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In The Night Lyrics

Zazou, what you're gonna do?
There's a lot of people coming for you
Zazou, comment allez-vous?
A knock on the door in the night

That Zazou, he don't care
Dark glasses, long hair
Takes his time, sneers at men
Some ugly people want revenge

Zazou, comment allez-vous?
A knock on the door in the night

In the night

That Zazou, he sleeps all day
Then down to Select or Le Collisee
Sips his drinks, orders more
Says what he thinks and it's a crazy war

Zazou, what you're gonna do?
A knock on the door in the night

Zazou, comment allez-vous?
A knock on the door in the night

And when the soldiers strut, all he cares about
Is love
When the flags are out, all he cares about
Is love
Well, there's a thin line between love and crime
And in this situation
A thin line between love and crime and -
Collaboration

In the night
(the night the night the night the night ...)

Zazou, what you're gonna do?
There's a lot of people coming for you
Zazou, comment allez-vous?
A knock on the door in the night

Now everybody's under somebody's spell
Unless they've already gone to hell
In the streets you can hear the people say
That, Zazou, he should be locked away!

When the soldiers strut, all he cares about
Is love
Oh, when the flags are out, all he cares about
Is love
And there's a thin line between love and crime
And in this situation
A thin line between love and crime and
Collaboration
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Cover art for In The Night lyrics by Pet Shop Boys

The Zazous were a youth subculture in occupied France whose followers listened to jazz/swing music and who were ultimately targeted as a bunch of undesirables, with members of the JPF (the French youth fascist movement, analagous to the Hitler Youth in Germany) attacking them in the street, notably by forcibly cutting off their long hair. At a time when just making an insulting gesture to a German soldier on the street could earn you a hard time from the Gestapo, listening to what the Nazis considered to be degenerate music was a bit of a political statement in itself.

Song Meaning
Cover art for In The Night lyrics by Pet Shop Boys

More information on the Zazous here: On 27 March 1942, France's Vichy government issued the ‘barbershop decree’, demanding that barbers collect cut hair and donate it to the war effort to make slippers and sweaters. The rebellious Zazous refused and grew their hair long. Zazous were anti-fascist youths who wore dapper suits, listened to jazz and swing music by largely black musicians and fought with fascists on the street. Police rounded them up, and Vichy fascist youth groups hunted them down and cut their hair. More info in our podcast episode about youth resistance to Nazism during World War II: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/04/04/wch4-anti-nazi-youth-movements-in-world-war-ii/

 
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