Johnny Hallyday

[mke]

A French Original With Studied American Flair
By CRAIG S. SMITH


PARIS, June 15 — The French may turn their noses up at what they see as the boorish United States, but the country's only rock icon is a reminder that Gallic dreams of America run deep.

Johnny Hallyday, who turned 60 today belting out "Blue Suede Shoes" and other American rock standards to 60,000 loyal French fans, built his durable identity on a carefully cultivated American mystique that he continues to nurture well into the fifth decade of his career.

But don't tell the French that.

"There's nothing false about him," said Daniel Beux, a 55-year-old Parisian in a blue blazer, as he left Mr. Hallyday's fireworks-spangled spectacle at the capital's Parc des Princes soccer stadium on Saturday night. "He's a myth," he added.

Mr. Beux probably meant to say "legend," but myth isn't a bad way to describe the rebel persona created by Jean-Philippe Smet (Mr. Hallyday's real name) back when the war-weary French were still enthralled by their wild and free American liberators.

That persona has kept his countrymen fascinated through multiple permutations, interpreting American music and mind-sets from Elvis Presley to Creedence Clearwater Revival to Bruce Springsteen.

Mr. Hallyday has been transformed into a national treasure, who, despite multiple divorces and chronic tax troubles, can seemingly do no wrong.

His birthday tour of the country's major stadiums created such hype that some cities planned to subsidize tickets for those who could not afford them. (The proposals set off a mini-scandal and were scrapped.)

His four Paris shows, the last of them tonight, all filled the field and seats of the soccer stadium with jumping, screaming fans who sang the choruses of many songs with such enthusiasm that Mr. Hallyday just stood back and listened.

He is a staple of the French tabloids, the stuff of intellectual discourse, and the toast of the French political left and right alike.

France's prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, even invoked the aging rocker's name recently in urging striking state workers to accept the government's pension reforms, which will require them to stay on the job a few more years than is required now. If Mr. Hallyday can keep working, Mr. Raffarin seemed to suggest, why can't everyone else?

Mr. Hallyday was born in Paris to a Belgian father and French mother but was taken in as an infant by his aunt after his father left one day to buy butter and never returned. The boy grew up largely on the road with his aunt's two daughters, who were dancers, and at the age of 6 met his namesake, an American from Oklahoma singing in the chorus of the musical "Oklahoma!" with the stage name Lee Halliday.

Lee Halliday married one of the dancing cousins and took the young Jean-Philippe under his wing, calling him Johnny. It was the beginning of a lifelong devotion to American style that continues today. His official biography is peppered with American adventures, including a motorcycle trip across Death Valley and through the Navajo reservation.

The latest version of Johnny Hallyday, whose name conjures up both Hollywood and Billie Holiday, sports black leather pants and Von Dutch T-shirts from Los Angeles's Melrose Avenue.

For generations of French youth, bound by the country's sometimes suffocating culture of family and tradition, Mr. Hallyday provided a digestible dose of the American dream à la James Dean. He was early Elvis in a French wrapper.

Jean-Luc Haquelle, 38, a French biker who rides a "custom Virago" — made by the Japanese motorcycle company Yamaha — has a tattoo of Elvis on one shoulder and a tattoo of Mr. Hallyday on the other. His tattoos were on display at Mr. Hallyday's concert on Saturday night, where the biker extolled the French rocker's talents, albeit not very eloquently.

"He's the biggest," Mr. Haquelle said.

So while millions of Americans have grown up imitating Elvis or James Dean, millions of French have grown up imitating Mr. Hallyday's interpretation of Elvis or James Dean.

Much is lost in the translation, though that hardly matters to the French.

"He's even better than Elvis," said Jacky Duranteau, 49, a factory worker wearing an extreme mullet — a haircut that, in Mr. Duranteau's case, consists of a crew cut on top with shoulder-length locks in the back. Mr. Duranteau, who has seen Mr. Hallyday perform 35 times, said he saw America largely through the singer's eyes.

"I'm a great Johnny Hallyday fan," he said after the concert on Saturday, "and I'm also a great fan of the Indians."

But the United States is an obsession that many of Mr. Hallyday's fans would prefer to forget.

"Of course he was very influenced by America at the beginning, but less now," said Marie Noëll, 51, at his show on Saturday. She said of the country's only rock icon, "we have a certain pride."

It is true that these days Mr. Hallyday is as famous for singing French ballads as for singing American rock 'n' roll, but many of his most popular songs still draw on France's romantic notion of the United States.

In his signature "Something of Tennessee," he sings a line that might sum up French attitudes toward America: "There's so little love with so much desire."

[mke]

Calling Johnny France's only rock icon is a bit exagerated.

I do, however, like the babelfish-like translations of French expressions: "He's a myth!", "He's the biggest!" (which should be "He's the greatest!")

And the instant classic : "I'm a great Johnny Hallyday fan," he said after the concert on Saturday, "and I'm also a great fan of the Indians."

Like many French things, Hallyday is Belgian...

[Tom Storer]

The thing about "John-nee" is that the absolute corniness of his persona is so thoroughly French that it doesn't really matter that his music is ersatz rock-n-roll. I don't mean that as a put-down to the French. I don't quite know how to describe it - a certain aspect of French pop culture tolerates, even demands, a kind of in-your-face corniness that the average American couldn't take seriously.

Except in Las Vegas. That's it. Johnnee is more like a Las Vegas act than a rock star - more Wayne Newton than Bruce Springsteen. Part of the deep affection the French feel for Johnnee, even those who mock him, and they are many, stems from something about his schtick, his particular way of localizing an American image, that is so French no one on the outside can possibly get it. He is theirs and only theirs.

And now, a Johnny song, "Toute la Musique que J'aime" (All the Music I Love"):

Toute la musique que j'aime
Elle vient de là
Elle vient du blues
Les mots ne sont jamais les mêmes
Pour exprimer ce qu'est le bues

J'y mets mes joies, j'y mets mes peines
Et tout ça, ça devient le blues
Je le chante autant que je l'aime
Et je le chanterai toujours

Il y a longtemps sur des guitares
Des mains noires lui donnaient le jour
Pour chanter les peines et les espoirs
Pour chanter Dieu et puis l'amour

La musique vivra
Tant que vivra le blues

Le blues, ça veut dire que je t'aime
Et que j'ai mal à en crever
Je pleure mais je chante quand même
C'est ma prière pour te garder

Toute la musique que j'aime
Elle vient de là
Elle vient du blues
Les mots ne sont jamais les mêmes
Pour exprimer ce qu'est le bues


Translated:

All the music I love
That's where it comes from
It comes from the blues
The words are never the same
To express what is the blues

I put in my joys, I put in my pain
And all that, it becomes the blues
I sing it as much as I love it
And I'll always keep singing it

A long time ago, black hands on guitars
Gave birth to it
To sing of pain and of hope
To sing of God and of love

Music will live
As long as the blues live

The blues, it means I love you
And it hurts me so I could die
I cry, but still I sing
It's my prayer to keep you

All the music I love
That's where it comes from
It comes from the blues
The words are never the same
To express what is the blues

[mke]

He is pretty corny, but at the same time he does have stage presence. I liked the first single from his latest album, "Marie", a delicate and touching ballad, which was promptly followed up by silly crap.

Actually, his one (recent) US performance took place in... Los Vegas.

[Monte Smith]

If only more of the world could be exposed to the music and persona of Johnny Hallyday. France would lose much if not all of its cultural mystique.

[Uli]

Monte's America otoh has certainly gained a lot of "mystique" recently among the cultured folks.

Is Silvie Vartan still around?

[Monte Smith]

I'm not saying anyone is ever going to confuse Branson, MO with the Left Bank, Uli.

[Uli]

Oh, I thought you were saying that the Big Mistake in the White House could in anyway be reasonably explained to anybody cultered, Monte.

[Monte Smith]

Originally posted by Uli
Oh, I though you were saying that the Big Mistake in the White House could in anyway be reasonably explained to anybody cultered, Monte.

Nope, Uli. Sometimes the "cultered" are quite hopeless.

[Tom Storer]

Originally posted by Uli
Is Silvie Vartan still around?

French celebrities never die. They don't even fade away. Just look at Claude François, a French pop singer who died in 1978 and is as popular as ever.

[mke]

Originally posted by Tom Storer
French celebrities never die. They don't even fade away. Just look at Claude François, a French pop singer who died in 1978 and is as popular as ever.

Very true! Does any other country still care about Jane Birkin?

One thing I didn't understand in the article:

"For generations of French youth, bound by the country's sometimes suffocating culture of family and tradition"

????????

[Monte Smith]

Originally posted by Tom Storer
French celebrities never die. They don't even fade away.

How is Serge Gainsbourg doing? He's always looked dead, at least.

[mke]

Serge was recently remixed.