"Stars 80" : Patrick Hernandez raconte l'histoire secrète du tube "Born to Be Alive"

Purecharts

A l'affiche du film et de la tournée "Stars 80", le chanteur Patrick Hernandez raconte l'histoire secrète du tube "Born to Be Alive" (1978) dans le format "Face A" de Purecharts.

Transcript

00:00 I was kicked out of all the French vice-presidents' houses for 6 months.

00:03 But like my friends, I reassure everyone,

00:04 it's something we've all experienced.

00:07 When I wrote this song, I was particularly angry with my surroundings.

00:17 They were doing things half-heartedly,

00:18 both in their professions, in their love, in their relationships.

00:24 And the "until the end of this" I am, is a bit of a surging against that.

00:28 I was an official in the Paris Palace Hotel group as a guitarist and singer.

00:32 The title "Born to be Alive" didn't come right away.

00:36 I wrote the lyrics first, the verses, and I sang "Born to be Wild".

00:41 But "Born to be Wild" is a Stephen Wolf song, which came out in the 70s.

00:46 So I thought, I can't keep "Born to be Wild".

00:48 It's not possible, it's already done.

00:49 I thought that the sound of "Alive" was a bit of a bang, a bit of a clear sound.

00:55 And I was mainly based on the sound of the word "Alive".

01:00 So the song "Born to be Alive" was written in a very calm acoustic way,

01:04 like a folky song.

01:05 And there was a first recorded version, which never came out,

01:09 which was a purely rock version.

01:10 This version was recorded, but unfortunately,

01:12 well, or fortunately, maybe, it never came out.

01:16 That was in '75, so writing in '73, folky,

01:20 rock version in '75, and a version that everyone still knows today,

01:25 I hope, in 1979.

01:27 To be completely honest, I think it was the producer's idea in 1978,

01:33 it was his idea to transform this song in the way that everyone knows it today,

01:38 which made this song a standard, a hit first and then a standard.

01:43 I honestly think that with the previous versions,

01:45 be it the folky version or the rock version,

01:47 I would never have had the success that this song has had.

01:50 So congratulations to the producer, thank you very much.

01:53 Coming from this world of English pop, rock, English, etc.,

01:58 the idea of making "Born to be Alive" in a disco way was,

02:01 for me, a very bad idea.

02:04 However, the producer, who was a smart guy,

02:06 had an argument that made me a little flinch.

02:09 In fact, he told me, "Listen, I'm going to make you a parallel."

02:12 He said to me, "Do you like the Kings, do you like the Beatles,

02:15 do you like the Stones, do you like the... Do you not like the Bee Gees?"

02:18 I said, "Indeed, I love the Bee Gees."

02:20 And he said to me, "Do you consider that what they did on 'Saturday Night Fever'

02:24 is shit?"

02:25 I said, "No, not at all, I love it."

02:26 Well, he said to me, "Well, I would like to make your song,

02:29 which is a pop song at first,

02:31 I would like to make something that has a bit of a danceable, dancing aspect."

02:35 And very quickly, there are only idiots who don't change their mind,

02:38 very quickly, when we made the model for this song,

02:40 I thought, "The costume suits this song very, very well."

02:43 I was thrown out of all the French record companies for six months,

02:46 which have absolutely... But like my comrades, I reassure everyone,

02:49 it's something we've all experienced.

02:51 I think the originality of a song is that at first,

02:55 it's so original that you say, "Oh no, no, no, I don't want it, no, no, no,

02:58 the tempo is too fast, blah, blah, blah."

03:00 And when you manage to get past the barrier,

03:03 the originality ends up paying, and that's what happened at Bound to be Alive.

03:06 So, first country, Italy, and then Belgium,

03:09 since the producer was Belgian.

03:10 And after having picked up the two number ones,

03:13 the French started to get interested in the song.

03:17 In Anglo-Saxon countries, it's this famous message, "Bound to be Alive,"

03:21 which I realized was philosophically something interesting,

03:25 which resonated with all minorities, especially in the United States.

03:28 That's when I realized there was something about this song.

03:31 It reacted in the same way as "I will survive."

03:34 It's the same message.

03:35 It's like, "We're the high point, and we exist,

03:37 and we want to do things, and everything, etc."

03:39 Well, in Anglo-Saxon countries, I think the greenness of the title

03:42 is that it's a good song,

03:44 and that it conveys a message that I didn't want,

03:47 that I didn't write in that sense.

03:49 But I realized that chance had done things right.

03:52 So, it represents life, it represents positivity.

03:55 So, I've experienced success in various ways.

03:57 I mean, in the end, that's what I wanted to do when I said,

04:01 "I want to do Beatles,"

04:02 because that's what pushed me to make music.

04:05 So, I was screwed, because for two or three years,

04:07 a number one in the whole world,

04:09 you live this somewhat peculiar life

04:12 of someone who's trying to smash the world with his song.

04:16 So, that was a bit funny, a bit pleasant.

04:19 And then, finally, the analysis and the introspection that took place afterwards

04:23 made me realize that, in the end,

04:25 it wasn't exactly how I wanted to do this job.

04:27 That it was something that had frustrated me a bit,

04:30 to only resonate through a song.

04:32 And then, you have to say that

04:34 doing a promotion for a song for three years is both exhausting,

04:38 and it also prevents you from moving forward in terms of creation.

04:41 After the analysis, it's a way of functioning that doesn't suit me.

04:46 And then, once you've smashed the world once,

04:48 it's no use smashing it twice.

04:50 I'm not addicted to that point,

04:52 nor to notoriety,

04:53 nor to the satisfaction of having people at your feet.

04:56 I was lucky, or unlucky, we don't know for certain,

05:00 to be so immensely successful at the age of 30.

05:03 It would have been different if I had been 18 or 19.

05:05 At 30, I was already a lot of talker,

05:08 I had already done a lot of things.

05:10 And so, I didn't really smash the world once,

05:12 because that's my nature too.

05:14 I'm the happy dad of a song that is a standard all over the world,

05:19 but what more could you ask for in life?

05:20 For me, it's just fun now, really.

05:22 (upbeat music)

05:25 you

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