“Michèle”, “Little girl of the sun”, “We will love each other”, or “The river of our childhood”.
His hits - written mainly for others - have been sung by generations of French people for more than 50 years.
Didier Barbelivien celebrates his 70th birthday on March 10.
Stakhanoviste of French song - more than 1500 recorded titles, 3000 written -, the interpreter of “À tous les filles” was the guest in 2000 on Thierry Ardisson's show, “Tout le monde en parole” - available on the INA ArdiTube channel.
“
I wrote songs for pleasure
,” he says.
I started writing songs in my school notebooks.
So at 20 I had some stock.
» “Monsieur Tubes” had its first success with “Michèle”, performed by Gérard Lenorman in 1976. “
I love this song, but I have the impression that it was someone else who wrote that.
Inspiration does not dry up, but it changes.
There are titles that I could no longer write
.”
As for the music “
it has to come right away
”.
“
If she doesn’t come I’ll stop.”
»
"Rap ?
An evolution bigger than rock 'n' roll"
The artist who also enjoyed success as a singer (“Elle”, his first hit, sold 800,000 copies), was an excellent contributor to national redistribution.
4 million tax francs in 1992 (nearly a million euros today).
“
I've never been late (...) I'm so paranoid that I start by giving them the dough.
I am one of the rare people to put my money in the public treasury
(which was a bank at the time, Editor's note).
I have an account there and they use it directly and I know whatever is left is mine.
»
Even if his trademark as a lyricist has been to group concepts or expressions together (we are still trying to understand “Rouge” by Michel Sardou), Didier Barbelivien loves great authors.
Ferrat, Brassens... “
I regret that we no longer program them.
It’s an education in writing
,” he explains.
And the rappers?
“
They have made the traditional authors of French song out of fashion
,” points out Barbelivien.
At first we thought it would be a fashion, like “boy's bands”.
But no.
Rap is a new modern form of writing.
It's a huge development, bigger than rock 'n' roll.
»
An extract to discover: