Do you know the story behind the creation of this true classic of French music?
“Les Filles de l’aurore” is a song written, composed, and performed by William Scheller in 1983. It was after a concert during his 1982 tour that the idea for “Les Filles de l’aurore” began to take shape in the author’s mind one night while he was out with his musicians in the Saint Jean neighborhood of Lyon. Directly inspired by his observations of the young men and women he encountered during his nighttime wanderings, the song continued to haunt Scheller all the way back to his hotel, where, suffering from a hangover that kept him awake, he set about writing “Les Filles de l’aurore,” which would not leave him in peace. For him, this song is also a memory closely tied to the side effects of cocaine, as he would later mention in the liner notes of his greatest hits album *Tu devrais chanter*. To cope with the stress and fatigue of his profession, William Scheller had in fact been using narcotics for several years, a practice he would put an end to in 1984.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNJM7Rm5KgE&t=4s
How does this song make you feel?
What did you understand without reading the lyrics?
Here are the lyrics:
The girls of the dawn
I can still find
them They have around their bodies
Love and gold
That we can gamble away
Deep in their eyes
, they hold Dreams we know
nothing of While you’re still
asleep When dawn sees them passing by in pairs
And I come long after dawn
When the sun rises over Saint-Jean
I’d like to tell them that I still
love you You who are always leaving
The boys of dawn
Slip their bodies
Into worn-out
jeans They run nervous
fingers Through their hair
And head out into the world
Deep in their eyes
lie The dreams of the strongest
The wars they’re still
fighting When dawn sees them marching in pairs
And I come long after dawn
, When the sun rises over Saint-Jean
. I’d like to tell them that I still
love you, You who are always leaving
The lovers of dawn
Still
give themselves To each other in rumpled
beds With hearts that still
pound Is it love or death
That keeps them entwined
? Deep in their eyes
lie Dreams I once dreamed so hard
So that you’d stay a little longer
When dawn kept us both together
And I return long after dawn
, When the sun rises over Saint-Jean
. I’d like to tell them that I still
love you, You who are always leaving
And I come back well after dawn
, When the sun rises over Saint-Jean
. I’d like to tell them that I still
love you, You who are always leaving
I’d like to tell them that I still
love you, you who are always leaving