My 2nd favorite song of MC Solaar’s which comes immediately after the Si On T’demande on Chapitre 7. I almost always listen to the two songs together, sometimes on repeat.
Au Claire de la Lune uses the French Folk song and lullaby that has lyrics about a person left outside at night asking to come in. In MC Solaar’s version of the song we hear his version of that played over the lullaby referring always back to the kid soldiers that were well documented in Africa. There were movies like Beasts of No Nation that would come out in the coming years covering the same topics.
The beat is relaxing, but somehow menacing with the harmonies of the keyboards and chorus of women singing in the background where you get this sad, melancholic treatment of color. On top of that, MC Solaar’s delivery is varied, mostly in rhythm. He has this sort of wave of talking steady where he slowly goes up in emphasis before he cools it down at the end of his phrases. He’s just a great storyteller who makes everything rhyme and again here uses many pop and international geopolitical references.
My favorite part is where he says he’s talking to the left, the right, the center (moderates), then he breaks the rhyme to say we need to reconsider our attention to think about child soldiers. He does it once again to end the song saying what’s necessary are the kids’ minds to save the child soldiers.
Below is a translation of the lyrics, only the first few words are in English:
Six in the morning (in English)
First thing are errands
If you like to be in a hurry
if you like to be on top of things: run!
The little girls aren’t pagans
when they roll around Citroën
And aren’t of Virgin Mary’s
when their husbands are in Ferraris
At the bottom of the class are the idiots that watch like an eagle
They insult the teachers and take from Steven Seagal
They speak of their certain future
between themselves and tell you: shut up
Or maybe it’s bro what up,
Or family, or I’m listening to a single
The valors of the golden sheep
are violence and wads of cash
The class:
breaks wind at the peep shows in Las Vegas
One mustn’t ask why Benoît said to Aïda
That Adidas and Puma busts 10 times more than Al Qaïda
This loving chick I chose as a mentor
Asked for help for herself and for Darfour
I don’t want to wear the hat, man,
you’re not Madame de Fontenay
But there’s Britney’s life,
so please take your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)
Idi Amin Dada in Uganda there’s teens marching in step
Some thing think to escape, but won’t be adept
They dream of playing dada
but there they play AK
Enrolled in force
We must save the child soldiers
Fuck the bluff!
The chicken came before the egg
Eight before nine
and then PIF (Public Investment Fund) before Titeuf (comic book series)
For the cop chick with a cute caboose
We celebrate the coup
We protect the success
of not being weighed down by being rough & tough
We try to struggle against Global Warming
Man, thirst pulled the lever
Now, under the sun, we’re full of cans
The gadgets of China and the kids of Djen Chao Ping
Are powerful persuasions for SS20-Pershing (ballistic missile)
But I’m not Garcimore with a rabbit in my hat
It’s written in the Thai chronicle comics of police
Like Soumahoro said, if there’s words are a knife
It’s that I woke up with a booboo
So the hippie goes beddy-bye
The gladiator’s sword is close to my gut
So, to the demons, I say, “Man, Fuck!”
To Nokia I have Pinocchio that told me
Deuclo (shoe brand) is too early
I speak to the right
I speak to the left
I speak to the center
We need to recenter the ball
And concentrate on the child soldiers
If I were in Hamburg
He would say, “I am a hamburger.”
And his word would make butter, buzz, and biz
We can kill the sacred cows
To clone the double cheese
I would’ve been strong to resist
But I’m not accomplish
at building myself up
when my backpack weighs me down
I speak to you too about teens
Not every case is full of sleaze
You can tell me the hobo
That wears a watch from Rado
The people are not the public
And the public aren’t people
It’s Heckel and Jeckel corrected by Proctor & Gamble
It’s not management’s that’s compulsory
It’s moving that’s mandatory
The kids’ meninges are necessary
To save child soldiers