Jacques Dutronc is considered one of the greatest French artists. He welcomes us into his refuge, his haven of peace in Monticello, Corsica. When we say: “Jacques Dutronc“, we think of music obviously, with a real incarnation, a real presence on stage and cult titles which have become Proust’s madeleines: And me and me and me (1966), I like girls (1967), It’s five o’clock, Paris is waking up (1968), The Playboys (1966) or again Shit in France (1984). We also think of cinema when we talk about him, with the starting point in 1973 being the film Antoine and Sébastien of Jean-Marie Périer or Maurice Pialat who entrusted him in 1991 with the role of Van Gogh and in the end, the César for best actor. All these ingredients can be found in his memoirs, And me and me and me published by Cherche Midi. A funny and fascinating work, its humor, self-mockery and sincerity ring true.
franceinfo: What stands out most from your memoirs is your accuracy, this ability to say things without cheating, to tell your life story. Was it easy or difficult?
Jacques Dutronc : Remembering is not too complicated, but to deepen memories, finally to relive certain memories… I regret not having done more. I really regret that it was aborted at such a level, it could have gone further. But otherwise, it’s quite nice and that doesn’t mean that it was better before. I don’t want to prove this kind of thing, although, I was younger anyway, that’s already something.
Does it sometimes hurt to dive back into certain memories?
The memories that hurt are neither in the book nor in my head. They are forgotten by another memory that was more or less parallel, that was not too important.
“With the present, memories become more important. I deleted everything that wasn’t great.”
Jacques Dutroncto franceinfo
And in our time, it’s better to laugh than to cry. Crying is not hard.
Even too easy a limit, finally?
No, nothing is easy, even talking to you, franceinfo. Well, what I like is franceinfo. I don’t like the news, actually, it’s true. Apart from this week when I’m going to be there, I hope it will make one or two people smile in any case.
The starting point for your success is the title: And me and me and me.
Yes, it’s the first one.
Written by Jacques Lanzmann, this title went against the beatnik fashion. You composed the music. Originally, this song was not for you.
No. I made mockups so that Wolfsohn’s publishing house would offer this or that music. It was complicated with Jacques because we had to reduce the words, we had to redo this sentence, we had to do this, that, it was a bit long. But we didn’t talk to each other, it was simple, everything was said in one word or one sentence. He was an excellent writer, but as a lyricist, it wasn’t really his thing at the beginning. It was very complicated to put to music, but hey, I succeeded.
“Initially, it was Hadi Kalafate who was one of my musicians who was supposed to sing ‘Et moi, et moi, et moi’, he wanted to be a carpenter and finally, he became a bass player.”
Jacques Dutroncto franceinfo
And Wolfsohn said to me: “But wait, why would it be him and not you?“So I replied: “but I…” “Shut up, do it!“Here are the dialogues.
Later I had to bring her back one more time and he said to me: “Do it, what do you care?“So I did it. I went with Wolfsohn to present her as artistic director, but not as singer, I was ashamed. And we went to present her to Europe n°1, to Lucien Morisse. I said to the latter: “but I know you sir“. He said no. But yes, I am Wolfsohn’s assistant, he is coming. They knew each other perfectly and I continued by telling him: “and besides, you wrote lyrics to one of my songs’The time of love‘”. He was very surprised. So we made him listen to it. I didn’t want to hear too much, so I stayed away and we left. Afterwards, in the car, Wolfsohn said to me: “He said it’s really strong“I’m happy,” he adds.What he finds strong is the name, it’s Jacques Dutronc because finding a name like that, you have to do it.“. I couldn’t have made that up!
How did you experience this success?
I was happy that it worked for everyone, for publishing, for the taxman, all that. I was very happy.
This success lit up your father’s face. He told you: “You became what I wanted to be“.
Oh yeah, that’s what he told me, it’s a nice sentence. But hey, I’m not going to tell Thomas that, not yet.
And me and me and me sold three million copies. A little later, there will be the Play-Boys with 600 000 copies.
Playboysit’s in vinyl, the 33 rpm, Jacques Dutronc, that I sold over a million copies. I remember, I won the Charles-Cros Academy prize and the photo of the presentation of the gold disc is incredible, I was made up and the frame is Louis XV style with gilding. And I, immediately, told it 100 times, but finally it still makes me laugh to tell it. Gold disc, I went straight to rue de Provence, I went down to the jeweler on the corner and I said to him: “SO ?“He took out his peephole and answered me: “It’s trumpet yellow, it’s junk“. So I kept it.