Which lyrics reference other songs/albums?

[Ben.Daly]

Basically, what are instances of lyrics you can think of in Alizée's songs that either directly or indirectly reference another song or album?

For example: "J'en ai marre" is a line in the chorus of C'est trop tard. Of course, 'I'm fed up' isn't exactly the most unique sentence ever but I doubt it wasn't put in there on purpose to reference the song.

That's a fairly straight forward example, but you get the idea. It doesn't have to be a direct name, maybe just a hint or possibly even an unintentional teaser to a song that came later. If there are any other instances you can think of that may be harder to pick up on or more subtle, or just a straight forward reference, be sure to put it in this thread, a few of us might learn something new about her lyrics

Activity's been pretty slow today and I've been sitting on this thread for a while so thought this would be a good time to start it up.

[CleverCowboy]

I don't think I have seen a thread in this forum on this subject matter. It's definitely unique and quite interesting.

I would think I would classify Alizee's music career into three eras: the MF/LB era, Psychédélices, and Independent.

I saw an interview with Alizee where I believe she said she selected her music during the Lolita years. Mylene and Laurent probably had a library of unreleased music they had arranged. I'm sure Alizee was guided by Mylene as to what music would fit Alizee's vocal range the best and what would promote her image, but Alizee had to like the songs and wanted to sing them in the end, so she probably was given some say in the final decisions.

My guess is that Moi Lolita and the rest of the songs Alizee sang existed first and then Mylene discovered Alizee, not the other way around. Since all the songs were composed by the same people, there might be some cross references between the songs. I just don't know if they would be intentional or coincidental though.

Psychédélices was a complete break from her early days and Jeremy had his hands on every song. I don't think I read the translations for every song, but from the ones that I did, I don't remember coming across anything that would tie the song to anything else on the album. However, that was a long time ago and I wasn't looking for it.

The album "5" could be defined as a concept album with the work Alizee had done with Thomas Boulard. Even though it was called "5" because of it being her 5th album, there are also 5 songs that unmistakably reference her marriage to Jeremy. Alizee did say that every song on the album reveals something about her. Some songs are a little hard to follow, but "10 ans", "Mon chevalier", "Jeune fille", "Happy End" and "Dans mon sac" have a common theme and are pretty clear as to the meaning.

[Ben.Daly]

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

My guess is that Moi Lolita and the rest of the songs Alizee sang existed first and then Mylene discovered Alizee, not the other way around. Since all the songs were composed by the same people, there might be some cross references between the songs. I just don't know if they would be intentional or coincidental though.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't MF get Alizee to submit a vocal recording of Moi Lolita in some sort of audition before they actually got together to work on the music? It may have been some other song, or maybe it didn't happen like that at all and I'm misremembering what was said in an interview or blog
In that case the song would've already been around, waiting for someone younger like Alizee to sing it.

There are probably several other cross-references within certain albums, I suppose what's most interesting is if there are any that call back to a previous album/song, or coincidentally prelude to a future one.

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Ben.Daly

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't MF get Alizee to submit a vocal recording of Moi Lolita in some sort of audition before they actually got together to work on the music? It may have been some other song, or maybe it didn't happen like that at all and I'm misremembering what was said in an interview or blog .

I don't know for sure but it makes sense. Maybe somebody else knows for sure.

I wouldn't go so far to bet the house on it, but my feeling is that Moi Lolita and the other songs were already there and Mylene started her search for the right girl to take under her wing to sing them.

[failax]

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

I don't know for sure but it makes sense. Maybe somebody else knows for sure.

I wouldn't go so far to bet the house on it, but my feeling is that Moi Lolita and the other songs were already there and Mylene started her search for the right girl to take under her wing to sing them.

Alizée admitted that songs of first album were ready and she chose them among others.

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by failax

Alizée admitted that songs of first album were ready and she chose them among others.

That's what I thought. I remember her saying something along these lines in an early interview. However, if I had to try to find it, it would take a while.

So, would Moi Lolita be a required song and everything after be up to Alizee? It seems that Mylene had a specific goal in mind, which would promote Alizee as the next Lolita, and that song would be her entry point. Everything seemed to fall into place quickly, and Alizee became a sensation.

But just when you think that Mylene can do no wrong in the music industry in France, we have Julia really struggling to make a name for herself.

[Scruffydog777]

Interesting discussion. I'm sure some of the songs for the first album were written beforehand such as Moi Lolita, but I think others as far as the lyrics, had to have been written after Alizée came into the picture such as L'Alizé which was about the trade wind and the beautiful young lady too that was named after that wind.

Lou ou toi , a story about a love triangle where she couldn't decide between 2 boyfriends was a story Mylene I believe got from Alizée.

I don't know a thing about the song writing process but one thing that surprised me in one of her interviews is she said Laurent would write the music, then Mylene would write the lyrics. I thought it would be the other way around, the song writer writes the lyrics, then the musician writes the music to fit the mood of the song, but I'm sure even if the musician writes the music first, he has to know the gist of the song first.

Now I believe it was on SAGA and in fact there were other interviews where Alizée said it was on a plane to the states that she had a cassette recorder with projected music for the album and she got to play through them like picking from a silver saga, but it must've been just the music?

So when she was playing the cassette, was she just hearing the music Laurent wrote, or maybe with some of them, Mylene sung the lyrics to them?
I believe she also said she liked one song that sounded like one of Madonna's songs and I believe that was L'Alizé.
https://youtu.be/TzERQSwHszk?t=457

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Ben.Daly

Basically, what are instances of lyrics you can think of in Alizée's songs that either directly or indirectly reference another song or album?

I don't know if you are talking about references to only other Alizée songs, but anyway there is Lilly town where she names Imagine by John Lennon and Angie by The Rolling stones (and it's fun to hear how she pronounces their names).

[Ben.Daly]

Originally Posted by Aragorn97

I don't know if you are talking about references to only other Alizée songs, but anyway there is Lilly town where she names Imagine by John Lennon and Angie by The Rolling stones (and it's fun to hear how she pronounces their names).

Originally I was referring to references to her own songs but what you've mentioned is still very interesting.
Just had a listen, she mentions The Rolling Stones and Lennon around 1:13 and 1:20 in the video for anyone wondering.
Something interesting learnt about what is probably my favourite song in this album, possibly even my favourite outside of MCE and Gourmandises

Thankyou Aragorn, you bow to no one, except maybe Frodo, Sam, Pip and Merry Time to watch those films again...

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Ben.Daly

Time to watch those films again...

You aren't too far from Middle Earth. Have you ever been there? (I mean New Zealand if you don't know lol).