In my column on Jean Lapointe, published a few days ago, I spoke to you about Marcel Lefebvre. And for good reason, this lyricist wrote “sounding words” long before the profession of lyricist was recognized by the music industry.
However, I was far from suspecting that this poet of several arts (he was also a painter, director – he signed three screenplays, including that of Mustang –, designer, director and author of jingles) would join the one with whom he created nearly 120 songs.
A few months ago, one day in April, Marcel Lefebvre welcomed me into his home. Generous, affable, talkative, he told me about his life with a pride that he did not try to conceal. It was first about his mother, a woman he loved deeply and who gave him a taste for music and painting.
Because young, Marcel Lefebvre had a voice like Gérard Barbeau (for the youngest, little Gérard was the René Simard of the 1950s and was the star of the film The Nightingale and the Bells). On a guitar bought at Eaton’s for $14, the teenager that Marcel has become commits his first songs. “We all wanted to become the next Félix Leclerc. »
But since he generates more sweat than applause during his shows, he figured he should stick to writing songs for other people instead. It was with Marc Gélinas that he made his debut as an author. “He was an ‘event’ singer. So I wrote to him Expos are here. We wanted to dislodge the American theme Take Me Out to the Ball Game. »
Advertising designers then put their hands on his collar. This is how he creates commercial anthems that are now part of our collective imagination: Laura Secord Little Puddingsit’s him. My bikini, my toothbrushit’s him too.
We notice that Marcel Lefebvre has mastered the art of pouring words into melodies (the song The sand and the sea with Ginette Reno and Jacques Boulanger is a superb example of that), what Stéphane Venne calls “the money note”. Thanks to producers Yvan Dufresne and Pierre Nolès, he transformed American hits into Quebec songs for $25 a text.
“My name didn’t appear on the record, so I had no copyright. But I loved this job so much that I was ready for anything, ”says the man who is pursuing studies in philosophy during this period.
During our meeting, his collaboration with Diane Dufresne was discussed at length. Because before Luc Plamondon entered the singer’s life, Marcel Lefebvre was the poet of “François Cousineau’s blonde”. “I was writing for everyone, because I was the only cursed lyricist at that time. »
With François Cousineau, Marcel Lefebvre makes One day it will come my lovetheme song of the movie The Initiation, the first commercial success of Diane Dufresne. “I brought this text to François and I told him that it had to be heard by a woman. He added that his girlfriend was in another room of the apartment. She didn’t know the song and sang it divinely. »
Then there will be he will love me, If I were the sun, A flower on the snow (from the movie human love), children of paradise (from the movie seven times a day) and so many others.
At the end of 1971, Luc Plamondon entered the life of Diane Dufresne and François Cousineau. The trio begins to work on the disc Hold on, I’m coming. Before leaving discreetly, Marcel Lefebvre leaves the text of Buzzone of the craziest songs on this record.
Diane knew where she wanted to go. She explained it to Luc, but not to me. But still, I can say that I was the first to detect its true nature with Buzz. There is an appointment that I missed with her and it saddens me.
Marcel Lefebvre, in interview, last April
When, in the mid-1980s, Diane Dufresne and Luc Plamondon agreed on a professional divorce, the singer invited Marcel Lefebvre to the restaurant. “Diane arrived with flowers. It was her way of telling me that she had enjoyed the years in my company. »
During our conversation, we obviously came back to the famous event held at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal in September 1984 during the visit of Pope John Paul II. Marcel Lefebvre is not only the author of the song A dovesung by Céline Dion, but also the man who staged this grandiose show which brought together 60,000 young people.
“We had to prepare this during the summer. But in the summer, young people are on vacation. How to join them? We made announcements on the radios and in the cinemas. I ended my presentations by telling them that at the end of the performance, they were all going to cry. »
The organizers manage to bring together nearly 4,000 young people to perform the choreographies, including the one that must reconstitute a huge dove while Céline sings her song. “The Olympic Stadium, you can’t have that every day. We were rehearsing at Place des Arts, 100 doves at a time. »
Marcel Lefebvre confided to me that he was never able to see the complete dove before the result that we know. “When we finally arrived at the stadium, it started to rain nonstop. The electric wires were soaking in water. We rehearsed bit by bit at the Vélodrome. »
The day of the event, Marcel Lefebvre experienced the greatest stress of his life (he entered the hospital the next day for an attack of angina). “I remember, I was at the top of the stadium with the team. They tell me the pope is coming. Suddenly the sun comes out. The young people were asked if they wanted to dance barefoot, because there was water everywhere. The dove unfolded. I have never shaken like that all my life. I was crying, I was crying…”
I left Marcel Lefebvre with a light heart, because I had the feeling of having met a man who played an important role in the history of our song. This discreet poet deserves our attention. And his legacy.
After my meeting with the gentleman, I put on my headphones and went to my playlist “blue songs”. I pressed If I were the sun. The voice of Diane Dufresne was heard. The simple and mauve poetry of Marcel Lefebvre then did its work.
That’s when someone told Spring that it was her turn to come on the scene.