The singer Julien Clerc, has been accompanying us for more than 50 years. After the album Earthling, he offers us an album, Happy Days, in which we find the songs that were the soundtrack of his life. He’s on tour with this new album.
franceinfo: In Happy Days, we find For me, Awesome by Charles Aznavour, My carousel by Edith Piaf, A bicycle by Yves Montand, I come back for you by Gilbert Bécaud, Tell me, when will you come back ? from Barbara or Boom by Charles Trenet. It is really the starting point of this beautiful project, of this creation.
Julien Clerc: Yes, this is the starting point. It’s true that I like to think about the show in advance. I thought about this Boom by Trenet who, in my opinion, revolutionized French song. I told myself that it would be good if, finally, I could do a little moment in the next show that is dedicated to these people.
There are those who accompanied me first, who were my mother’s idols, such as Montand, Brassens, Aznavour, whom she listened to at home. There are the first records that I bought myself, including Barbara that I listened to while doing my homework. How lucky, a few years later, to even be able to share duets with them from time to time.
Did music save you?
Yes. Music saved me because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do and when I discovered that I was able to invent melodies one, two, three, then four, around age 18 years old, I thought to myself: maybe I could get into this.
“All these people I admired in French song all had very long careers, so I naively thought that when we sing, it’s gone for a long time!”
Julien Clercto franceinfo
This is somewhat the case because it’s been 53 years since you started, in any case, your first title came out, it was The cavalry, in 1968. And that year, there are two things: a first tour with Adamo and a first part of Gilbert Bécaud which will make things happen.
Yes, I signed a contract a few months before, in the spring, with the Bécaud publishing house, which is called Le rideau rouge. I saw him for the first time on his summer tour. We saw each other again in October, I released a second record called Ivanovich and he said to me: “Listen, I heard your new song, I don’t understand much about it, but I think it’s good. So you’re going to do my first part. We’ll be going to Brussels in January, but it’s October now and I I want you to learn your trade by then. Get out of the way, find yourself a tour, sing, so as not to arrive completely helpless. I want you to do the scene before we start together. “
And as I had Charley Marouani at the time as manager, he was also that of Brel, Barbara and Adamo, they were kind enough to take me on Adamo’s tour, which was leaving the following week.
A lot of beautiful things will result from this, in particular Hate. From 16 to 29 December 1970 , you will become the star of the Olympia.
While Hate, I had made a tour in the first part of Bécaud. I had escaped for a few days. I was dressed in purple, I had leather pants, Indian shirts and Bécaud told me: “That’s enough now, purple, you’re going to put yourself back in black and you’re going to do Julien Clerc“. I was able to sing at the Olympia, a few months after I finished Hate.
You are very inspired by those who are on this book, Happy Days.
“From the start, I understood and felt that doing this job was the stage. It is through the stage that we regenerate. It is the moment when we are in truth, face to face, naked, with the audience. “
Julien Clercto franceinfo
They completely inspired me, not only their art, but also the fact that they were all great men and women on the stage.
There are three Barbara songs inside. Barbara had this sensitivity too, this phrasing that still accompanies you today.
She and Brassens. It’s weird. When I start working, when I try to invent music, sometimes I have reminiscences. They are either from one or the other, often from Barbara. But when you’ve listened to a lot of music in your life and the goal is to invent a new one, you are sometimes visited by music that you liked and that remains there, lurking in your unconscious.
At times, when you look in the rearview mirror, are you proud of this course?
What I’m deeply happy about, I don’t know if it’s pride, is to still be able to stand behind a piano and invent music today. It’s the only thing that matters to me. My pride, in fact, is to be still here because I was aiming to last for a while, but frankly, I didn’t think it could last that time and especially that way. What interests me is to stay creative, believe me, if I wasn’t anymore, I would quit right away.
The scene arrives. Is it important for you to find her?
Especially in the peridoe that we live. We left, probably, if we are to believe some scientists, to live with that for a long time. You have to live with that, completely, and artists must be able to continue working because a singer is made to sing, an actor is made to play.
Julien Clerc is on tour. In the current health context, the concerts scheduled for January 2022 are postponed.