Sunday, at 8 p.m., on the stage known as Le Parterre, in full view at the corner of Clark and De Maisonneuve, the voice of Jacques Michel will resound, strong and beautiful as on the first day, well amplified, perfectly modulated by the pros of the Francos. It’s generally true, you can fairly rely on it in such a seasoned festival, but precision is necessary, the artist needs it. Avowed perfectionist, the great veteran of Quebec song wants what he has always wanted. Strive for excellence until you reach perfection, identify emotion until you share it intensely with each spectator, be the best of yourself. One more time. The last time.
“My last complete show, at the very least”, relativizes the one who will not give us the blow of the grandiose false end, à la Ferland. “I know my limits. I am not one of those who cling, who are satisfied with less. Frankly, I’m scared. I fear that this “best of myself” will not live up to what I expect in the future. I don’t like living in fear, so better stop. »
Let’s get this straight: Jacques Michel, born Rodrigue in 1941 “among the trees of Abitibi”, is not beating a retreat. He refocuses, adapts, continues in his own way. “Yes, stop the shows, the tours, but not the song. I have new ones, some are completely written, others are in the works. Am I going to save them? I will see. If someone asks me to participate in a show or a TV show, for a song or two, I’m sure I’ll do it. »
The deadline
The pandemic, in truth, has delayed that end. “I said when I left Hold, in 2019, that I was going to leave the stage at 80 years old. I’ll have 81.” The album, remarkably lucid, would have deserved to live its life in the beautiful halls of Quebec: two titles in particular are remembered as bookends: a song entitled Holdthen another titled Leave. It ends with a tender nod to those who have followed him since the sixties, since Because of a flower, smoke your marijuana and on a dinosaur. The title says it all: My dinosaur is tired. He won’t serve it on Sunday: let’s bet he won’t feel the slightest fatigue.
“I’m moving on, that’s all. I’m pretty predictable. I sold my sailboat, my property in North Hatley, but I had already found my woodland in Abitibi, my cabin by the water. I wanted to find my trees. There are trees that are my age there! We took root at the same time. I left Abitibi when I was 12, so they have a lot to tell me, these trees, a lot of questions to ask me. My father was a contractor for the CIP [Canadian International Paper] and, if it is, it is on the paths that my father borrowed to go to work in his camps. It’s my childhood, all that. I strongly feel this call from childhood, from the trees, from Abitibi. But I bring my guitars! »
The fervor intact
Pride in tone. Sometimes, on the phone, he speaks as he sings. More than firmly: fervently. Mr my country, his very first 45 rpm, published in 1964, was that of a young man who committed himself and would never renounce his values, his ideals. We forget, when we sing in the competitions To each his own chorus, Come to us, No need to knock, A new day will dawn, that these hymns to fraternity are also calls to make the country cleared by our ancestors a country of ours. And that Jacques Michel was at the forefront of protesting events that were Poems and songs of resistance and fall show. While the old separatist scarecrow is being waved and nationalism being brandished to the winds, the patriot is fuming. “We play on words, we make them say what we want! We simply wanted a country called Quebec. I still want it. I’m not changing my mind on that. »
Will he talk about it on stage? He doesn’t know it yet. “In the 1970s, I did not present the songs, or very little. At the Gesù in 2015, it was the opposite, I talked too much. The question torments him. There’s a lot to say when you know that this is the last opportunity to talk, to tell, to explain, to say thank you. When he chained the series of shows, year after year, at Place des Arts, the songs spoke for him. The full albums were familiar, Citizenfrom america, S.O.S.,Migration, Crossings: side A, side B. Lyrics and music by Hi Leon, Your mother and me, friend come back had as much importance and resonance as Do you see the weather. Jacques Michel will nonetheless give pride of place to the songs of Hold.
” I care about it. “Hold” is not an empty word for me. It’s not the lyricist or the melodist who have helped me the most to last, nor is it my voice or my way of interpreting: it’s my determination and my tenacity. Do not see this as false modesty: Jacques Michel loves his songs, is proud of them. But the essence of the portrait is not there. “The songs had to be up to par, the shows, everything. I demanded it. And it must have felt, because they helped me a lot, they gave me the tools, whether it was the great orchestrator Richard Grégoire, Gilles Valiquette, so many others, and first of all my father. As they say in Quebec: I grew up upright. I think I still am. »