Bernard Lavilliers discusses his hit “Noir et Blanc” against a backdrop of apartheid and dictatorships

Author, composer and performer Bernard Lavilliers is the special guest of Le Monde d’Élodie Suigo from August 19 to 23, 2024. Five days, five songs to get to know this indomitable, committed artist, imbued with musical and human harmonies. Last November, he released an album: “Métamorphose” and a book: “Écrire sur place” (Writing on site) at Éditions des Équateurs.

Bernard Lavilliers is the special guest of Le Monde d’Élodie all this week. The opportunity to look back on five highlights of his life with five songs from his repertoire. Bernard Lavilliers, a prolific author, composer and performer since 1965, has never stopped taking us on a journey by mixing rock, reggae, salsa, bossa-nova and French song. Fensch Valley (1976), The Samba (1975), Saint-Etienne (1975), Stand The Ghetto (1980), Kingston (1980), Dark thoughts (1983) or again On the Road Again (1988) so many songs that have become for the most part hymns, the words of those who were not and are not heard, a freeze frame on certain conflicts or difficult periods.

Last November, the Saint-Etienne native with the iconic voice and phrasing released an album: Metamorphosis and a book: Write on the spot at Éditions des Équateurs. He will be in concert at the end of September.

franceinfo: In 1979 with your album The Gringoyou write strong lyrics that hit the mark. This album is one of your most famous. It is the one of musical recognition and success ultimately. How did you experience this period?

Bernard Lavilliers: I didn’t realize it because simply by instinct, I said to myself: I’m going to do two tracks per country, one fast and one long. I started in Jamaica and since the record company liked it, they financed the rest and then I went to New York, then to Brazil. I did a track of a very strange music from the Northeast and a music from Rio, a bossa-nova. And when I returned to France, I resumed: Is this how men live? of Aragon and Ferré and I wrote Caution fragile.

The 80s were really a period of very intense creation, of very intense concerts, of very strong, very powerful trips. We feel that this period is anchored in you.

I was writing a lot of albums, almost one album a year. Let’s say, every year and a half. It’s a very strange period because basically, I’m starting to become famous. But a lot. I didn’t expect success at all.

“Faced with success, I distanced myself, especially since at the time, I had changed women. I was with the world bodybuilding champion, in California, so there, we were rare birds.”

Bernard Lavilliers

to franceinfo

You married a Californian bodybuilding champion?

Yes because she asked me to marry her.

This is where they were born Night Bird and the album Night of love.

Yes. Over there, in Los Angeles, she knew the owner of Village Recorders. She knew Marlon Brando. She wasn’t some chick who only did bodybuilding! She was an intellectual. Very intellectual, probably more than me. I learned a lot about photography, about plastic arts, things that we don’t study enough in France. Elsewhere in Europe, they are more knowledgeable than us in plastic arts. Now it’s better, but at the time I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t know much.

You didn’t keep your mouth shut for very long because there was State of emergency in 1983. It was a very dark, very striking return. It is nostalgic. You deliver a rather sad mood, enhanced by a very rock sound. Where do these dark ideas come from at that time?

I don’t know, it’s an invention. I’m not depressive so… Well yes, probably at times, well I’m not going to start doing pizzeria psychoanalysis.

“But this song ‘Idées noires’ is a joke, you shouldn’t take it seriously.”

Bernrad Lavilliers

to franceinfo

To be continued Also ?

No! Yes, there is a second degree. In my travels, for example, when I went to Las Vegas, Lisa had Jewish uncles associated with mafiosi. The beginning of the song called Vegas, It is : “Sitting in the sun. In the middle of the desert. In Vegas at noon. Under the big green neon lights. Blonde like Marilyn. But black at the roots.“, you see that it is not serious!

You’re going to need to leave very quickly. This is felt throughout the album. Fire Thief in 1986. And I have the impression that it is without a doubt the album that defines you the best with the travels, the commitment, the fights alongside the most deprived, the hardest working.

In Fire Thiefthere is already Black and White.

I would like to talk about this song which is extraordinary. It is apartheid with the voice of Nzongo Soul.

Mandela is still in prison when I write this. He has been in prison for at least 20 years. In the United States, there is the same thing, if you will. If there is no physical apartheid, there is a mental and moral apartheid. Whereas Nelson Mandela, prison, long excluded… Not dead! I don’t know why they didn’t kill him, maybe they didn’t dare or maybe international opinion sometimes counts. There were still quite a few people who didn’t agree with South Africa. Mandela was also the confinement of freedom of expression and so I mixed up a Brazilian friend who had his hands broken by the Brazilian military Gestapo because he was no longer supposed to sing this song. I mixed up the poet, the singer, who can no longer sing a song that bothers the military and Mandela. Basically, it’s a mixture of the two. And then I say: “Music sometimes has major chords. Which make children laugh but not dictators.“.