Les Fleurs du mal (Léo Ferré album)

Les Fleurs du mal (English: "The Flowers of Evil") is an album by Léo Ferré, released in 1957 by Odeon Records. It is his first LP dedicated to a poet and this is the first time in popular music history a whole album is dedicated to a dead poet. Léo Ferré has set Baudelaire into music two more times : in 1967 with double album Léo Ferré chante Baudelaire, and with unfinished project Les Fleurs du mal (suite et fin), recorded in 1977 but posthumously released in 2008.

Les Fleurs du mal
Studio album by Léo Ferré
Released	1957
Recorded	March 21, 22, 27, 1957 Pathé Magellan Studio, Paris (France)
Genre	Chanson
Length	35:53
Label	Odeon Records (1957) La Mémoire et la Mer (2008)
Léo Ferré chronology
Les Fleurs du mal (1957) La Chanson du mal-aimé (1957)

History

Track listing

Texts by Charles Baudelaire. Music composed by Léo Ferré.

Original LP

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Harmonie du soir" (Evening Harmony)	2:56
2.	"Le serpent qui danse" (The Dancing Serpent)	2:51
3.	"Les Hiboux" (The Owls)	2:54
4.	"Le Léthé" (Lethe)	3:56
5.	"Le Revenant" (The Ghost)	2:01
6.	"La Mort des amants" (The Death of Lovers)	3:51

Side two

No.	Title	Length
7.	"L'Invitation au voyage" (Invitation to the Voyage)	3:39
8.	"Les Métamorphoses du vampire" (The Vampire's Metamorphoses)	3:14
9.	"À celle qui est trop gaie" (To She Who Is Too Gay)	3:54
10.	"La Vie antérieure" (Past Life)	3:21
11.	"La Pipe" (The Pipe)	1:22
12.	"Brumes et pluies" (Mists and Rains)	1:58

Personnel

• Léo Ferré - voice, piano
• Jean-Michel Defaye - piano
• Jean Cardon - accordion
• Barthélémy Rosso - guitar
• Pierre Gossez - tenor saxophone
• Janine de Waleyne - ondes Martenot
• Fred Ermelin - double bass

External links

• Album listening & presentation (French)