Alain Bashung – La nuit je mens

One of his most beautiful and poignant songs, and one of his most beautiful and enigmatic lyrics, written with Jean Fauque. There’s multiple layers to these lyrics : apparently it is about love, separation and lies. But Jean Fauque himself stated that it was in fact about French Resistance during the occupation of the country, and especially about “last hour resistants”, those who pretended to be in the Resistance only when it became popular and because there was less risks as Germans were leaving and the Vichy regime was disappearing.

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Notes :

1. During the French Resistance, especially in the years 1943-1944, there were several places called “maquis“, where people who resisted against German occupation (and against the French regime who was not better) were assembled. It was generally in wild and remote places, like forests, so that it would be more complicated for the army to get them. The one located in Vercors is the most famous.
2. The “seaside resort” mentionned here is probably Vichy. This was the headquarter of the French regime during German occupation. And it was chosen (as a replacement for Paris, which was under German control) because of its touristic infrastructure, that could welcome all the officials of the new regime. A lot of people compromised themselves in this city during this time, looking for a place in the new regime despite its authoritarian, racist and antisemitic policies.
3. After the Liberation of France, a lot of people claimed to have belonged to the Resistance, because it had become “mainstream” in a way, and a lot of people pretended to have been heroes, but some of them were impostors. A lot of formers resistants were very popular and were frequently invited to express themselves and tell their story. The government himself encouraged the idea that “the whole France was in the Resistance”, to close the huge wounds that the war had let in French society and to allow France to remain united. This doctrine glorified a country that needed to find back its pride so badly. And this version of the story was believed by most people until the 70’s and 80’s, when historians, cineasts began to question it, and when the truth was told about what the French government and the French police had done at the time. In fact, like 90 per cent of the population did nothing, because the Occupation and the regime had installed terror, so they accepted it and tolerated it during four years, without directly collaborating either. The resistants and the collaborators were both a very small group of people.
4. “Life in pink” is a French expression that means “a perfect life”. “Voir la vie en rose” means “to see life in pink, through rose-tinted glasses” : it describes a very positive state of mind.
5. A lot of people in the French Resistance didn’t fight against the French and German army directly (except during the battles of the Liberation). Most of them distributed leaflets, hided Jews and helped them to escape, and this kind of stuff. But a little part of the Resistance (especially communists, when they joined the Resistance in 1941) wanted to do more concrete and direct things. So some groups of Resistance were very active : they launched bombs on railroads (to prevent trains from travelling, especially the “trains of death” that were going to concentration camps, and the trains full of German soldiers), made bridges explode, and even killed some German soldiers. Each of these acts was very dangerous, not only for the person who did them (who was generally executed right away) but also for other people, because the Germans’ revenge was often terrible : for one German soldier killed, sometimes 10 French hostages were killed, sometimes even more. The power (German and French) made many propaganda to denounce the Resistance by calling them terrorists. The most famous episode of this propaganda is the “Affiche Rouge” (if you’re interested in this story, check out this song).