#30: L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me) by The Box

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1986
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”
Lyrics: “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)”

The Box was formed in 1981 by former Men Without Hats keyboard player Jean-Marc Pisapia. He was born in 1957 in Montreal and learned to play piano at the age of four. He studied architecture at the University of Montreal. After a summer tour with Men Without Hats in 1981, Jean-Marc formed Checkpoint Charlie, inviting guitarist Guy Florent and bass guitarist Jean-Pierre Brie to join him. In 1983, the band added Jean-Marc’s brother, Guy Pisapia, on keyboards. This enabled Jean-Marc to give his attention primarily to lead vocals. At this time the band changed their name to The Box. In 1984 The Box released a self-titled album with a debut single titled “Walk Away”.

The new wave sound was still popular, and “Walk Away” became a Top Ten hit in Regina (SK), and a Top 20 hit in Montreal and Ottawa. In 1985, The Box were nominated in the Most Promising Group of the Year category at The Juno Awards. They lost out to Idle Eyes. In Quebec, they won a Felix Award for Group of the Year.

From their second album, All the Time, All the Time, All the Time, came “L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say to Me)”. It was their second release from the album. The debut release, “With All That Cash”, was a #3 hit in Edmonton (AB) on the Alternative Rock station CJSR. But it failed to chart on Top 40 radio.

The lineup for The Box on All the Time, All the Time, All the Time consisted of Claude Thibault on guitar, Jean-Pierre Brie on bass guitar and backing vocals, Philippe Bernard on drums, Guy Pisapia on keyboards and backing vocals, Jean-Marc Pisapia on rhythm guitar and lead vocals.

“L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)” was written by the bandmates in The Box. The song is about a murder that takes place in the stables of le père Choupon, an old many who discovers “the dislocated body of Elizabeth Dumoutier.” In French, he exclaims to the police “young Austin is the culprit.” He explains, “everyone saw them leave the ball together. Austin is apprehended in a nearby road in a state of amnesia. At the trial, it is determined that Austin has a split personality. A refrain in the song repeats “Walking on the tightrope of insanity, walking…on the verge of losing my mind.”

In a Psychology Today article titled “Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity,” Dr. Susan Lewis discusses the matter. She explains that in American “the insanity defense is used in only 1 percent of all criminal proceedings, and its success rate is only 25 percent of that 1 percent. Therefore, less than 1 in 400 defendants are found not guilty by reason of insanity in this country.” However, from watching TV crime dramas like Law and Order, CSI and Criminal Minds, the public has been given the impression an insanity defense is common. Lewis summarizes, “Mental illness can alter a person’s perception of reality so that he or she does not realize the criminal nature of his or her actions or has no choice but to commit the crime. When this is the case, certain courts believe the person lacks this element of intention necessary for criminal guilt.”

One of the most famous cases where an accused was found not guilty by reason of insanity was John Hinkley’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. At 2:27 PM March 29, 1981, Hinckley approached the president as Reagan exited the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington onto Florida Avenue in Washington DC. Hinckley unloaded six bullets from his revolver. One struck White House Press Secretary James Brady, another DC police officer Thomas Delahanty, a third struck Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. Hinckley got additional rounds of bullets fired before he was wrestled to the ground. One of these struck Ronald Reagan. It ricocheted off the armored side of the limousine, passed between the space of the open rear door and vehicle frame and hit the president in the left underarm.

In June 1982, John Hinckley Jr. was declared not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent 35 years in a mental hospital and was released in 2016. After the verdict, there was a public outcry. It resulted in a change to the insanity defense, where the burden of proof regarding a defendant’s sanity shifted from the prosecution to the defendant.

“L’Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me)” peaked at #3 in Montreal, #9 in Ottawa, #10 in Toronto, and #17 in Hamilton (ON) and Sydney (NS).

A third release from the album, “My Dreams Of You”, was a Top 20 hit in Montreal in 1986.

In 1987 The Box released their third album, Closer Together. The title track was their debut single. “Closer Together” climbed to number-one in Montreal, and #15 in Hamilton (ON). A second release from the album, “Ordinary People”, was a Top 20 hit in both Hamilton and Montreal. In 1987, The Box was again nominated for a Juno Award in the Group of the Year category. They lost out to Tom Cochrane and Red Rider. However, at the Félix Awards The Box won Anglophone Group of the Year, Anglophone Single of the Year and Video of the Year.

In the winter of 1987-88, “Crying Out Loud For Love”, was the third single from Closer Together. It also cracked the Top 20 in Hamilton and Montreal. A fourth album, The Pleasure and the Pain, was released in 1990. The lead single, “Carry On”, reached #9 in Montreal, and #11 in Ottawa. A followup single, “Temptation”, was a Top 30 hit in Hamilton.

The Box dissolved in 1992 after Jean-Marc quit the band. The lack of wider exposure had been a constant challenge. The Pleasure and The Pain was a commercial disappointment. Jean-Marc attributed this in part to the band’s position as francophones who were performing in English instead of French. This caused their fans in Quebec to turn against them in the increasingly polarized climate in the Meech Lake era. The band was also exhausted after being an opening act on a tour headlined by Sinead O’Connor. In 1995, Jean-Marc released a solo album titled John of Mark. He subsequently supported himself principally as a writer of television advertising jingles.

The Box reformed in 2002 and released Black Dog There in 2005. It was a concept album about a guy from the prairies who becomes an astronaut. In 2009, The Box released their first French-language album D’Après le horla de Maupassant.

The Box released four singles in the mid-2010s. Their most recent single, “Incredible Human Being”, was released in 2016. In 2018, the band released an EP titled Take Me Home. The Box continues to perform in concert.

June 9, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Scott Sutherland, “The Box,” CanadianBands.com, April 11, 2022.
Aaron Badgley, “Right Out of The Box – A Conversation with Jean-Marc Pisapia of The Box,” Spill Magazine, January 22, 2020.
Dr. Sharon Lewis, “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity,” Psychology Today, February 6, 2020.
“John Hinckley Freed From Mental Hospital 35 Years After Reagan Assassination Attempt,” CNN, September 10, 2016.
Kimberly Collins, Gabe Hinkebein, and Staci Schorgl, “The John Hinckley Trial & Its Effect on the Insanity Defense,” University of Missouri, Kansas City (MO) School of Law, June 21, 1982.

CKOI 96.9-FM Montreal Top Ten | January 1986