Between the best and the worst | The best and the worst of RBO

In Between the best and the worstan artist revisits, one song or one moment at a time, the peaks and valleys of his work. On the occasion of the vinyl reissue of two of their albums (The Disc And Why sing?), as well as the presentation by Cirque du Soleil of the show The CircusBruno E. Landry, Yves P. Pelletier and André G. Ducharme recall the least bad of their musical career.

Patrick Bourgeois’ best contribution

Yves: Stop drinkingthat line was the rallying cry of his band, The Kids. The guys were playing in bad places, there were loud people, and Pat was yelling at them: “Stop drinking!” It was also the rallying cry of the bar Le Belmont. When we decided to make a song about bars [composée par Jocelyn Therrien et Denis Toupin]it was clear that it was going to be called Stop drinking.

Bruno: The first songs we did were with Patrick Bourgeois. We recorded a medley of TV show themes called the Medley KidsIt was really with him that we learned to create songs.

Yves: The song of Rock and Belles Oreilles was born because we needed another song for the album and Patrick had just made me play in his car a country rock song like Wall of Voodoo [groupe rock américain des années 1980]with lots of sound effects. I said to the guys: “Why don’t we ask him to come up with something similar?” In three days, it was done.

And the lyrics were written quickly, on the couches of Studio Victor, wondering what rhymes with big. Handsome? OK, big, handsome, it works. That Guy was the handsome one was a joke, but people believed it.

Your oldest song

André: The wild fire of loveI co-wrote it with Jacques Chevalier and one of our friends, Luc Blanchette, when we were teenagers. We had a sketch group and when we saw Paul and Paul ending their show with a musical number, we started making songs, and it was a good thing, because Jacques has a background in classical violin.

The version we hear at the beginning of the video clip is that of this old group, The Yellow Frogs, whose existence overlapped that of RBO. For an assignment in a sound course at UQAM, we had recorded a kind of album, with 17 songs [André sort son téléphone de sa poche et en fait jouer des extraits].

We also did a radio show in front of an audience. And one evening, a week before the first Rock et Belles Oreilles show at CIBL, Guy and Richard were in the room. That’s when they asked me to join them.

La chanson que vous préféreriez ne pas avoir enregistrée

Bruno : C’est la version française du Feu sauvage. Comme en France, ils ne savent pas c’est quoi, un feu sauvage, on avait dû modifier un peu les paroles. [Bruno récite de mémoire] “But by pressing my lips to yours, you gave me a cold sore.”

Your song that makes you laugh the most

Yves: Why take drugs?I can listen to it over and over again without ever getting tired of it.

Extract of Why take drugs?

André: Ringo Rinfret’s entire body of work is wonderful. This morning I got upit’s a song of a banality, of a flatness that makes no sense. It’s like Lynda Lemay before her time. [André et Yves l’entonnent en chœur, avec force trémolo] “This morning I woke up and realized it was a little chilly, so I put on a coat.”

Bruno: The first inspiration for Ringo is that when we started, we often participated in shows filmed in shopping malls. And in one of these shows, in a shopping mall in Quebec, there was a singer who was quite the show-off, Richard Cazes. He would say things in interviews like [Bruno prend la voix de Ringo] : “Being successful, it’s sure that it arouses a lot of admiration, but also a lot of jealousy.” But the guy wasn’t known at all! And the subtext is perhaps more that he had gotten his face kicked in by a jealous husband because he was cruising a girl.

André: The end of the Clown is sad [toujours dans le répertoire de Ringo Rinfret]you will notice, it is a borrowing from the end of the song I’m Not in Love of 10cc.

Your best memory of your collaboration with Pag

[Michel Pagliaro a composé et réalisé La chanson de l’environnement.]

Extract of The environmental song

Yves: I remember that Pag, at the end of our first meeting, told us: “OK, guys, I’ll take care of the music, you guys take care of the theater.” Bruno and I looked at each other: what about theater?

The creation of this song lasted three months and we all did all the studios in Montreal. Michel was walking around with the 24-track in the metro, I was afraid that the tape would demagnetize. He had already started working on this famous album that we still haven’t heard.

André: We were almost fighting to be seated next to him, behind the console, because he was quite the storyteller. And he had expressions that didn’t make sense. He would say things like: “This, guys, is going to ring, it’s going to be a-to-mic!”

Bruno: When we were mixing, the sound wasn’t at 10, it was at 50. Michel would get up and put his ear to the speaker, then he would come back to the console to correct things that no one else could hear.

I also remember that one time, we were approaching the studio and we heard bang, bang, bang, as if there was construction. It was poor Henri, on drums, who Michel was making redo the snare, telling him: “Send it, varge, it’s not a pancake.” Henri’s arm was blue.

The song you are most proud of

Yves: Hello police. Jocelyn Therrien, the composer [avec Daniel Marsolais]is first and foremost a bass player, and it shows. It’s danceable.

André: This idea is at the very basis of our desire to make songs: we never wanted to make comic songs, where very often, the music itself is comic. We wanted to make real songs.

Le genre musical que vous avez le plus de plaisir à explorer

André : Je dirais le style Beatles, parce qu’on s’est vraiment payé la traite. Mais on s’est aussi souvent payé la traite avec Beau Dommage. On a même joué avec eux !

En 1998, pendant la crise du verglas, TVA organisait des caravanes d’artistes qui allaient chanter dans des refuges. On avait répondu à l’appel, mais comme on n’est pas musiciens, c’est Beau Dommage qui avait été nos accompagnateurs.

Ce soir-là, à McMasterville, on a chanté nos parodies de Beau Dommage avec Beau Dommage, puis on a chanté du vrai Beau Dommage, avec Beau Dommage. Je revois Pierre Bertrand, pendant qu’on fait Le picbois, qui me regarde en voulant dire : « Comment ça se fait que tu connais nos harmonies vocales comme ça ? »

L’apport le plus important de Chantal N. Francke et Richard Z. Sirois

Yves : Chantal est devenue une spécialiste des voix de minette et quand on enregistrait Érotico-mocheton, elle faisait aussi des espèces de chuchotements lascifs. C’est un des grands fous rires de ma vie. Son personnage de Mino, c’était direct dessus, d’une fabuleuse précision comique.

Bruno : Richard, c’est celui qui parlait avec le plus de passion de notre musique. C’est encore notre meilleur ambassadeur.

Yves : Et c’est lui qui, en 1984, a appelé Louise Cousineau [défunte chroniqueuse de La Presse] to tell him that we had won a prize at a free radio festival in Belgium. It was his article that led to the offer that CKOI made to us.

Your best return

André: In 2000, at the ADISQ Gala, Guy had the idea that we present a campfire-style medley. And as soon as we started, the room suddenly stood up. It had been a few years since we had made an appearance and that’s when I realized the impact we had had. When I came off stage, I bawled for three or four minutes.

The phrase from one of your songs that best represents you

Yves: “Do it again the”, because we never stop coming back.

The Circusfrom July 17 to August 17, at the Cogeco Amphitheatre in Trois-Rivières

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