How did you know Patrick Juvet?
Jean Michel Jarre. -
We made two albums,
Dead or alive
and
Paris by night
following a meeting through its producer.
He wanted to change direction, to put an end to his image of "
singer with minettes
"
(as he said himself, editor's note),
of singer of variety.
I was coming out of my collaboration with Christophe.
Patrick was obsessed with the disco that was starting to go up.
I suggested that we go to the USA to work with the best musicians in LA, those of Herbie Hancock.
I gathered around him a team of "killers", fantastic musicians.
On
Dead or Alive
, there was this song
Papa s'pique and mummy s'shoote
(laughs), it was out of step with what he had done before.
The Barclay record company then said to me "
you have carte blanche
" for the next one.
We went longer to the USA for
Paris by night
, whose title track is considered one of the first house pieces, it lasts 12 minutes.
And then there is
Where are the women ?,
which was his big hit.
Read also: Patrick Juvet, disco star and composer for Claude François, died at the age of 70
He then changed dimension ...
I then thought of two options for him.
Coming back to France, and the other way was to try to break into the USA, where people had started to like
Where are the women?
, which was quite modern and of an international standard.
I had found him a bunch of American transsexuals to tour the clubs at the time.
He told me
“it's a bit too much for me because I'm Swiss”
(laughs).
I found it very funny, adorable.
He fully assumed his effeminate side ...
He was one of the first to come out on his sexuality
(he said he was bisexual, editor's note), it
was quite revolutionary for the time, it was something that was not assumed in the middle of the song.
He took it on in an uninhibited and up-to-date way, he helped open up this path of coming out, taking on who we are.
Why hasn't he made more of an international breakthrough?
He said it himself, there is nothing secret.
With his brutal success, he burned his wings, he fell into alcohol, drugs, excess, did not really recover.
It's sad: Patrick is a character who is deeper, richer than we might have thought.
At the start of his career, he was a "
pussy singer
", but he had another ambition, real musical qualities, he was a good melodist.
It is a great loss.
It will have marked the history of French pop.