For his first "caf'conc'", a stone's throw from the Champs-Élysées as the opening act for Coluche, just fifty years ago, Renaud appeared on stage in his "usual Gavroche outfit: gapette, corduroy jacket with the Aristide Bruant, on overalls or checkered pants and the essential red scarf to embellish the whole", describes the singer in his autobiography ("Comme un enfant perdu", XO Éditions, 306 pages, 18.90 euros) .
“A little more refined all the same than on the Parisian sidewalks”, where he sang “just like that” to earn his crust while waiting because “his thing is to be an actor”.
He was finally convinced to record a studio album.
“Amoureux de Paname
”
, released in 1975, may well contain key titles which will mark its repertoire (“Hexagone”, “Society, you will not have me!”), it is “a resounding flop and painfully exceeds two thousand copies after six months in the tanks.
With his guitar under his arm, he thought about “sticking to the MJCs and suburban café-theaters”.
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