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Motel Capri is the third album from Les Cowboys Fringants, self-produced and released by La Tribu in 2000, two years before the band found mainstream success with their subsequent album Break Syndical. This article will present a critical review of the album in the context of the development of the néo-trad genre and the re-emergence of Québécois nationalism in popular music at the turn of the century. Proceeding from a brief discussion of these developments, the album’s 16 songs will be discussed holistically, after which the analysis will focus on two songs: “Québécois de Souche” and “Le Gars d'la Compagnie”. Where appropriate, translations of the lyrics from French to English will be given in parenthesis.
Beginning in the 1970s, Québec saw a slow but steady revival of traditional music, in which folk styles and techniques (e.g. fiddle reels, podorythmie, and traditional vocal melodies) were consolidated into a genre known as “trad music” (Mendelsohn, 2012). In the néo-trad genre which emerged in the 1990s, these central features remained the same but were combined with modern pop, electronica, and rock instrumentation (Bellemare, 2012). This was “genetically modified folklore,” a process of deliberate fusion led by young performers with backgrounds in trad music looking to carve out a modern Québécois musical identity (ibid). Crucially, this blend of old and new styles created a space in which the folklore, historical narratives, and styles common to traditional music which underpin traditional notions of Québécois identity (Diamond & Witmer, 1994) could be modernized and popularized.
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This is particularly important given the political context of the release of Motel Capri and the emergence Les Cowboys Fringants. In the aftermath of the failed sovereignty referenda of 1980 and 1995, the “post-referendum fatigue” experienced in Québec and wider Canada resulted in a rejection of the politics of Québécois nationalism and its cultural by-products (Levine, 1997). Consequently, the province experienced a commercial drought of political song-writing. The ability of néo-trad music to move beyond the ‘outdated’ tropes of trad music by fusing them with modern styles helped the genre – and crucially the activism of some of its artists – be seen as relevant and modern again. In this way, sovereignty-minded bands like Les Cowboys Fringants, who started making music together in Repentigny in the late 1990s, could tie “folkloric colours to a nationalist commitment in favour of independence for Québec” (Bellemare 2011 p. 511) while avoiding accusations of outdatedness: their style, and consequently their message, became modern.
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The néo-trad style is evoked throughout Motel Capri, most often in the contrast between the traditional stringed instruments played by Marie-Annick Lépine with the rock style drumming of Dominique Lebeau, which can be heard starkly in many instances. For example, in the introduction to “Maurice au Bistro” (Track 5), a melodic violin refrain is repeated over a furious kick-drum accompaniment and walking bass. Secondly, in “Marcel Galarneau” (Track 8), Lépine plays a violin reel — a traditional dance tune typically in common metre with an accented first beat — over a rock drum-track and a call-and-response chorus in which the singers scoop vocally from the minor third in a pop style. Thirdly, electronic samples and sound effects are played over an accordion in the outro of “Le Pouceux” (Track 15). Motel Capri presents a concerted effort to marry trad music with markers of modernity: in doing so they make the statement that the Québécois traditional culture and identity is not out of place in the twenty-first century.
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However, the band often subverts these traditional musical elements. For example, the folkloric legends commonly evoked in trad music (Bellemare, 2011) are parodied in “Le Plombier”, in which the titular plumber must valiantly combat “des coliformes fécaux qui flottaient su'l terrazzo” [“coliform bacteria which were floating on the terrazzo [flooring material”] (Track 2). The chorus of the “Awikatchikaën” jig (Track 4) aggressively mimics turlutte singing — ornamental mouth music (Versailles, 2006) — yet according to Lebeau its inclusion within the song is intended to be nonsense, sung by the song’s fictional ‘shaman’ (Lebeau, 2016). Les patriotes étaient solidaires: pour arriver à la victoire, il faudra arrêter de boire!” [“The patriots were unanimous: to achieve victory we have to stop drinking!”] (Track 9).
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There is no official video for the song "Le plombier." However, here is one made by a Cowboys Fringants fan, Stéphane Demers, in 2008.
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However, the band is not being merely self-deprecating. “Le Plombier” is told from the point of view of a snobbish office worker who claims “J'ai toujours une p'tite pensée pour un gros plombier mal-élevé” [“I always think of a fat, ill-mannered plumber”] (Track 2) — his viewpoint is the subject of implicit criticism, rather than the plumber himself. The nonsense words of the alcoholic ‘shaman’ in “Awikatchikaën” (Track 4) are overly exaggerated as if to mock the stereotypical image of First Nations people perpetuated by white Canadians. The portrayal of the incompetent Québécois troops arguably implies that historical narratives are most often determined by the victors, in a constant struggle for national identity. In each instance, the band subverts the lyrical tropes of trad music using irreverent characters and occasionally grotesque lyrics, portraying the gaze of the dominant classes as if to say: “this is how they see us.”
This message is furthered by the band’s consistent use of the Joual dialect, closely identified with the Montréalais working class, and “perceived as the language of an uneducated, socially and economically inferior segment of the French speaking Québec society” (Prins 2012, pg. 1). The dialect, translated with help from Turenne (1962), is used throughout the album e.g. “Y's'crissait” [i.e. “il se crissait”] (“Marcel Galarneau”, Track 8), and “Pis y'a aussi la belle Loulou” [i.e. “Puis il y a aussi…”] (“Rue Chapdelaine”, Track 10). While this “violation of linguistic norms” (Ransom, 2011: 124) has often been used by the dominant culture to mock the perceived vulgarity of working class vernacular, the use of the dialect in Motel Capri alludes to the distinctive linguistic Québécois identity and its musical expression during the Quiet Revolution (Laurendeau, 2004). More significantly, the band employs the dialect to express solidarity with the songs’ characters and to distance the band from the dominant cultural and political classes so that they may criticize them.
How to play a kazoo.
(c) Hairy Harry's Music
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Jew’s Harp: The instrument is played by placing the parallel ends of the metal loosely between the front teeth while vibrating the metal tongue with a finger.
(c) Smithsonian Folkways
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Vibraslap: view from the side. One hand holds the handle (on the left side of the picture), the other one slaps the wood ball. (cc) Vonvon
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This is continued in their use of instruments like the kazoo in “Québécois de Souche” (Track 3), the Jew’s harp in “Voyou” (Track 12), and the vibraslap in “Le Pouceux” (Track 15); all of which evoke a childish, innocent mood. The same can be said of the chaotic way in which the album is constructed (the shortest song on the album lasts eleven seconds while the longest lasts over five minutes) and in the convoluted outros of some of songs, e.g. “Le Pouceux.” Yet in the same way that trained practitioners of naïve art emulate the rudimentary, childlike elements of the works of artists who lack formal training (Cardinal, 1972), Motel Capri’s construction and instrumentation deliberately implies an unsophistication and ingenuousness. Given the band’s musical skill (consider Lépine’s violin solos) and the obvious political intent of their lyrics it becomes clear that this innocent, irreverent sound is a deliberate construction which exists with three purposes: to express solidarity with the downtrodden classes of history and today (such as the characters portrayed in their songs), to parody the gaze of the dominant classes who consider these characters to be inferior, and to create a shield of innocence from behind which the band can use lyrical humour and irony to convey their anger about the political, cultural, and linguistic dominance of the elite.
This can perhaps be best seen in Motel Capri’s third track “Québécois De Souche” (2000). The song is short at two minutes and four seconds, yet is dense with humorous lyrical wordplay that lampoons the way in which Anglophone influences in the dominant Canadian classes undermine the language-driven conception of Québécois identity. The story of a bumbling garage worker is told throughout the verses of the song, while the choruses, which shall be the focus here, convey the contradictory nature of his character.
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He loves Québec and identifies as Québécois : “Je suis un Québécois de souche, ma loi 101 faut pas qu’tu y touches… je chante du Marjo sous la douche… j’ai une fleur de lys tatouée sa bouche” [“I am a native Quebecer, you mustn’t touch my Bill 101… I sing Marjo in the shower… I have a fleur-de-lis tattooed on my mouth”] (Track 3). However, his speech is riddled with Anglicisms e.g. “tu déloades la van … on r'garde les sitcoms pis les talks shows des States” [“you unload the van… we watch sitcoms then the American talk shows”] (ibid) which he justifies, saying “c’est pas que j’sais pas ben parler, mais chu un colon anglicisé” [“It’s not that I don’t know how to speak well, but I’m an anglicized colon (i.e. one who is colonized)”] (ibid).
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Note on the use of joual:
“sur la” becomes “s’a”, “bien” becomes “ben”, “je suis” becomes “chu” “je sais” becomes “ché” etc. (translated with help from Turenne, 1962). |
The hegemony of Anglo-centrism in Canadian culture has made him a colon anglicisé: his use of language exists half way between French and English, and consequently his identity and use of both languages can be seen as having deteriorated.
Yet to an extent, this cultural ‘colonization’ has become internalised: the repetition of “C’est pas que j’sais pas ben parler, mais chu un colon anglicisé” (ibid) in each chorus, the defiant “cha cha cha” which closes the song, and the flippant kazoo solo (which almost sounds like a child blowing a raspberry) suggest that in the pseudo-colonial environment created by Canada’s Anglo-centric cultural hegemony, ignorance is bliss. Québécois language laws are undoubtedly controversial, and many who listen to the song may disagree with its core message. However, the fast tempo produced by Lebeau’s drums and J F Pauzé’s rhythm-guitar move the song on quickly, the density of the lyrics gives the listener little time to think, and the overall haphazard sound creates an innocent tone which might prevent offence: in this way, the band’s criticism is shielded.
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However, “Gars d’la Compagnie” (Track 14), which tells the story of the historical capitalist exploitation of Québécois forest workers and First Nations people in Trois-Rivières, proves that there are exceptions to this irreverent stylistic rule. It is the album’s most trad-sounding track: the motifs which have exemplified the néo-trad genre throughout the album (such as rock style drumming, bass playing, and vocalisation) are present here, but are subtler: the historic capitalist exploitation of Trois-Rivières residents is relevant and serious. Unlike the other songs, this song’s narrative is mostly presented in the third person, which allows the reader to assess the plurality of actors who are complicit in, and victims of, exploitation in Trois-Rivières.
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The first person from is only used when the narrator quotes one of the “gars,” who taunts: “Pour nous un caribou c'est ben plus beau sur un trente-sous… C'est qui le con qui a dit que l'argent poussait pas d'ins arbres?” [“A caribou is even more beautiful to us on a quarter… who’s the idiot who said money doesn’t grow on trees?”] (Track 14). Although his speech is marked with Joual, the lyrical wordplay employed here is demonstrably more sinister than that which is used elsewhere in the album.
Yet the most fundamental difference between “Gars d’la Compagnie” and the rest of the album is that throughout the song the band makes no pretense of innocence or naïveté: their anger is real and unfiltered. This is evidenced in the tight-throated sound of lead singer Karl Tremblay’s vocals, and Lépine’s solemn violin solos. The song’s construction as a reel suggests a solidarity with the European settlers exploited by capitalist forces, and the deep, war-like drumming is perhaps an allusion to First Nations peoples. As the tempo and drums build to a furious climax, the last line (quoted above) is repeated, angrier each time, which suggests that the capitalist mistreatment has thus far been unstoppable, and will continue to worsen. Thus, even when Motel Capri does not subvert the hallmarks of trad music, the band can use them effectively to construct a scathing diatribe against capitalism which is entirely honest in its convictions.
Fundamentally Motel Capri is an album of contradictions: traditional instruments are given a modern rock accompaniment; the motifs of trad music are simultaneously parodied and played sincerely, and the band is both flippant and furious, adopting (and mocking through exaggeration) the gaze of those they seek to criticize. These contradictions allow Les Cowboys Fringants to make the ‘outdated’ musical elements of the trad genre relevant again, and attack the social, cultural, and political inequities which are both rooted in history continue to exist in modern day Québec. In this way, the use of humor, irreverence, and naïveté in Motel Capri makes the band’s critique of the capitalist and political forces which undermine, and have historically undermined, Québécois life and identity, all the more effective.
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D.C.
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SOURCES
BELLEMARE, Luc. 2012. “Trad and Néo-Trad”. In Continuum Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World. Volume VIII. Genres: North America ed. John Shepherd, & David Horn. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.
CARDINAL, Roger. 1972. Outsider Art. Worthing: Littlehampton Book Services.
DIAMOND, Beverly and Robert WITMER. 1994. Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
LAURENDEAU, Paul. 2004. “Joual – franglais – français: la proximité dans l’épilinguistique”. In Des langues collatérales – Problèmes linguistiques, sociolinguistiques et glottopolitiques de la proximité linguistique ed. Jean-Michel Éloy. Paris: L’Harmattan.
LEBEAU, Dominique. 2016. “Robert «Bob» Bourgouin”. Propos de Dominique Lebeau recueillis par Alain Star. Site web Les Cowboys Fringants.
LEVINE, Marc V. 1997. “Canada and the Challenge of the Québec Independence Movement”. In Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century ed. Winston A. Van Horne. Albany: State of New York University Press.
MENDELSOHN, Josie. 2011. Traditional Songs from Québec: for English Speakers. Pacific: Mel Bay Publications Ltd.
PRINS, Melita. 2011. The Joual Effect: A Reflection of Québec's Urban Working-Class in Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs and Hosanna (Master’s Thesis, Arizona State University).
RANSOM, Amy J. 2011. “Language Choice and Code Switching in Current Popular Music from Québec”. In GLOTTOPOL Revue de sociolinguistique en ligne (Issue 17).
TURENNE, Augustin. 1962. Petit Dictionnaire du “Joual” au Français. Québec : Les Éditions de l’Homme.
VERSAILLES, Claire. 2006. “La Bolduc”. The Canadian Encylcopedia.
BELLEMARE, Luc. 2012. “Trad and Néo-Trad”. In Continuum Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World. Volume VIII. Genres: North America ed. John Shepherd, & David Horn. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.
CARDINAL, Roger. 1972. Outsider Art. Worthing: Littlehampton Book Services.
DIAMOND, Beverly and Robert WITMER. 1994. Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
LAURENDEAU, Paul. 2004. “Joual – franglais – français: la proximité dans l’épilinguistique”. In Des langues collatérales – Problèmes linguistiques, sociolinguistiques et glottopolitiques de la proximité linguistique ed. Jean-Michel Éloy. Paris: L’Harmattan.
LEBEAU, Dominique. 2016. “Robert «Bob» Bourgouin”. Propos de Dominique Lebeau recueillis par Alain Star. Site web Les Cowboys Fringants.
LEVINE, Marc V. 1997. “Canada and the Challenge of the Québec Independence Movement”. In Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century ed. Winston A. Van Horne. Albany: State of New York University Press.
MENDELSOHN, Josie. 2011. Traditional Songs from Québec: for English Speakers. Pacific: Mel Bay Publications Ltd.
PRINS, Melita. 2011. The Joual Effect: A Reflection of Québec's Urban Working-Class in Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs and Hosanna (Master’s Thesis, Arizona State University).
RANSOM, Amy J. 2011. “Language Choice and Code Switching in Current Popular Music from Québec”. In GLOTTOPOL Revue de sociolinguistique en ligne (Issue 17).
TURENNE, Augustin. 1962. Petit Dictionnaire du “Joual” au Français. Québec : Les Éditions de l’Homme.
VERSAILLES, Claire. 2006. “La Bolduc”. The Canadian Encylcopedia.