MARRAKECH, MARRAKECH
We all know “New-York, New-York” and “Sous les ponts de Paris” ! A thousand times, we heard these lyrics that say the fascination exerted by these two admirable cities. If Marrakech may not have been celebrated with music as much as Paris or New York, the ochre city, with its Place and its medina, can still show a small but more than honorable list of titles to its glory.
It has long inspired songwriters of very different styles. It contains many ingredients for a good song recipe. Exoticism, a form of romanticism, secret or mysterious aspects, the awakening of the senses… Without drawing up an exhaustive list, let’s review some more or less recent pieces.
CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH
During the Hippie era, exotic trips were fashionable and Morocco was one of the popular destinations for young people. “Marrakesh express” is undoubtedly the most emblematic song about the red city. In 1969, the song appeared on the debut album of Crosby, Stills and Nash. The lyrics and music are by Graham Nash. The singer remembers a trip made from Casablanca to Marrakech aboard the Marrakech Express train in 1966.
The lively atmosphere in the wagons : “Traveling the train through clear Moroccan skiesDucks and pigs and chickens call Animal carpet wall to wall…Would you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express ? They’re taking me to Marrakesh”
then the Jemaa el Fna square : “Charming cobras in the square Striped djellebas we can wear at home,Well, let me hear ya now”
It is also the evocation of the Moroccan hippie period that will culminate in Essaouira in the 1970s. This song had great success in the American charts.
TECHNO DANCE
A radical change of era and musical style for «Marrakech» written more recently, in 2004, by the famous German DJ André Tanneberger, adulated by the crowds in trance under the name of ATB. The title appears on his album “No silence” and it was the first single extracted. A huge success in the world of techno and dance. The piece also illustrated the film “Mindhunters”.
HENRI SALVADOR
In a more hushed and crooner atmosphere, Art Mengo and Marc Estève write «Il fait Dimanche» for Monsieur Henri Salvador and his album «Chambre avec vue» which was to mark with brio and success his great return in 2000: It’s Sunday in Marrakech In the shadow of one of its alleys When I steal on your fresh lips
The sweetness of gazelle horns…
It’s Sunday and every day. Every time you smile, it’s the revenge of love On the time that passes without noise.
CLAUDE NOUGARO
Another French singer, Claude Nougaro decided to write a song after a stay in a riad of the medina. He remembers the “tibibt”, a small and emblematic bird (sparrow) of the city. The little bird is like a permanent tenant in the houses of the medina.
The jerky rhythm clearly expresses the vivacity of this lively little rascal.
The little bird of Marrakech Has fresh breath every day. When he wakes up awake, he pees and he chirps…
Tell you in two words what he says ? I don’t hear a drop of his dialect. He belongs to a cult, too close to the sky without any safe conduct. Always know that it sings tutut And tututut in the silence. The symphony of birds begins
On this featherweight, singing like a flute. The tree is ablaze with noisy counterchants, fugues. Paradise composes a fugue, On Marrakech, it has settled…
MINA
In 1982, on her album”‘Italiana”, the Italian diva Mina languorously asks her lover to invite her for a crazy night in Marrakech. It is an adaptation of the original song by the Brazilian Caetano Veloso.
If you want to offer me a night, think of a crazy night in Marrakech, something special, something that suits me well…
FOLK MUSIC
Two other women, Mishka Adams and Loreena Mckennit, both involved in the universe of world music and folk, will tell their own Marrakech story.
In 2005 Mishka Adams wrote this song “Marrakech” for her album “God bless the child“.
She starts singing : ” I watch you sip your tea on a roof in Marrakech...” then evokes the colours of the sun, orange, red, blue, the magic of the red city within its walls… “The treasure you will find is not what what you’re looking for, but did you know what to expect ? Fly me away on your wings to Marrakech...”
Loreena McKennit, a Canadian singer, describes the Jemaa el Fna Square, with its circles of spectators, its lamps, its swirling smokes, its storytellers, its snake charmers and a shadowy figure offering masks and mirrors. This album «The mask and the mirror» released in 1994 is one of his greatest hits.
“They’re gathered in circles, the lamps light their faces, the crescent moon rocks in the sky.
The poets of drumming keep heartbeats suspended, the smoke swirls up and then it dies. Would you like my mask?
Would you like my mirror? Cries the man in the shadowing hood”
QUE SERA SERA
One will not leave the red city without remembering the little chorus from the song of the movie “The man who knew too much” by Alfred Hitchkock in 1956. “Que sera sera (whatever will be, will be)” does not directly mention Marrakech but it is linked to the action that takes place in the city. One initial scene happens on Jemaa El Fna Square. James Stewart, Doris Day and Daniel Gélin are the protagonists. The restaurant Dar Essalam, which still exists, is the place of another, quite comic, dinner scene !
It is in her room at the hotel La Mamounia that Doris Day, James Stewart’s wife, sings the song to her son, still ignoring how things will get worse for them.
If I managed to put this earworm in your head, I warn you, it will take several days before getting rid of it. Oh, I am so sorry !
“WHAT WILL BE WILL BE”
