Johnny Hallyday, France's only rocker, is on the road again. Seventy-two years old, he played Nimes and comes to Carcassonne later this week.
Hallyday fans (and they are almost all French) embrace Johnny as one of their own, notwithstanding that he was born in Belgium. Hallyday is a tall, strapping man, 6'1". He dresses like a gunslinger crossed with a motorcycle rider: black leather pants, sometimes fringed, showing off his long legs and shapely bottom. He wears black leather jackets to match his chaps and his shirts are always open to the sternum, accented by a circlet. Broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, he cuts a fine figure.
He wears his hair shorter now, and sports a goatee, but it is still a mane, now brown, but once shoulder-length and golden. Broad forehead, large nose, high cheekbones, a stance at once challenging and seductive, he is an idol and he knows it. Fans buy "Johnny Hallyday" beach towels with the image of their man on a motorcycle, head down, looking right at you, cruising down the highway. They are always in evidence at concerts, along with other "Johnny" paraphernalia
He sings in English and French and the beat is pulsing. "I love ya' honey" he belts, picking up the microphone with one hand and striding across the stage.
Mick Jagger is a shrimp. Johnny Hallyday is a shark. No Peter Pan, he celebrates his audience as well as himself, throwing out bits of clothing, the handkerchief he wipes his face with between songs.
Life, love, betrayal and rising from the ashes of all these are the stock in trade of his songs. The suggestion that "I don't give a damn" (je m'en fous) is part of Johnny's allure. His many fans are people in France whose lives allow them few pretensions, the gas station owners, the cafe proprietors and the people who work for them. Here are the lyrics of his song "Fool For The Blues":
Don't say you love me babe,
I know you'd be lying
I can see it in your smile
It's like a drug now
You're addicted to them blues
Always getting high
Oh ! But the rain it falls
From the way I feel, the way I feel
Empty souls and empty hearts
We don't choose, I'm still a
Fool for the blues
Oh those bitter words
Do someone hurt you bad?
All this pain
We have inside all of us
From the love we never had
Oh ! And the rain still falls
But I know baby through it all
Oh ! They say time will heal
But I know from the way I feel, the way I feel
Empty souls and empty hearts we don't choose
I'm still a fool the blues
Empty souls and empty hearts we don't choose
I'm still a fool for the blues
I can see it in your smile
It's like a drug now
You're addicted to them blues
Always getting high
Oh ! But the rain it falls
From the way I feel, the way I feel
Empty souls and empty hearts
We don't choose, I'm still a
Fool for the blues
Oh those bitter words
How they hurt me baby
All this pain
We have inside all of us
From the love we never had
Oh ! And the rain still falls
But I know baby through it all
Oh ! They say time will heal
But I know from the way I feel, the way I feel
Empty souls and empty hearts we don't choose
I'm still a fool the blues
Empty souls and empty hearts we don't choose
I'm still a fool for the blues
Notwithstanding his image, Johnny is astute:he moved to Switzerland to reduce his tax burden, and maintains a home in Los Angeles, which he likes because he can live unrecognized, taking long motorcycle rides and staying in nondescript motels. Recently diagnosed with colon cancer , he was successfully treated. His review in last Sunday's Le Figaro indicates he can still put audiences in a frenzy : Johnny Hallyday; solide come un rock.
Johnny Hallyday, 18 platinum albums, the French 'Elvis'. Vive le rock francais!
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