Paris (AFP)

"It's a way to keep him alive, always": Francis Cabrel announces in an interview with AFP the release of "Rock'n'roll show", unpublished recordings of the concerts where he played rock standards with Dick Rivers , died last year.

"It's an excellent memory, it's the moment when we were closest", continues the author of "Sarbacane". 30 years ago, the two accomplices toured around ten dates in France as well as a week at the Bataclan.

It was in this room, on October 6, 1990, that the "live" DVD was recorded, part of the "Rock'n'roll show" box set which also includes a CD of 19 tracks (+ 3 bonus) and a double vinyl collector. All this new material will be released on April 17, a week before the anniversary of the death of Dick Rivers (also born the same day, April 24).

"We crossed paths with radio sets in the 1980s and we realized that we loved the same music," says Francis Cabrel again. "It was me who had the idea of ​​shooting with this show, he and I surrounded by the gratin of the musicians of the time ".

"Dick brought Elvis, me Chuck Berry, among others (we also find Buddy Holly or Eddie Cochran) and the surprise was that he had brought songs from the Everly Brothers, beautiful titles, softer . It's a little romantic touch, next to the things we wiggle about, more jerky things. "

- "Dick is rock, me roll" -

"Dick is absolute rock, me roll, the composer of" I love him to die "is still having fun. Rock is music I love but I quickly realized that I wouldn't be a size in there, that's why I preferred to sing Chuck Berry because it was more folk than rock for me ".

In the intro of "Rip it up" (Little Richard), we hear Cabrel present his friend before a conquered audience: "He was born with rock'n'roll in the skin, riveted to the body - she is good there - I named the unsinkable, the indestructible, the undeformable, Mr. rock'n'roll itself, Mr. Dick Rivers ".

"We were having fun with that," Cabrel still remembers. The idea of ​​"getting it all out of the box", as he says, sprang up during Dick Rivers' funeral. It was Denys Lable, guitarist and friend of Cabrel, who was also part of the adventure, who found "the CD in his home studio and the VHS cassette of the last concert filmed at Bataclan with the camera carried", specifies the label Aztec Music.

"It is a testimony, the orchestra plays superbly, Dick sings superbly, it is a way of paying him homage with dignity", concludes Cabrel.

© 2020 AFP