His death was a shock wave for the French. In 2020, in the midst of the Covid wave, French song lost one of its great ambassadors: Christophe. On April 16, 2020, Daniel Bevilacqua found his “Lost Paradises” at the age of 74. In 1990, Thierry Ardisson hosted the singer-songwriter in “Black Glasses for White Nights”. A sequence, available on the INA Arditube channel, where this night owl looks back on his career.
It all started at 15 years old on the Côte d’Azur. “I was playing “The House of the Rising Sun” at the time. I did it in nightclubs and pizzerias, it wasn’t known. I listened to it on Radio Caroline and I said that it was I who had composed it to show off. A year later, it was released in France,” explains the man who would experience incredible success in 1965 with “Aline.” “The puppets” will follow, another hit. Then crossing the desert. “All the black holes have served me. I provoke them. I need it,” explains the man who admits to having been ruined in 1968. Grandeur and decadence of a singer.
Everything changed in 1973 when the collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre was born. “I hated hits. I wanted to play blues, he admits. What rocked me was Hooker. I never had self-hatred. I smoked a bit heavily, when after a year and a half, I couldn’t come up with an idea, I gave it up.” Along came “Les Mots bleus”, “Minuit boulevard”, “Les Paradis perdus”, “Un peu liar” and so many others… His image changed. Intellectuals love it. “I am a writer. People will take me for an idiot or a barge, but I say it: “I can write things, beware”.”
An extract to discover here: