Kelly: Revered Quebec singer Serge Fiori was loved by both solitudes

Montreal Gazette

3 days ago

Music
When Les Cowboys Fringants singer Karl Tremblay died in November 2023, I wrote a column about how the two solitudes were still very much a thing ici — and, yes, they still are today.
I vented my frustration about how Tremblay's death was an absolutely huge thing for French Quebec and yet so few English-speaking folks 'round these parts had any idea just how important Tremblay and his band were for their franco neighbours.
But that narrative doesn't work nearly as well with Serge Fiori. The Montreal singer-songwriter, who died Tuesday at age 73, was, of course, way better known by French-speaking music fans, but Fiori and Harmonium, the iconic progressive-rock band he founded in the early '70s, had a surprisingly strong following among English-Canadians.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Fiori's as famous in the ROC (Rest of Canada) as, say, Gord Downie or Gordon Lightfoot. But back in the day, Harmonium was one of the only francophone bands to break out beyond the borders of Quebec.
First, a little background for those of you who don't know him. Fiori is positively revered in Quebec for the very good reason that he is one of the greatest musical artists of his generation. If you don't believe me, slap on Pour un instant or L'Exil or Un musicien parmi tant d'autres and tell me those tracks aren't as good as anything else produced by the best British, American or Canadian tunesmiths back in the '70s. Actually, don't tell me. Because you'd be wrong.
Fiori, with his falsetto vocals, sang like an angel, and he was an unbelievably gifted composer. There's a tuneful accessibility to most of what he penned, but there's also a rich complexity, with fine-textured guitar lines and, especially as time went on, almost orchestral takes on British progressive rock. Harmonium's third and final album, L'Heptade, released in 1976, is considered their masterpiece, and it's inspired folky prog-rock that can win over a guy like me who loves to hate progsters like Genesis and Gentle Giant.
By 1978, the band split up and, astonishingly enough, Fiori never performed on stage again, plagued by anxiety. In fact, he disappeared from sight for much of the 1980s. In the '70s, Harmonium as much as any other group personified the hopes and aspirations of un peuple, a mantle that Fiori was never comfortable with. He was a committed nationalist, but he was also a remarkably down-to-Earth Italian-Montrealer who had difficulty seeing himself as a saviour.
He didn't write all that much music in the 40-plus years since L'Heptade, but when he did, like for his very good solo album from 2014, it was as great as ever and became a huge hit.
After he died on June 24, the day of La Fête de la Saint-Jean, so many online were talking about the heavy symbolism of him leaving us on Quebec's national holiday. He was as loved as any contemporary Québécois artist and was a tireless defender of the French language and culture here right up to the end of his life.
Given all that, it's quite the rich irony that the local French-language music biz here was initially cool to Harmonium. I've met and interviewed Fiori many times over the years and he often told the story of how French radio in Montreal wasn't into the band in the early days. The first station to play Pour un instant was CHOM, and because of that Fiori always had a soft spot for the anglo classic-rock station.
The band also signed with a Toronto-based disco label, rather than with any of the Montreal record companies. They often toured Canada to packed venues and even played throughout California, opening for Supertramp.
Three years ago, my old friend Geneviève Borne and I did a podcast interviewing local musicians in both of Canada's official languages, and we had a great conversation with Fiori.
I asked him how it was that English-Canadians were so into Harmonium.
'I don't know, but it was the first time a (Quebec) band was going there, all through Canada, with nights and nights booked in every city,' Fiori said. 'You'd go on stage and there's like 3,000 people at the Orpheum in Vancouver. And they sing the words in French, and that's very rare.'
The record company CBS offered to pay him to re-record the Harmonium songs in the language of Lennon and he turned them down. That day in the fall of 2022, I asked him why he said 'no'.
'Cause I'm nuts,' he said with a laugh. 'First of all, there's something about writing rock 'n' roll in French that is extremely hard. It's pretty easy in English. It sounds good with nothing. Once you get it (in French), it's so profound. The song is so amazing, so even translating that in English, for me it wouldn't work… and I think if I would have done that, Quebec would have turned against me.'
He said the reaction in Western Canada was exactly the same as it was here in Quebec — people just adored Harmonium. They told him they didn't care what language the songs were in, 'It was just the music.'
He recalled travelling to Toronto with the band to meet with the executives at Quality Records and on the spot the label gave them five grand to make an album in Montreal, something no local label was willing to do.
'We were too weird (for the Montreal record companies),' Fiori said.
But so accessible as well, you touched the heart of everyone, said Borne.
'Yeah, but they didn't believe that,' Fiori said.
To which I chimed in, 'proving my theory that the vast majority of these record-company people know nothing.'
'Thank you very much,' Fiori said quietly.
Then he started laughing.
'You said it!'