The Times (London)
June 24, 2004, Thursday
We have no rhythm and we can’t write tunes
by Charles Bremner
CHARLES AZNAVOUR IS 80 AND STILL PERFORMS TO PACKED HOUSES. BUT HE
FEELS THAT FRENCH POPULAR MUSIC LACKS THE MELODIES AND WORDS THAT
“LES ANGLO-SAXONS” CAN PROVIDE. INTERVIEW BY CHARLES BREMNER
IN THESE TIMES of Gallic resistance to the onslaught of “Anglo-Saxon”
entertainment, few patriotic French would dismiss theirs as a nation
without rhythm and not much interest in writing good tunes.
An exception can be made, however, if the view comes from Charles
Aznavour, the wiry and energetic elder statesman of French popular
song who is celebrating his 80th birthday by performing to packed
houses in Paris. The little singer composer who first took to the
stage in 1933 and whose bitter-sweet songs provided the nostalgic
soundtrack of two generations, says what he thinks, and people
listen.
“French rhythm doesn’t exist,” he states. “The bossa isn’t French and
nor is jazz, the tango, the waltz. We have to look outside for
rhythm.”
The singer was speaking in his dressing room before another two hours
of singing and dancing at the 4,000-seat Palais des Congres. “When it
comes to melody, les Anglo-Saxons do pretty music, which they dress
up with pretty words. We write un grand texte and dress it up as best
we can.”
Aznavour, a revered melodist who wrote for, and often swung with,
Sinatra and Ray Charles, is not driven by modesty or anti-patriotic
treason. He was explaining the gulf between France’s tradition of
lyrics-led songs and the “Anglo-Saxon” pop and rock which the
guardians of Gallic culture see as such a threat to French purity.
In his autobiography, Le Temps des Avants (Times Before)
(Flammarion), the only “Anglo-Saxons” to compare with the French for
setting social commentary to music are Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
With the recent publication of that book, an album of new songs and
his birthday show, Aznavour is supplying France with another dose of
his shrewd, disabused view of the world. “Aznavour is France’s last
great singer on a global scale,” Le Monde said the other day as
cabinet ministers and celebrities joined the mass of fans, many of
them young, streaming to hear the latest outing of “le petit
Charles”.
Saluting him as a national institution, President Chirac turned up
with Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, for Aznavour’s
star-studded birthday show a few weeks ago.
French profiles usually recall that in 2000 Time magazine named the
Paris-born son of Armenian refugees “Entertainer of the Century”. One
of the few French artists to have made it on both sides of the
Atlantic, Aznavour is influencing a batch of young singers who have
emerged lately to give fresh life to la chanson francaise.
New stars such as Sanseverino and Benabar are high in the charts with
contemporary takes on the realist, hard-bitten genre associated with
Aznavour, the legendary Edith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg and Georges
Brassens. He says: “I like this young generation that wants to
continue the tradition in its own way. I don’t like the ones who just
want to imitate us.
“France is not really threatened by US culture. It is perhaps a bit
true of the cinema and music until recently, but there has been a
turn-around in the past two or three years.”
Aznavour’s perspective is refreshing, given France’s prevailing
anti-American political correctness. Like most French people, he sees
the Iraq war as a disaster, but he proclaims lifelong admiration for
the US. “The French people are not anti-American. Don’t confuse the
Government with the people.
“Even the communists aren’t really anti-American.”
His new songs include Un Mort Vivant, an ode to a captive journalist
that was inspired by the case of Daniel Pearl, the American reporter
who was kidnapped and killed last year in Pakistan. “Pearl’s murder
touched me a lot,” Aznavour says.
The lyrics, about torture, despair and sleeping with rats, are a long
way from the nostalgia and romance of the hits for which Aznavour is
known in the English-speaking world. These include She -a British No
1 in 1974 -The Old-Fashioned Way and Yesterday When I was Young. In
another hard-hitting song, performed in his new show, he takes
revenge on the critics who initially scoffed at him as “an ugly
little man who can’t sing”. That was a widespread view when the
former boy actor was being groomed in the 1940s by Piaf, his mentor.
“I long kept quiet about the critics,” he tells me. “But now that I’m
a sacred cow I can say things I couldn’t before.”
Offering his wisdom after seven decades’ performing and composing,
Aznavour says that the secret is deep determination and energy. The
French, he worries, are going soft, working ever-shorter hours and
expecting instant gratification. As for popular culture, he believes
that Star Academy, the French version of Pop Idol, risks raising
false hopes. “I went on live at Star Academy the other day,” he says.
“I told the kids: ‘You are living something extraordinary. You are in
front of a door that has opened ten years before the normal date for
you. But what you’re learning is Reader’s Digest, just a bit of this
and a bit of that’.”
Aznavour sees himself as an example of how far you can get with
persistence, even if you are born an outsider with few apparent
gifts. “My life,” he concludes, “must be a lesson of hope for little
people who are not good-looking and have come from nowhere. That is
my life and I am proud of it.”
A LIFETIME OF MUSIC
May 22, 1924 Born in Paris to Armenian immigrants
1941 Forms double act with the songwriter and composer Pierre Roche
1946 Meets Edith Piaf who helps him get his first bookings
1957 The explicit Apres l’Amour is banned by French radio stations
1960 Major role in Francois Truffaut’s film, Tirez sur le Pianiste,
brings him fame in the United States
1974 She goes platinum in Britain, but fails to sell in his home
country
1988 Founds the humanitarian association Aznavour pour l’Armenie
after an earthquake kills 50,000 in his homeland
1997 Made an Officier de la Legion d’Honneur by President Chirac