"Petit train ou t'en vas tu ? A travers la mort mais que fais tu ? " Cette chanson parle de la déportation pendant la seconde guerre. Une chanson inoubliable

Sam Ringer, an excellent Polish Jewish painter, father of Catherine Ringer, was deported to Annaberg, then to nine camps, including Buchenwald. "Little train, where are you going? Death train, but what are you doing?"

This song is about Catherine's father (a jewish from Poland) beig sent by train to Auswich. He survived the concentration camp, but saw horrible things there. He suffered PTSD all is life. This is a (subtle) anti-nazi song.

Sam Ringer, excellent artiste peintre juif polonais, père de Catherine Ringer, a été déporté à Annaberg, puis dans neuf camps, dont Buchenwald. "Petit train, où t’en vas-tu ? Train de la mort, mais que fais-tu ? "

This is my favorite Rita Mitsouko song, and at the same time the most difficult to listen to because the backstory is so emotionnal (i'm close to tears each time) We love you so much Catherine. We miss you so much Fred...

A very bouncy song, almost like a nursery rhyme. But beyond the bucolic aspect hides a terrible aftermath: the trains taking the Jews to the concentration camps during the Nazi period.

Finally you did it! Glad you like it! You should watch it again because you missed a lot, and I mean, a huge amount of the second degree symbolism. You have completely missed the fact this song is about the deportation and the final destination of this little train. There are no happy or good moments, even if the villagers are enjoying themselves and carrying as normal their usual business, ignorant and unaware of the attrocities to which the train passing by is carrying its passengers. At one point, you look away from the screen, during the second part, when the female dancers are dancing towards a barbewired fence, reminding us of the concentration camps. There are also a few references to fire, like the red-orange background with the burnt forest, and we know what happened there. The cage with all the participants is also very important as it gives the unconfortable, claustrophobic feeling of proximity, and the limitation of movements. Catherine's tears are ones of sadness and pain. The mixed/melted faces show the ugliness of assimilation and loss of human digninity . I don't know where you get the info you read afterwards, but it is completely far from the point. Finally, although the track is very dancy, because of the seriousness of its theme, it is never played in France at parties or discos... Hope this will show this song from the real angle.

Even when you don't know what the song is actually about. That moment when they dance up to the barbed wire fence...

The song is NEVER played at parties despite its rhythm and jumpy notes. You can’t dance in parties to such a dramatic song. Even the melody gets sad in the middle of the song with the synths playing. As for the lyrics, the first verses may seem innocent and futile but they contrast with the chorus “train of death” and “I’m still here”, implying that her father came back from the concentration camps during WWII and was able to have a baby. And Catherine Ringer crying really makes the song heartbreaking. I wasn’t aware of the subtext of the song when it was released but I knew it was about the trains going to concentration camps and regardless of the theme of the song, I’ve always found the melody and her singing very deep and sad.

The Rita Mitsouko. The origins of this song. The Little Train, behind the lightness, the heavy past Les Rita Mitsouko, Catherine Ringer and Fred Chichin in 1993, the most unique duo of French rock. Among Rita Mitsouko's hits, this is not the least cheerful. And yet, it evokes the deportation of which singer Catherine Ringer's father was victim, with touches of color, as if to remind us that even the darkest hours contain glimmers of hope. In this fall 1988, the Rita Mitsouko are at the top. Their third album, Marc et Robert, has just been released. Hidden in its grooves, the Little Train, a piece that will be played less in the evenings than Andy or It's like that ... Is it because it lets a je ne sais quoi of uneasiness perspire? In fact, the group pushed to the maximum the contrast which had presided over the construction of the tube Marcia Baïla, which had revealed them four years earlier: a playful music but terrible lyrics. Le Petit Train is undoubtedly one of the Rita's most personal titles, as it evokes the deportation of which the singer's father, Sam Ringer, a Polish Jewish painter, was a victim. First prize in drawing from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 1939, he was requisitioned the following year for the construction of the Auschwitz camp, before being deported to Annaberg, then to nine camps, including Buchenwald . Having never stopped drawing despite the difficulties, he was finally freed by the Russians from that of Theresienstadt where he had landed in 1945. Little Catherine, born in 1957 in Suresnes, has not experienced any of this but the family memory remains… She will also dedicate in 2000 a song to her father, It was a man, which tells how art can to keep hope alive, because "it has always had a sense of beauty". This is a bit of what drives Rita Mitsouko with the track that interests us. In fact, the father of guitarist Fred Chichin was also a painter. Communist activist, he had created the magazine Miroir du cinéma (in which he wrote under the name of Jean-Louis Pays) ... Inspired by a title by Marc Fontenoy written in 1952 The duo were inspired by a 1952 track written by Marc Fontenoy, in which it reads: “A little train goes to the countryside. A little train leaves early in the morning, "etc., before ending up" towards the scrap heap ". Premonitory, even if the Rita's are the passengers who are heading for a dire fate. They do not know it yet, even if the "coil of wood and scrap" is "rust and verdigris" color, colors of bad omen ... The clip, at first glance silly, is actually quite eloquent. The first images show golden faces (the obsession of the wealthy Jew) on a black background, before a saraband draws richly dressed dancers in the gypsy style (another people who have suffered genocide). A joyful and carefree atmosphere, worthy of a film made in Bollywood, young peasant women who harvest and "sometimes laugh until tears while dreaming of their lovers", "cows (which) have made hectoliters of milk" ... Table country which will be disturbed by disturbing elements. A cry similar to Munch's painting "Little train, where are you going? Death train, but what are you doing? "Question reinforced by this evocation of the German Expressionist school of the 1920s, these painters who survived the Great War showing nightmare images of deformed faces and bodies, which the Nazis chased and whose works they considered" degenerate "they prohibited. »: On Fred Chichin's face is juxtaposed that, ghostly, of the singer, in a cry similar to Munch's painting. This sequence marks the turning point of the song. "This train is not as bucolic as the first verses might lead us to believe," analyzes the Zebrock association. “The dance that follows enlightens us: the dancers approach a barbed wire fence, like those in death camps. "Catherine Ringer sings:" Nobody knows what is done there, nobody believes, they must see ... "The last verses will be more explicit, evoking" the children "and" the grandparents ":" Small train, lead them to the flames ”. We know from where this train was taking these millions of humans. The real question the Rita Mitsoukos ask in the last lines is still relevant today: "Will we ever see trains pass by like before?" "

this song recalls the deportation to a concentration camp of the singer's father during the 39/45 war, to remind us that even the darkest hours have glimmers of hope.

Dereck, thank you very much for this video reaction. It reminds me the first time I discovered this video and this song, I found this song perfect in its offbeat side, this incredible voice and especially these strange, joyful images, the "Bollywood parody" side, and yet worrying innuendos (grimacing faces, dancing near the barbed wire, alternating light and darkness, tears). When I learned the meaning of the lyrics, the story of Catherine Ringer's father deported to the death camps during the Second World War, I understood the true strength of this piece, which deals with a serious theme to a catchy music. "Le petit train" is originally a parody of an old French song by André Claveau, quite innocent and nice, adapted here to talk about the "trains of death" that carried prisoners to the camps. In a completely different style but still in the "happy music / sad lyrics" genre, a few years earlier there was Alain Chamfort's "Manureva", a disco-synthetic piece with an incredible sound production, whose lyrics written by Serge Gainsbourg pay tribute to the sailor Alain Colas who disappeared at sea aboard his boat. Take a look at it if you get the chance. Thanks again for all your videos. It's always a pleasure to see you react and discover music, and express your feelings. And it's also a pleasure, as a French Internet user, to see that our old pop music can interest people beyond borders :)

The rythm mimics the rythm of a train on rails (tchak, tchack, tchak..). She is crying because this train (of death) is indeed the one carrying people to concertation camp.. Overall this is a happy rythm, a happy song, about a very very sad destination/destiny/fate.

Personne n'a pensé à proposer à Dereck le titre "les histoires d'A" ; je pense que cela lui plairait.

Ehh Dereck! Here you have chosen a song (which when it was released in 1988) had been very, very difficult to decode for people speaking French, and therefore almost impossible for someone who is not French speaking. This song is about the deportations and extermination of millions of Jews to death camps during World War II. If that sounds cheerful, it is to evoke the general recklessness or ignorance in Germany and elsewhere for the terrible thing that was happening. Either people didn't want to believe it, or they didn't want to think about it and continued to live normally. You should also know that if the music video is happening in India it is to evoke Aryanism (ethnic group from which the Indo-European peoples came) from which the Nazis claimed to be. The Rita Mitsouko are a bit like Mylène Farmer for the coded details in their music videos and also in certain choices of instruments used ...

the rita mitsouko are geniuses of music and song! on stage Catherine Ringer is unique, an incredible personality and way of moving, not to mention her many vocalizations. Their songs still have so much power even today! the song is about death trains during ww2!

This song is a strange paradox a creepy story in a happy song and beautiful music .

I love this band , they re one a kind .

OMG - I am SO thrilled to see you're covering Le Rita Mitsouko. They became a favourite of mine in the '90's, when I was introduced to their album 'The No Comprendo' by a guy from Montreal. Marcia Baila, Andy...and a few years later this one. The video struck me as really, really advanced for the time - anything Bollywood wasn't too widely known around 1990. Then, learning the backstory made the song truly amazing. Thanks so much for covering them.

Hey guys....i grew up with this song and did not know about the meaning intil now! So don t blame Dereck in his first reaction for not understanding the deeper meaning! It is french punk, in every way. And punk is punk, not everything is what it seems....Just be glad an american is interested in french 80s music. Just keep doing what you do Dereck, you do a super job!😘

Rita Mitsouko was truly something else, so original

Hello, nice vidéo, please try "Singing in the shower" by Rita Mitsouko & Sparks. This song is awesome !

Thank you for your attention to Rita Mitsouko's work. It's great to hear your feelings and open minding ! I love your comments and reactions 🤩

Le contraste entre la lumière et l'horreur crée une terrible émotion. Il est normal qu'elle pleure si c'est son histoire (celle de son père).

It is a very personal story. Catherine's father (Sam Ringer) was a Polish Jewish painter who was deported. He never stopped creating or drawing because he believed that Art contributes to hope. Freed by the Russians, he went to study at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. He died in 1986. This is why there is a contrast between the joy, the shimmering colors, the almost hypnotic rhythm and the meaning of the song. A form of tribute to her father.

When I was a kid this song scared me like never before! the jerking rhythm the strange voices....

I spent years liking this song because of the music and bollywood style music video, before learning that Catherine Ringer was of jew ancestry and the little train described here is a train carrying jews to their death in nazis camp in WWII. So I won’t put the blame on you. Just know that there is a deeper meaning to this song than it appears at first glance...

Derek, I believe you should at least do what you're not used to, I mean not a second superficial reaction video to this song, but a proper enlighted review of it: with a proper translation of the lyrics, but with the knowledge of what this is about. With all that in mind, will you be able to react differently as you'll be suprised/shocked at the amount of hidden symbolism within the video and the lyrics. I believe this could be a one-off that would go in your favour.

Nice to see appreciation for Fred and Catherine, what a great duo they .ade and Catherine well, they don't age any better. Beauty and joy that oozes out of her into the world for our joy.

Amazing!

So much more than the music

As many people said the song is about Catherine's father's deportation to the extermination camp of Buchenwald during the war. If you pay attention the ending of the shots where you see the field laborers (here represented by the indian dancers) who don't see, don't believe in what happens in the train reveal they are always dancing toward sinister-looking cement posts and barb-wires. Also the last shot of the video where they walk away as shapes contrasting against the sky is a reference to the very famous last shot of Ingmar Bergman's movie "The 7th seal" where death incarnated leads the characters away. Catherine did porn in the 70's, but in 1987 catherine and Fred also played themselves in the movie Soigne ta droite by Jean-Luc Godard. That was great BTW, now you need to do "Singing in the shower" and "Les Histoires d'A"!

Basically as other mentioned it’s about the trains that took people to their death during the Holocaust. They took a classic happy children song ( a comptine ), by the same name, about a lovely little train travelling through the country side, and put a “dark” spin on it. My understanding is that it is not just about the trains of death but how some people were indifferent to what was going on and only “saw” a train travelling through. And she questions: little train where are you going?what are you doing? No one knows, they don’t believe, they want proof. But I’m here, aren’t I? And more importantly, she asks ( the train): Will you do it again? ( will history repeats itself).

This song is about the trains of death that carried Jewish people to the nazi's camps

Tks Dereck I even forgot this so ng......you’re the best French audience

If you like Les Rita Mistsouko, you’ll adore there song « les amants ».

hi dereck For your information this song is about the trains of Jews leaving for German concentration camps during WW II. Catherine Ringer's father was locked up. This is why she subtly mixes joy and sadness. she even screams her anger at times. Bravo for your videos A french fan

Les Rita Mitsouko ... ça vous prend aux trippes

Vive Dereck ❤️🙌🙌et vive la France 🇫🇷 🙌 🙌 ❤️ Thanks for watch french singers ❤️

The truth about this song: in fact, they were inspired by an old existing song (1952) which was about a train that crosses the countryside for the last time because is replaced by buses (but the atmosphere is absolutely not airy and does not speak of the Second World War). And the Rita Mistuko have kept this happy, carefree (even madness) aspect in opposition to the cruelty and inhumanity of the Second World War (which was also madness). Hence this contrast of universe and dark and light atmosphere :)

She is French with Jewish origins, at the moment when she becomes sad a tear flows it is because she sings "I am like mine, little train or you go you?, train of death but what you do ?" she prefers to sing it with humor so as not to be too sad but when she talks about the train that leads to hell and death for some deportees , the emotion is there . . .

Je pleure quand j'écoute cette chanson....

Just so you know , this is a song about deportation . She talks about the train bringing jewish people to the ddeportation camp . This is a very sad song , not funny or happy song , but a really engaged song .

Hi Dereck! This song deals with the deportation of which the singer's father, Sam Ringer, a Polish Jewish painter, was a victim. In 1939, he was requisitioned the following year for the construction of the Auschwitz camp, before being deported to Annaberg, then to nine camps, including Buchenwald and finally he was finally freed by the Russians from that of Theresienstadt where he had landed in 1945. The group pushed to the maximum the contrast which had presided over the construction of the HIT: "Marcia Baïla" , which had revealed them four years earlier: a playful music but terrible lyrics. For the NEXT REACT, always in 1988 " Singing In The Shower" with The Sparks, a Rock, Psyche-Rock , New-Wave and Syntpop American group from L.A in 1968 ( known for the HIT: " When I'M With You" in 1980) ; a very good song and a bizarre video : kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ipyXqqyY2K6xmac.html. Thanks. ☺

If you enjoy Les Rita Mitsouko, Dereck, please react to "Les Histoires d'A."; great song, great performance 🙂Thanks!

The little train of Rita Mitsouko is taken from a nursery rhyme, at the beginning she sings exactly the text and the rhythm of the nursery rhyme, then the tone changes she even cries! it's the death train that takes his grandfather to the death camps in Nazi Germany. Listen to this song again and watch the video clip, it becomes obvious, we understand!

Hi Dereck, Les Rita Mitsouko took over the song Le Petit Train (1950) by André Claveau who was a collaborator during the Second World War. Talking about a train that you miss dearly from this kind of person is kind of out of place, right? So they changed the words to denounce the horror of deportation. (excuse my english)

I always found the clip very intriguing: "The happyness and sadeness" (back in the day when it was on MTV '89). Never understood the lyrics too, later I found out... Funfact: The Album Marc & Robert was Co produced with the Mael brothers (The Sparks).

You should react to France gall : résiste You'll love it

Hello, this song is for children nursery rhyme and the text is about the Nazi deportation train, it's a joyful song paradox and heartbreaking text, everyone sees the trains but will never see them again Thx for vidéo, you can look the Master artiste Serge gainsbourg fr Thé numéro one texte and musique for song

Just before you cut to the funny faces there's a shot with barber wired fences. The song, titled the little train, is about her parents' last trip towards the concentration camps. As Frank Zappa said, does humor belong in music...

Holy bananas :)

Elle est trop cette chanson merci 🙂👌

I don't remember anyone ever partying to this song, even though that music is pretty sick indeed. I was a kid back then. I liked the song because it started like the nursery rhyme, which words I've now forgotten, because in my head, they've been replaced by this song. As a kid, even though I didn't get that this song was related to the Shoah, and no one explained that to me, but I could tell that the song was tragic. I did also get to see the music video and could definitely tell this wasn't a party song.

You spoke about the strings and rythm and it was the noise that trains for cows that were used for deportation. People in towns were not seeing them from the outside.

This song is in fact a cover from a very joyful french song from 1952. But the Rita Mitsouko version, if it starts in a similar mood, goes to deeper meanings. She talks about the trains that brought the jews to the exterminations camps. Catherine Ringer's father was taken in those camps. So it's a very deep and emotional version not only a fun and dancing song. Rita Mitsouko have often this double worlds in their songs. It's the case with Marcia Baila, which is about the death of her friend and teacher.

Cette façon de chanter les choses les plus dramatiques sur des airs joyeux. Dans un registre différent, vous avez son duo avec Marc Lavoine "Qu'est-ce que t'es belle". This way of singing the most dramatic things to happy tunes. In a different register, you have his duet with Marc Lavoine "What are you beautiful".

Le Petit Train = The Little Train. It's about WWII… :'(

Hi Dereck, It is a pleasure to look at your videos. 👍 Keep going on. As you seem to like the madness of Catherine, you could maybe listen to the duo Catherine Ringer and Johnny Halliday « Ma Gueule » live at the Tour Eiffel.

If you think Rita Mitsouko is good, you should check out Minuit - SON and DAUGHTER of Fred and Catherine. They have a song called "Flash" and the daughter is the spitting image of her Mom (mimicks her moves and sings exactly the same). You would think it's Catherine at the age of 20! Musically, it resembles the Ritas too...son plays exactly like his Dad used to.

Dereck 💕

Hello, just to tell you about the song, I think a member of her family got deported and died in a concentration camp.. during the 2ndWW. The little train is the train that took away all those people in miserable conditions. The horror of the story was pointed out without the dramatic ending.

@dereckreacts I've just see you on French TV on a channel called M6 during the news. They talked about you reacting to 80's French song !

Merci dereck de vous intéressé a à la french culture

Hi dude!! Never heard this song before..like the beat though!!

Hello Dereck vous êtes super pour commenter vraiment très juste bon je l'aime aussi Catherine vous avez raison j'adore trop merci beaucoup 👍😍😘👏💖😱

😉😉😉 "Le Jerk" Thierry hazard (27weeks 2nd place top 50) in France 👍👍👍

"C'est comme ça " is one of their best songs. You can try her duet with Marc Lavoine : very 80s song

Do you know from where Daft Punk comes...listen carefully 80's french music, add some anglosaxon influence and you got a hot pie burnin and scratching!

Beyond its very silly and joyful aspect it has a very heavy meaning. It's about a little train going across the land, but it is really about a train going to a concentration camp. It s a tribute to her grand father who died during his deportation in WW2.

Last rhymes of the song means "Will we see once again passing trains like this one ? I won't be the one to answer"... speaking about deportation death trains, how dark.

@derekreact Love the video! You could react to intermitent lover from Catherine. The song is from her 2017 album. She sings in English alone without Fred though.🙃

This song is about the deportations. "The train" is in relation to the deportation trains to the extermination camps

My childhood idol. You should watch her live concert she did last year. She sang all the Rita Mitsouko songs

Amazing video music

This is the trademark of Rita Mitsouko. Happy music for dark story. She's talking about trains going to death camps in WW2

I just liste ed this music DRUNK...... IT WAS FUN...😃

This song is an evocation of André Claveau's eponymous song, but with a sinister twist. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i7WdZ8p0v8nFXas.html 4:15 Maybe the word you're looking for is "unsettling", it's not a bug : it's the feature. Just like the video's creepy elements, it has an underlying melody that suits the whole purpose of the song, something worrisome in an otherwise care-free happy-go-lucky song. And it checks out with a part of the lyrics about the trains that went to concentration camps during WWII. The reason why there are Indian dancers in the video is also linked to an Indian religious symbol that has been hijacked in Europe before WWII.

Effectivement c'est dommage qu'il n'ai pas compris les paroles. C'est la chanson qui me marque le plus des Rita Mitsouko, il faudrait vraiment qu'il lise les paroles en découvrant une chanson à chaque fois

It's a sad sad song about the trains of death ! The Shoah

Il faudrait vraiment que j'aille voir les paroles un de ces jours

The Indian Bollywood background has nothing to do with the theme of the song, it’s such a contrast with the heavy real meanning of the song (deportation of people during world war 2). Even the music plays this contrat (but you have something in the music that goes on, over and over). This game of contrats makes the song so deep, heart broken. Sorry for my poor English skills ;)

Trains de la mort dans lesquels des millions de juifs et autres ( handicapés entre autre) ont été transportés vers les camps d'Auschwitz, camps d'extermination allemand pendant la seconde guerre mondiale. A savoir aussi qu'un proche de Catherine Ringer est décédé dans ces camps ..........alors chanson frivole, chanson triste ,rythme endiablé sans jeux de mots mais chanson pour ne jamais oublier.

The theme of this song is hard, it's talk to the deportation in the second world war.

This is what you play at your house party when you want everyone to leave.

be careful with word-for-word translators! they cannot translate the hidden meanings, the innuendos, the references, the unspoken ...it's the same thing when you react on myléne farmer. You can really understand if you are fluent in french, but you do a very good job anyway

her tears must be real knowing what she is singing about. you should dig into the lyrics more because they are so full of symbolism and history and pain!! ♥

This song speaks about Holocaust!!!! A little train in the country... It is tragic and sad!!!!

You like that era a lot. Let me suggest you check out Etienne Daho, quintessential icon of the time (he was/is friends with RMitsouko and Elli et Jacno; he was part of a punk-inspired movement out of Rennes, France in the 80s). This song, Des attractions desastres, is my favorite of his. It's like a cumulation of his career up to that point. He left some of the techno/synth sound behind, but kept and perfected his decadent, poetic texts full of double and triple entendre. A little gem : kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eNOSfNlp2racnmQ.html . Enjoy!

My favorit rita's song and the one who make me always crying. All hapiness and dancing part are in contrast with the story of the song. It's the innocence of the passengers of this train. But the sadness parts, the horible faces, the crying and shouting of catherine, illustrat the real destination of this death's train. These death's trains which have gone to the death nazi's camps, and we hope they never do it again.... For me the final, with people walking under this beautifull cloudy sky, is god who said welcome to all this people becoming smoke and clouds. Tk's Dereck, bisous de France.

You should listen to Bernard LAVILLIERS - Idées noires, & there's also a live version of this song feat. Catherine Ringer

This song is about what we called in France les trains de la mort : the trains of death, train full of jueve people transport from France directly to the camps of death where they were mostly burn during world War two. 😭 The way you will listen to the lyrics will never be the same once you know that. 😜

Great ! Next should be "Hip Kit" by Les Rita Mitsouko...

Thank u Derek for amazing song. You could react to duo Catherine Ringer with Bernard Lavillier "idees noires" and Catherine with Marc Lavonne "je me sens pas belle"

A song about jewish train deportation by nazis... this is all Rita Mitsouko, fancy form, deep lyrics. Their first one "Marcia baila" talks about death, death by cancer through the story of the dance techer of Catherine, dead by cancer.

you must watch Les Rita Mitsouko - Y'a d'la haine video ,that one is cool also

listen les amants of rita mitsouko it's the best song for me

Ce mec, Derek, est incroyable, d'écouter autant de chansons françaises, et de tous genres... il est us ou uk ?

7:25 the picture of the fence is a clue about the real tragic meaning of the song

She je talking about the WW2 ! Lyrics are sad ! The little train which go straight to death ! Meaning the genocide if jewish people !