Alain Chamfort, author, composer and singer spends this week, with us, in Elodie’s world to look back on the defining moments of his career through five of his essential songs. Since his beginnings in the 1960s with Jacques Dutronc, Alain Chamfort has been part of the French musical landscape. He crosses the modes with consistency and is considered a pop icon with melancholic touches. More than five decades that his words, his voice, his writing, his compositions accompany us.
Recently, 17 of his greatest titles have been rearranged by Nobuyuki Nakajima, with 51 musicians from the Orchester national de Montpellier-Occitanie and brought together in an album: Symphonic dandy.
In this third episode, the song The fever in the blood.
franceinfo: I would like us to discuss the success of Manureva. Did that unsettle you?
Alain Chamfort: Destabilized? I don’t think so because I already had a number of years of experience. I knew that success was quite fragile, but I was happy to be considered a little differently, to get rid of this image of a singer with babes that stuck with me for a long time. I was obviously responsible for it, but to be able to be perceived differently and with a real recognition of my musical “quality”, it was important for me. It was important for me because on the same album, there was: Palais-Royal, like a giantthere were things that helped people look at me differently.
It is from Manureva, that the record company trusted me completely and agreed that I could go to the United States for several months. I took Serge Gainsbourg, we both settled in a house to write new songs because in Paris, he was taken by the nightlife. It was the beginning of the recognition of the success he had been waiting for for many years with To our weapons, etc. It was his separation from Jane. He was going through a really, really difficult time and in order to capture him and for us to work together, we had to keep him completely away from the turpitudes of Parisian life. We left together.
How would you describe your relationship with Serge Gainsbourg? A relationship of trust. You two were really in symbiosis.
It was wonderful because I was dealing with an artist. He was someone who had a sure aesthetic taste, who was cultured, amusing. He had a sense of humor, he was tender.
Serge Gainsbourg was an extremely sensitive person and it was really a real encounter. I also felt appreciated because he was someone so demanding, he knew how to recognize qualities in me that went a little unnoticed by others.
Alain Chamfortat franceinfo
It felt good to be able to discuss with someone who was simply an artist. And the meeting, which really magnified the whole and which made it possible to shape the ‘Alain Chamfort’ project, was with Jacques Duvall after I finished my collaboration with Serge. With Serge, the end of our collaboration was also a bit complicated because he became ‘Gainsbarre’, with which I no longer felt at all in agreement. He understood that provocation made him popular, etc. He wasn’t the same man I had liked before and we just stopped working together.
There have been : Bamboo, love year zero and then : The fever in the blood. It’s true that in this album, there is a cathartic side, you will mix the new wave associated with this new romantic side that you had a little stuck in your skin. There’s the incorporation of electronic instruments, it’s sweet pop with exotic themes. It’s going to hit. You will then become an essential figure in French pop music. Is it important to you, did it affect you?
Of course, we don’t do things so that people don’t recognize you and at the same time, we don’t do it just for that either. It’s a kind of balance to find between what you want to do deeply, without worrying too much about how it’s going to be received and then afterwards, with regard to what you present, people adhere and appreciate your work and find a place for you in their hearts and in the world of music. Everything is good to take, of course.
I would like you to tell me about: The fever in the blood because it marks a very strong moment in your career.
With Jacques Duvall, we defined the contours of a character who has become a little like my double and who asserts his weaknesses, unlike someone with a big heart who puts himself in the shoes of a hero. On the contrary, we played a little on aspects that were a little darker.
Alain Chamfortat franceinfo
It comes from my collaboration with Jacques Duvall. When I stopped working with Serge at the time, I was with Lio whose author was Jacques Duvall. Serge had written a first text which was called: remember to forget me and following our argument, he went to propose this song to Catherine Deneuve and withdrew it from me. So, I was extremely angry, very disappointed and a new text had to be found. And it was Jacques Duvall who stuck to it and he wrote a song called: See you in paradise. And then we worked together for 25 years.
Alain Chamfort will be in concert on June 2 in Rennes, June 3 in Vannes, July 9 in Mâcon, etc…