RDS sports announcer Pierre Houde and the good folks at CHOM-FM — my fave radio station (as regular readers know) — really made my day today. By that I mean, they helped frame my (happy hippy) mood by playing an old Beau Dommage song, Tous les Palmiers, as I sipped my first cup of coffee this morning. Pierre chose it as the intro to his morning hockey chat with host Terry DiMonte — and, no offense, guys, but their morning Habs armchair gabfest sometimes has me yawning because it’s just not my thing (but, hey, I recognize that lots of people love it!). But today, before talking about the Habs’ rout of Boston last night, Pierre spoke about his love for Beau Dommage and the francophone music scene here back in his CEGEP days . . .

Gawd, I love that song by Beau Dommage and just about everything they ever did. I still love their music, because it is timeless, as fresh today as it was back in the 1970s — which Pierre observed, too. Indeed, I loved the francophone music scene back then, such bands as Harmonium — one of my Top 10 bands of all time in any language — Offenbach (God, I miss the voice of Gerry Boulet), Pagliaro, Robert Charlesbois and so many more.

I’ve been thinking about them all day, with Tous les Palmiers playing in my head (and now on YouTube as I write this, see below), and wondering if young anglophone Quebecers today have much, if any, exposure to their music. Pierre described Beau Dommage as The Beatles of Quebec, which they were, in a sense: it was a golden era of francophone music in Quebec in those days. I’m sure every young person here today is very familiar with music by the four lads from Liverpool. But do they know the music of Beau Dommage and Harmonium et al?

If not, we ought to do something about that. (Heather, the other co-host on the CHOM morning show, mentioned during the interview with Pierre today that a reader wrote in saying that Pierre should do a music/talk show for the station. Smiles . . . I’ll second that.)

Meanwhile . . . merci Pierre, and if they ask you to choose any more songs, please make sure they are by francophone Quebecers . . .

A la prochaine . . .

Salut

– Jillian

P.S. Here’s Tous les Palmiers. Have a listen, share it with your friends, be happy . . .