Discover the story of the song > Le Bal des Laze – Michel Polnareff

- The song "Le Bal des Laze" by Michel Polnareff was released as a single in February 1968 and is taken from the album of the same name, released the same year.
- The song is often considered the most accomplished work of Michel Polnareff: "The melody with a wide and elegant step, the dialogue between the classical organ and the electric bass, the atmosphere of the lyrics - half-Lawrence, half-Brontë - everything is magnificent and revolutionary," argues a critic forty years after its release.
- The lyrics are by Pierre Delanoë, who signs here one of his darkest texts. They tell the story of a commoner in love with an English aristocrat, Jane de Laze, with whom he had a secret affair. Jane is to marry a young man of her class, a union arranged by her parents (Lord and Lady de Laze). Drunk with jealousy, the narrator kills Jane's fiancé. On the eve of his execution for this crime, he expresses his regret that he was prevented from killing Jane's next fiancé.
- The words maintain some ambiguity about the mental state of the murderer, who refers to himself as "a madman to be laughed at." It seems to be a case of erotomania, where the murderer displays his hatred of the conventions of his time, a perfectly senseless criminal plan, and a certain smugness in asking to be "pitied" for his fate.
- The lyrics of the song take on another dimension when one knows the geographical origin of Michel Polnareff's maternal branch: Saint-Hernin, in the center of Finistère.