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Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
French singer who emerged from the post-war existentialist scene and was launched by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Eight records
The eight records for this collection haven’t been catalogued yet.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What happened to you?
Well, I was on my own. Then I went to jail. I went to jail because they picked me.
Presenter asks
Wasn't it at Le Taboo that you first sang?
No, no, I started singing much later than you think. I started singing in nineteen fifty one.
Presenter asks
You made a great success in those little existentialist cellar clubs in Saint-Germain des Pruix, but you wouldn't earn very much money there, I believe.
No, I did not. But I didn't know what money was, and I still don't know. I'm earning a lot of money now, but I don't know what it means, really. I just know it makes life easier for me and for the people I like, or I love, that's all.
Presenter asks
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 2
BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
Speaker 1
Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. This is the only extract the BBC has of this episode. The surviving recording did not include the music, so we've recreated the programme, adding the Castaways' choices. For Wrights' reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.
Presenter
Well, the war came while you were still at school. Your mother worked with the resistance, and I believe she and your sister were deported to Germany.
Speaker 1
Uh
Juliette Greco
My player
Juliette Greco
Hmm.
Presenter
What happened to you?
Juliette Greco
Well, I was on my own.
Juliette Greco
Then uh I went to jail.
Presenter
You were very young.
Juliette Greco
You will have a
Juliette Greco
Extremely young, yes. I went to jail because they picked me.
Presenter
Hmm.
Juliette Greco
And when I came out I started trying to earn my life, which is
Juliette Greco
Extremely difficult when you're thirteen or fourteen.
Presenter
Yes.
Juliette Greco
Because nobody wants you.
Presenter
At that time in Paris there were many youngsters who had been deprived by the war of any kind of love and security in home life.
Juliette Greco
In home life.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Presenter
And
Presenter
were living a kind of aimless and rather pessimistic existence. It was out of that particular group of of youngsters that you joined that a very interesting and an important Philosophical movement came, was it not? What what was the name of that little cellar club where you used to?
Juliette Greco
It was the taboo.
Presenter
It was
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Juliette Greco
The taboo. It was um
Juliette Greco
a very humid place, but uh full of wonderful people. We had the feeling, you know, it wasn't mushrooms blooming there, it was flowers. We had a very good time.
Juliette Greco
And I've been spoiled because I've been with people everybody is dreaming of, you know.
Presenter
Jean-Paul Sat, for example.
Juliette Greco
Jean-Paul Sartre, Maire Lau Ponty, Albert Camus.
Juliette Greco
Piquet Sou, Christian Berrat, Francois Maurial.
Presenter
It was Jean Paul Sartre who who found your first songs for you when you started to sing.
Juliette Greco
Mhm. It was him.
Juliette Greco
It was him. He gave me some books and um
Juliette Greco
told me bring me back my books, which I did and uh I picked two poems in into nine books. One was by Raymond Cunot and the other one was by Jules Lafard.
Presenter
And
Presenter
Well, we got you started as a singer down at uh it was at Le Taboo that you first sang.
Juliette Greco
No.
Presenter
Wasn't it?
Juliette Greco
No, no, I started singing much later than you think. I started singing in nineteen fifty one.
Presenter
Well, let's have your third record. What's that to be?
Presenter
You made a great success in those little existentialist cellar clubs in Saint-Germain des Pruix, but you wouldn't earn very much money there, I believe.
Juliette Greco
No, I did not. But I didn't know what money was, and I still don't know. I'm earning a lot of money now, but I don't know what it means, really.
Juliette Greco
I just know it makes life easier for.
Juliette Greco
Me and for the people I like, or I love, that's all.
Presenter
The songs that a cabaret singer sings in Paris are a sort of song that we haven't got. They're not popular songs or point numbers, they're songs of genuine literary merit.
Juliette Greco
You know, the strange thing with me is uh most of my songs are written by very great writers, who are not used at all to to to write songs for anything or anybody, but it hasn't been written really for cabres.
Speaker 2
Two.
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm.
Juliette Greco
It has become
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Juliette Greco
like that, but it wasn't written for that.
Presenter
Mm-hmm. Let's have record number four.
Speaker 2
You've changed.
Speaker 2
That sparkle in your eyes is gone.
Speaker 2
Your smile is just a careless yawn
Speaker 2
You're breaking my heart.
Speaker 2
You have shot.
Presenter
Miss Greco, of all forms of entertainment, cabaret must be one of the most demanding.
Presenter
You're out on your own on that floor, and people are at tables or perhaps.
Juliette Greco
That's very difficult. That's the most difficult thing. You know, it's uh strangely enough
Presenter
That's
Juliette Greco
It's
Juliette Greco
Very easy to do.
Juliette Greco
On my own two hours' show.
Presenter
In a theatre.
Juliette Greco
In a theater.
Juliette Greco
Very easy. Because it's like um
Juliette Greco
A rendezvous with somebody you want to have in your heart, you know? And when?
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Juliette Greco
You have only half an hour.
Juliette Greco
to make a conquest.
Juliette Greco
It's very little time, very little time. It's too short, it goes too fast. You cannot you cannot show them what you are.
Miss Greco, of all forms of entertainment, cabaret must be one of the most demanding.
That's the most difficult thing. You know, it's strangely enough very easy to do. On my own two hours' show in a theatre. Very easy. Because it's like a rendezvous with somebody you want to have in your heart, you know? And when you have only half an hour to make a conquest, it's very little time, very little time. It's too short, it goes too fast. You cannot show them what you are.
“The taboo. It was a very humid place, but full of wonderful people. We had the feeling, you know, it wasn't mushrooms blooming there, it was flowers. We had a very good time.”
“And I've been spoiled because I've been with people everybody is dreaming of, you know. Jean-Paul Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Albert Camus.”
“I didn't know what money was, and I still don't know. I'm earning a lot of money now, but I don't know what it means, really.”
“It's like a rendezvous with somebody you want to have in your heart, you know? And when you have only half an hour to make a conquest, it's very little time.”