From Bowie to the Stones | These album-monuments that are 50 years old

(Paris) Lou Reed and his Transform, David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust, or theExile on Main St. the Rolling Stones on the Côte d’Azur: these records, instant classics, celebrate their half-century in 2022.

Exile on Main St., jewel of the Stones cut on the Côte d’Azur

“Perhaps the Stones’ best record”, says Keith Richards in his autobiography Life. The Stones, who fled the British tax authorities, designed it on the Côte d’Azur, in the villa Nellcote, which had become famous.

“I’m one of the people who got in there, not with the gang of dealers (laughs), I’m from the region, I was a kid, “says AFP Yves Bigot, a figure of rock criticism. “In the morning, not everyone was awake (laughs), we could sneak in with the delivery men (of food), I stayed in a corner, the time to check that they were indeed extraterrestrials (laughs)”.

Exile…, which does not contain a stadium anthem, although Tumbling Dice meets with success, is a declaration of love for American music, from gospel to blues.

Honky Castle, Elton John and the ghosts of Hérouville

Also in France, the castle of the small town of Hérouville (50 km from Paris) houses a recording studio frequented in the 1970s by David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Elton John. The latter names Honky Castle in homage to Hérouville, which is also said to be haunted.

“Elton John is in his imperial period, with incredible songs, Honky Cat, Rocket Man (title of biopic dedicated to him) or Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters “says Yves Bigot. “In the 70s, Elton John has the hand”, adds the one who has just released the novel Katrijn. This album lays “the foundations of 1970s soft-rock” for the British musical bible NME.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie and his double

“Sexuality has always been underlying rock. But suddenly with Ziggy, she found herself articulated, in motion”, depicts David Bowie in Rainbowman, reference work by Jérôme Soligny.

“With this disc, Bowie invents the character of Ziggy which makes him a rockstar, the prince of glam, develops Yves Bigot. With, also, this totally futuristic, visionary, apocalyptic aspect that he will continue with Diamond Dogs (1974)”.

The essentials are there, Five Years, Starman, Suffragette City Where Rock’n’roll Suicide. “It says how many classic albums were born in this period, without a note to change,” says the journalist.

Transform, Lou Reed and after Velvet

“It’s the album that introduces Lou Reed to all those who did not know (his group) the Velvet Underground, that is to say the vast majority of people”, explains Yves Bigot. With the standards Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love Where Perfect Day, which will have a second youth with the film Trainspotting. And who do we find at the production of Transform ? David Bowie, from whom Lou Reed has always wanted to dissociate himself. “Unlike Bowie (no) need to create an alter ego for me, I was already double, triple, quadruple,” he says in Rainbowman.

Harvest, Neil Young nugget after the gold rush

Some Neil Young fans prefer After the Gold Rush (1970), but it is with Harvest that the “Loner” finds the right vein. The titles heart of gold and Old Man pass to posterity and the album is at the top of the American charts. “It’s his best-produced, most polished album,” Yves Bigot dissects. This does not exclude a dark and prophetic part. Like The Needle and the Damage Done, short title “like the life of the junkies it describes” summarizes the music site Pitchfork. The drug will kill shortly after two relatives of Neil Young, to whom he will dedicate Tonight’s the Night (1975).