Debout Sur Le Zinc is a French music band.

After their first 1999 se… Read Full Bio ↴Debout Sur Le Zinc is a French music band.

After their first 1999 self-titled album, their subsequent album L’homme à tue-tête released in May, 2001 gained them media acclaim and public popularity. By the time their 2004 album Des singes et les moutons enhanced their repertoire, they were selling out venues such as La Cigale and touring internationally. Songs from their latest album Les Promesses were featured in their first concert at the oldest music hall in Paris, the Olympia, where they played to a full house on May 16, 2006.

The band acknowledges influences from traditional French and Irish music, rock, klezmer, and many styles that are considered dance hall music, such as gypsy jazz, tango, waltz. Music critics and fans admire their ability to mix these different styles into an exuberant, cohesive whole.

They are known to be friends with bands like La Rue Kétanou or Les Ogres de Barback.

Marée noire
Debout sur le zinc Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Tout en volutes, en ellipses de soie,
S'évaporent mes humeurs,
Le sommeil à sonné et m'assomme de son toit
Où les heures, les quarts d'heure, se prélassent.
Laissant mes chairs aux porches de l'éther,

Overall Meaning

Debout sur le Zinc's song "Marée noire" is a song that explores themes of exhaustion, sleep, and detachment. The lyrics describe the sensation of feeling weighed down by sleep, while at the same time feeling detached from one's physical body. The singer describes their "humors" evaporating, leaving them feeling hollow and empty. The use of imagery such as "volutes" and "ellipses de soie" (silken ellipses) lend a dreamlike quality to the lyrics, suggesting that the singer is caught in a half-awake state.

The song's title, "Marée noire", translates to "oil spill" in English. This reference to environmental disaster is reflected in the lyrics, which mention the concept of detachment and the idea that one's body is being left behind. The image of oil spreading over water is evoked in the opening lines ("Tout en volutes, en ellipses de soie"), creating a powerful metaphor for the way in which the singer's sense of self is being eroded.

Overall, "Marée noire" is a poignant and evocative song that speaks to the experience of feeling disconnected and detached from oneself. Its dreamlike quality lends it a sense of timeless melancholy, while its lyrical themes of exhaustion and environmental disaster give it a powerful contemporary resonance.

Line by Line Meaning

Tout en volutes, en ellipses de soie,
Like spiraling silk, my moods evaporate,

S'évaporent mes humeurs,
My emotions escape into the air,

Le sommeil a sonné et m'assomme de son toit
Sleep comes knocking and overwhelms me

Où les heures, les quarts d'heure, se prélassent.
As time lounges around

Laissant mes chairs aux porches de l'éther,
Leaving my body to the realm of the ethers

Contributed by Stella W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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