There is one who is not bored. On this 38th day of confinement, Francis Cabrel will be faithful to the appointment this Thursday, April 23 at 10 p.m. on the Facebook page of Baboo Music, the label of his daughter Aurélie, to share on guitar a rarity of his repertoire or a cover unpublished with tens of thousands of followers. Over 100,000 sometimes.
This Friday, he will also unveil a duet with Dick Rivers, in tribute to the rocker who died a year ago today. This song, "In the role of rock", announces the release in mid-June of a new concert they had given in 1990 at Bataclan, the "Rock'n'roll show". Their friendship, his active confinement, his recorded album, the world after, Francis Cabrel talks to us about all this from his hideout in Astaffort in the Lot-et-Garonne.
On day 38, how is your confinement going?
FRANCIS CABREL. It's confinement in the countryside, which is not unpleasant, but it is still confinement. I've been seeing two people for six weeks (laughs) . Otherwise, in Lot-et-Garonne, it is fairly quiet. There were one or two foci of infection at the start, but it did not increase.
You have found a remedy for boredom: a daily live.
I like this exercise. And casually, it occupies me a lot. In the morning, I find an idea in my repertoire, I repeat and film myself for 1 p.m., so that I can possibly come back to it before my daughter comes to pick up the video at 6 p.m. It's very "roots", I put the phone down and sing. My rule is to play forgotten songs ... Like "Les pantins de naphtaline" which I hadn't sung since 1982 or 1983. But to last until May 11, I will surely pick from my more famous songs and, who knows , maybe in a new one (laughs) .
You also picked up Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Christophe. You paid tribute to him with "Les marionnettes".
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I wanted to, because Christophe made a big impression on people, including myself. The “Señorita” period, “The blue words”, it was so elegant and fragile. His disappearance touched me a lot, even if we never met. It was a night owl and I fall asleep very early and wake up during the day.
What do you do in the afternoon?
A little sport, I take care of the house, I walk in the countryside. Although nature has been around me since I was born, I never realized how beautiful, refreshing, regenerating it was. And the spring was fabulous for three weeks. Otherwise, I'm reading, I read two biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Some of my new songs talk about troubadours, 12th century poetry, and it has greatly encouraged the poets who have marked our culture.
Where is your next album?
The recording is finished. We spent five months in the studio quite intense with the musicians. We were to start mixing today in Brussels and for a fortnight. Everything is obviously postponed. I no longer intend to change a single note. But I haven't chosen the title yet.
When should he go out?
Mid October. If we manage to mix from June 15, if the borders are reopened, we can hold this date. There are fourteen songs, including an adaptation in French of "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor. Like Neil Young, James Taylor was very important in my approach to the guitar.
You had concerts planned soon. Are they all canceled?
We canceled thirty, fifteen in Quebec and fifteen in festivals in France. I have to sing at the end of October in the United States, but I believe in it less and less. And we will see depending on the release of the album. At Astaffort, Alain Souchon's concert was canceled in May, but the meetings are held by videoconference. The October session with Gauvain Sers as a guest holds for the moment.
It's a tough time for the entertainment world!
Very hard ! The musicians and technicians with whom I have lived for years are very worried, because it is the big void and the big uncertainty for the concerts. I hope that lessons will be learned from this crisis, health and ecological lessons in our daily behavior. Among the positive aspects of this period, nature takes its rights and I hope that we will respect it more. That we will flee the frenzy, that we will travel useful and less futile…
A year after the death of Dick Rivers, you released the "Rock'n'roll Show".
At his funeral, we all saw each other, the musicians, his wife. And this idea came to us to pay him a tribute of which he could have been proud. He really liked this 1990 tour, ten dates and a week at Bataclan. After seeing him on stage, I suggested that he tour together, only with the rock'n'roll standards that made us want to do this job. I was coming out of my “Sarbacane” tour, I had my excellent musicians ready to pounce, Dick had lent me one of his two favorite guitars…
Why didn't it come out at the time?
Dick wanted to release the film but we had neglected the video a little and kept everything as a happy memory. With Denys Lable, our guitarist, we brought all this out of the box and I added a new song that I had written for Dick and which became a posthumous duet, "In the role of rock".
Dick Rivers, Francis Cabrel and the Parses "Rock'n'roll Show" , Aztec Musique / Pias, CD / DVD and double vinyl, released in mid-June .
