Benevolent Thomas Dutronc. From the outset, he inquires about the health of the interlocutor. Not just out of kindness: out of genuine concern for others. “COVID, how is it going for you? Are you home there? What does it look like when you look out the window? Is it grey, like in Paris? And you, how’s life, not too grey? State of play, state of bodies, states of mind, everything interests him.
We’ll end up talking about the wonderful album Dutronc & Dutronc, the album we weren’t expecting, which emerged in the middle of an already miraculous father-son tour, a bouquet of great reinterpretations affectionately served in the studio, which arrives at our house on Friday, but not before having reconnected a little . “It was in 2015, right, the last time? ” Yes.
It is his nature. He likes people, playing music with musician friends. He’s a talker, like his mom. Yes, Francoise Hardy. “We finished a clip on the song Aragon, it just went to calibration. I talked to my mom this morning, she loved this clip, and I also sent her a little video of the live of Sesame, a song that I composed, which we didn’t put on the record because I didn’t want there to be too many of my songs. The goal was that, to make a live later and now offer this slightly complementary disc. My mom is super happy about it all. »
Make Jacques Dutronc move
“All my life, he continues on his way, I heard my mother insisting that my father [Jacques Dutronc] do things. Whether it’s movies, music, things, it was good for him to move, whatever. He laughs at his end of the line. “She said to me this morning: ‘I know it’s quite a story and that you’re working a lot to convince him, but the result is brilliant…’ All my friends tell me that too. What we are experiencing is truly a great adventure. »
My father is so stingy with compliments, when he does one, it’s wow! And me, I’m happy: suddenly, my father and I share my songs as much as his.
Dutronc father, a priori, always says no. Let him alone in his Corsica, and then there you go. Only Dutronc junior, a graduate in applied dutronology, knows how to convince him. “Actually, the idea for this album came from the record company. She first had to convince me, I was wondering what we were going to do about it. I was told: “Do what you want, different versions, other songs than on the live.” And there, I thought it might be easier for my father to sing songs to me if there weren’t 10 million people around, or others of his, less known, like On a restaurant tablecloth [de 1966] Where To life, to love [de 1992], which my mother and I adore. »
The optional way
The Thomas way? “We were both in Switzerland with a friend whom he immediately liked, which is very rare. We had 10 days planned in June, but there was the COVID, so it was grated. We only had one shooting window left, in July, four to five days between two dates. I thought it was there or never. I didn’t warn him to prevent him frolicking or laughing. I told him the day before: “You know, by the way, tomorrow there’s a friend coming, don’t worry, it’s just for fun. Try arrangements, to see. If it’s not good, we delete everything. We were in a dream hotel, with a crazy view, my father felt good, his voice was beautiful, and in the end, he was not unhappy. »
Detail that says a lot: the excellent Laurent Seroussi, director of the music videoAragon, a friend of Thomas since adolescence, received “an SMS with a compliment” from Jacques Dutronc. “He told me he was going to frame it…” Laughter happily. “My father is so stingy with compliments, when he does one, it’s wow! And me, I’m happy: suddenly, my father and I share my songs as much as his. “What’s more, the tour resumes, which was not won at all, to specify Thomas: the so naturally successful versions of the studio album will have given confidence to his eternally uncertain father. “He has to feel a bit like home, with friends…” In the same way as the Vieilles Canailles tour, where he shared the stage with Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday, the group of teenagers from the square of the Trinity.
In show, but not on the album, the Dutronc-Dutronc remake the epic Fort Chabrol, an instrumental composition that dates back to the time when the young Jacquot, guitarist of El Toro and the Cyclones, tried to imitate Hank Marvin and the sound of the Shadows. “It’s very moving to play this, for both of us. ” Lady ! With lyrics by André Salvet and Lucien Morisse, the song will be renamed The time of love and popularized by… Françoise Hardy. This is where it all begins. From the time of love, then of love, Thomas was born in 1973: “Destiny was written…”
It’s still a story of guitars that leads to the new version ofIt’s five o’clock, Paris is waking up. The gypsy arpeggios dear to Thomas replace the famous flute of the original. “It was not easy, it is elusive, this flute, but the opportunity was too good not to try. That’s the joy of this project. Have fun, and provide pleasure all around. “Mom, dad, son, the whole family is delighted. The great family of fans too. And casually, it’s less gray.