Between the best and the worst Michel Rivard is already dreaming about his next song

in Between the best and the worst, an artist revisiting, one song at a time, the peaks and valleys of his work. Michel Rivard, who was inducted into the Canadian Composers and Composers Hall of Fame on Wednesday and who will release a new live album on Friday, About the blockHe opened the doors of his memory for us.

The song that you can’t play anymore

There was a long period, after the first ending of Beau Dommage, when I stopped playing Lament of the Alaskan Seal, because I was tired and pretentious. Then sometime that same year I saw Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and James Taylor perform, and the four of them performed all the songs I wanted to hear. From that moment on, I decided to do it again, without asking myself any questions, as much as I could. And the taste came back. The reaction of happiness from the audience is always evident.

Your favorite cover of one of your songs

Diane Dufresne who performs amnesia or The return of Don Quixotethere was dash.

But it is certain that in 1975, when Felix Leclerc, a few months after the release of Beau Dommage’s first album, invited us to a private listening session of his version of LamentationsWe pinched ourselves. Not only did he cover my tune, he played it back, and what’s more, before we listened to it, he said to me, “You’ll see, I changed a word.” When I heard him sing “Imagine His Girlfriend Playing a Show,” [et non « Y voudrait voir sa blonde faire un show »]I realized I had to work harder.

Excerpt from Lament of the Alaskan Seal (Reproduced by Felix Leclerc)

Your favorite song is one of those you have written for others

I really liked the text Jeremy’s guitar [de Patrick Norman], Between Matan and Baton Rouge [d’Isabelle Boulay] And Just an adventure [d’Offenbach]. This was my first attempt at Jerry [en 1985] And I worked hard to sing those words in my head with the rolling R. “I kept in my leather heart/All my loved ones in wax statues/I melted them with a smile,” I was at our house and couldn’t wait to hear him sing that.

Excerpt from Just an adventureBy Offenbach

The song you wish you hadn’t recorded

The heart is on a tight rope [de l’album Un autre jour arrive en ville de Beau Dommage en 1977]I find it horrific. This is me trying to make reggae music. It’s failed cultural appropriation and the script, tell me what it’s about.

There are also songs that I don’t completely disavow, e.g Rumors about the city [1983]But at some point, you have to face the facts: I’m not a rock singer, I’m just the king of ballads.

The song you want to correct

in Another day comes to townThere are some great ideas, but it’s like I want to be Bruce Springsteen and write great pictures about the night.

Excerpts fromAnother day comes to town

Your favorite monologue

I love the monologue on the new album where I explain my genesis Idiot waltz And the’A hole in the cloud. But it is certain that this is Drone Orubni’s first monologue [sur Bonsoir mon nom est Michel Rivard et voici mon album double en 1985] Remarkable. There’s a lot, in the monologues of that time, bits of improvisation that we did at the table with friends. Maybe I stole a line or two from Claude Monet. There may also have been an Andy Kaufman influence in it Taxi.

The song I had the most fun rearranging for this tour

He fell from the sky It took on another dimension. in The origin of my genre [2019]We played the card of intimacy, but there, with the winds and the operatic choruses, every evening there is a thrill that runs through the room.

Your song that moves you the most

It still is amnesia [1992]. It reminds me of the main character I knew well, Claude Jutra. But it’s not necessarily a song about Claude Jutra, it’s a song inspired by him. He owned the house where I rented a room on Rue Laval. He is a gentleman who moved me with his isolation. He’s starting to lose parts of himself. When I saw him again after a while, it was his illness [l’Alzheimer] It has gotten much worse. It took me several years to be able to write the song.

Excerpts fromCensorship

When what we called the Claude Jutra case happened in 2016, I did not speak out publicly. I think people have complaints about it, but what I could say at the time is that this song is far from being a tribute. It’s a sad note about a sad life that ended even more sadly.

The cover I gave up faster

Beau Dommage’s first big success was at the Nelson Hotel. One evening, in the kitchen that served as our dressing room, we saw three men from Offenbach arriving: Pierre Harel and Willy [Michel Lamothe] And Wizo [Roger Belval]. We all say to ourselves: They are coming to kill us. But on the contrary, they jumped into our arms. “You people are the Beatles, and the rest of us are the Stones,” myth-mad Pierre Harel tells us, adding that they’ll be back the following week.

In the meantime, we started playing the popular version a bit Nicel Hug Blues We say to ourselves: If Harel comes back, we will do it. Harrell walked into the dressing room after the show and the first thing he said was: “Never play that again.” »

The most legendary album I’ve ever been a part of

Two hundred nights an hour From Fiore-Séguin, in 1978. Pierre Huet, François Bouvier and I left with Serge [Fiori] In his brave old car, he spends three or four days with Richard [Séguin] In Saint-Vinant. We talked about life there, and the small community of hippies who helped each other. And we started playing songs. I’m sure there’s a sentence or two This is good That comes from me.

But I left for Europe with Beau Dommage and decided to stay in Brussels. I missed the Fiori-Séguin boat, but I wrote my first solo album, Beware of true love.

Best compliment I’ve ever received

During the album tour savage [paru en 1983], at an outdoor show in Gatineau, there were three guys in front of the stage holding Quebec flags and they were hot or freezing, but anyway they were tripping badly. In the end, I go to say hello to them and one of the guys says to me: Michelle, you are our Ozzy! [Immenses rires] Where did he get that from? I wish he had shown me his motive.

A phrase taken from one of your songs best represents you

“In the north of the city, a northern city, there is a little boy still searching for the thread of his memory.” [Dans La lune d’automne, 1992]

Your song that you are proud of

the next.

Folklore tradition

Around the Block – Demo Album

Michel Rivard and the Flybin Big Band

Spectra
Shown on Friday