Montreal, from beau damage to major damage

What is the worst thing you can do to someone who is aging badly?

Bring out a photo of his youth.

When he was beautiful, gentle, smiling.

When you look at life with hope.

The difference between what he was and what he has become is like a punch in the face.

Coming to Quebec City

This is what is happening these days with us in Montreal.

We’ve got a fantastic vinyl reissue of Beau Domege’s debut album, complete with a masterful remixing job by Kysline Luke Levin, giving us the feeling of hearing these tunes all over again for the first time. Our eyes on the Montreal of 1974 and the Montreal of 2022.

And rather cruel.

It’s as if you’ve put a photo from Brigitte Burdot’s time And God created woman Next to a photo of Brigitte Bardot from the “Baby Stamp” period.

Beau Domage’s first album, released 48 years ago, allowed Vigneault and Félix to leave the Quebec River, the islands and the forest for the city.

As in the first parts of Tremblay, we find balconies, barns, alleys.

We were tired of the sound of the waves and wanted to ask: “Manon, come to dinner, if you don’t come right away, we can do without it! Don’t wait for mom to get tired and come downstairs! »

Garden of Wonders

With Rivard, Huet, Bertrand, Desrosiers and the gang, we walked the streets of Montreal with our eyes as big as saucers. baby A toy store was dropped loose after closing time.

Every street corner was a garden of wonders.

Chinatown under the snow! Mount Royal was held tight by Westmount like a mate!

An accident at the corner of St-Hubert and Jean-Talon!

Young men standing in the back yards! Our first cutie we met in the sheds!

The first time we fell in love, on the corner of Beaubian and Ninth!

And then there were other albums…

Marie-Chandel and her great house at Westmount, ten thousand of us on the rue Saint-Paul, the love year of the Expo, the incident at Bois-des-Fillians, the Motel Mon-Repos, the Dupuis brothers…

We might have come out of the woods, and left our islands and furrows to find ourselves in the lost city of millions, and Montreal, with its dirt and cross-streets, seemed to us as magical and charming as Saint-Dillon. in d’Orléans.

The Blues of the Metropolis

Fifty years later, what is this Montreal?

What would the guys and gals from Beau Domege sing if they were starting their careers today?

Orange cones? Plugs? The shooting? Without a home to stay?

What instrument could replace the beautiful Chinatown flute?

I love the new reissue of Beau Domege’s debut album.

But she makes me sad.

I look at the cover and have the impression of looking at a yellowed photograph of a city I no longer recognize.