornos. Dans les grands magasins, j'ai vu des rayons avec mille fois la même paire de gants ou le même imperméable... ça m'a remué le cœur, je me sentais mal, j'ai eu envie de gueuler, j'ai pris le prétexte du Mur de Berlin parce que c'était la seule chose qui me paraissait concrète à ce point-là, c'est-à-dire que c'est quelque chose qui est vraiment bâti contre la liberté individuelle et qu'on peut toucher du doigt.
On television sets, I first met a singer whose dream was to go sing in Paris, at the Olympia, but who couldn't... I found it really odious and lamentable. Then in the city, I noticed strange things. In my hotel, I saw people illegally selling porn magazines. In department stores, I saw shelves with the same pair of gloves or the same raincoat a thousand times... it moved my heart, I felt bad, I wanted to scream, I took the pretext of the Berlin Wall because it was the only thing that seemed concrete to me at that point, that is to say something that is really built against individual freedom and that we can touch with our fingers.
Simon and Gunther are two German brothers: Simon was born in 1933 and Gunther in 1941. Simon lives in East Berlin and Gunther in West Berlin in Viertel. Their father was arrested in 1942 for desertion. On 13 August 1961, the two brothers have an appointment to meet on rue Bernauer; but being on either side of the wall, soldiers send them home. A series of letters then follows, and the two brothers then plan an escape, with Axel and Lilli, childhood friends who are also separated... Axel and Lilli meet again, they are engaged and expecting a child. We learn that there is no more news from Simon, and that whilst trying to pass, he is killed but Axel manages to pass. We can assume that Gunther is injured but he recovers.
"Correspondances" is an instrumental that opens the album. The subsequent songs tell of the separation, and "Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... Stein" which summarises the lives of the two boys from their birth to the separation. "Lady Marlène" details the attempt to cross the wall and "La lettre à Marie", set several years later, shows Gunther gradually regaining his footing, surrounded by the rest of his family and friends. "Ma musique et mon patois" concludes the album, but it is not related to the overall story, as in this song Balavoine defends French rock music (a theme that Balavoine would also later sing about on "Le français est une langue qui résonne").
Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... was released in April 1977 and was given a bigger promotion than Balavoine's first album. One single, "Lady Marlène", was released and was broadcast by some radio stations, notably numerous times on Europe 1 . Balavoine was also invited to perform the song on several television shows including Un sur cinq, presented by Patrice Laffont, and Musique and Music, presented by Jacques Martin. Thanks to his performance on the latter, Balavoine was discovered by Michel Berger who offered him a role performing in the rock opera Starmania . [2] [1] The success of the musical's cast recording album, released in September 1978, helped propel Balavoine's career, with his subsequent album, Le chanteur , going on to sell over 800 thousand copies. [2]
Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... was praised by critics. One review by France-Soir applauded the originality of the album, commending the handling of the subject of the album. [1] Another, by Sud Ouest described it as "undeniably one of the great revelations of the year". [upper-alpha 1] [5] Barclay's artistic director, Léo Missir, was also effusive in his praise of the album. However, he also later said:
J'étais content sans vraiment pouvoir l'être... parce que j'étais dingue de ce disque et je savais qu'il serait difficile de le faire admettre en radio. Comme c'est moi qui allais directement voir les programmateurs, je savais que j'allais plus ou moins au bide… avec un disque exceptionnel !
I was happy without really being able to be... because I was crazy about this record and I knew it would be difficult to get it on the radio. As I was the one going directly to see the programmers, I knew that I was more or less going to fail… with an expectational record!
— Je m'présente, je m'appelle Daniel [1]
However, the album was not as well received by the public, selling fewer than 10 thousand copies. [6] Barclay founder Eddie Barclay was also not impressed with the subject of the album, considering it irrelevant. Also, unlike Léo Missir, Barclay was not keen on Balavoine and after the commercial failure of Les aventures de Simon et Gunther..., he was further unimpressed and demanded that Balavoine produce a successful album otherwise he would be let go from the label. [1] [7]
All tracks are written by Daniel Balavoine, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Correspondances" | 2:45 |
| 2. | "La porte est close" | 3:17 |
| 3. | "La réponse" | 3:18 |
| 4. | "Mon pauvre Gunther" | 3:10 |
| 5. | "J’entends cogner ton cœur" | 4:15 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Lise Altmann" | 3:00 | |
| 7. | "Les aventures de Simon et Gunther… Stein" | Daniel Balavoine, Guy Guermeur | 2:55 |
| 8. | "Lady Marlène" | 4:50 | |
| 9. | "La lettre à Marie" | Daniel Balavoine, Bernard Balavoine | 4:43 |
| 10. | "Ma musique et mon patois" | Daniel Balavoine, Bernard Balavoine | 4:13 |
| Total length: | 36:23 | ||
Francis Christian Cabrel is a French singer-songwriter, composer and guitarist. Considered one of the most influential French musical artists of all time, he has released a number of albums falling mostly within the realm of folk, with occasional forays into blues or country. Several of his songs, such as "L'encre de tes yeux", "Je l'aime à mourir", "Petite Marie", "La Dame de Haute-Savoie", "Encore et encore", "Il faudra leur dire", "Sarbacane", "C'est écrit", "Je t'aimais, je t'aime, je t'aimerai" and "La corrida", have become enduring favourites in French music. Since the start of his career, Cabrel has sold over 25 million albums.
Daniel Xavier-Marie Balavoine was a French singer and songwriter. He was hugely popular in the French-speaking world in the early 1980s; he inspired many singers of his generation such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, who was his closest friend, as well as the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King. Balavoine was a part of the original cast of the rock opera Starmania in 1978, which was written by Berger.
Gaston Ghrenassia , known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is a French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent.
Raymond Berthiaume was a Canadian jazz singer, musician, producer and composer from Quebec, Canada.
Henri Jules Louis Jeanson was a French writer and journalist. He was a "satrap" in the "College of 'Pataphysics".
Catherine Ferry is a French singer. In 1976, at the Eurovision Song Contest, Catherine Ferry represented France with the song "Un, deux, trois". She ranked second in the contest. Among the backing vocalists was Daniel Balavoine, who wrote the B side "Petit Jean". She worked and was produced mainly by Daniel Balavoine a famous French singer who wrote nearly 30 songs for her.
Vendeurs de larmes is the sixth studio album by French singer Daniel Balavoine, that was released in April 1982 and was a success with sales of over 600 thousand copies in France. It was also a new revival of French pop rock, and the single "Vivre ou survivre" from the album proved to be one of the greatest hits for Balavoine.
Roman-photos(Fotonovelas) is the debut album by French rock musician Alain Bashung, released in 1977 through Barclay Records. The first issues of the album simply bore the artist's name.
Hollywood Girls : Une nouvelle vie en Californie, or simply Hollywood Girls, is a French soap opera created by Alexandre dos Santos, Jérémy Michalak, and Thibaut Vales for NRJ12. The series features an ensemble cast and follows a groups of French peoples who decided to start a new life in California, but their life is quickly disrupted by the diabolical Geny G and her husband, the Dr. David Moretti.
Charles Aznavour, released in December 1961, is the eighth French studio album by the French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour. This album is also known under the title "Il faut savoir". It was in TOP 10 charts in France, Italy, Belgium, Israel and other countries. The album includes songs by Charles Aznavour, Georges Garvarentz, Michel Legrand, Eddie Barclay and others.
"Gaby oh Gaby" is a song first published by Alain Bashung. Written by Boris Bergman with music by Bashung, it was initially published as a single in 1980 on Philips, with "Ell' s'fait rougir toute seule" as the B-side. The single became a huge hit in France, and therefore the song was included on the album Roulette russe in a reissue nicknamed Nouveau couplage, and then on the CD reissue of the next album, Pizza.
Daniel Bevilacqua, better known by the stage name Christophe, was a French singer and songwriter. He was born in the Paris suburb of Juvisy-sur-Orge, to an Italian father.
Lys Gauty was a French cabaret singer and actress. Her most significant work came in the 1930s and 1940s as Gauty appeared in film, and recorded her best-known song, "Le Chaland qui passe", which is an interpretation of an Italian composition.
Moravagine is a 1926 novel by Blaise Cendrars, originally published by Grasset. It is a complex opus with a central figure, the eponymous Moravagine, like a dark persona of the author which he gets rid of through writing. Its genesis took a decade and Cendrars never stopped working on it. In 1956, the author somewhat rewrote the text, added a postface and a section titled "Pro domo: How I wrote Moravagine". In its ultimate revision, Cendrars says the book is definitely incomplete, as it was meant to be a preface to a "complete works of Moravagine" that are not there.
"Je ne suis pas un héros" is a song by French singer Johnny Hallyday, released on his 1980 album À partir de maintenant. It was written by fellow singer Daniel Balavoine who went on to also record and release his own version.
Renée Claude was a Canadian actress and singer who was known as an interpretive singer, particularly of songs by Stéphane Venne, Michel Conte, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré.
Zoé Clauzure is a French child singer best known for winning the 2023 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Previously, in 2020, she had reached the semifinals of the seventh season of the French version of The Voice Kids.
Le chanteur is the third album by French singer Daniel Balavoine, released in June 1978 under Riviera-LM, a subsidiary of Barclay. The album was commercially successful, selling over 800 thousand copies.
Face amour / Face amère is the fourth album by French singer Daniel Balavoine, released in October 1979. The album was credited with Balavoine's backing group Clin d'Œil who had accompanied him since his second album Les aventures de Simon et Gunther....
Loin des yeux de l'Occident is the seventh studio album by French singer Daniel Balavoine, released in October 1983.
