Jean-Jacques Goldman, 70 years and 40 years of career summarized in six songs

• Jean-Jacques Goldman celebrates his 70th birthday this Monday, October 11.

• Eric Jean-Jean has written a book,

  Goldman, a life in songs

  , filled with anecdotes about the artist's hits.

• The RTL host agreed to sift through six pieces to shed light on, reflect and summarize the career and personality of Jean-Jacques Goldman.

Jean-Jacques Goldman is celebrating his 70th birthday and 40 years of career this Monday.

The opportunity to dive back into the work of the artist whose last studio album was released twenty years ago.

asked Eric Jean-Jean to comment on five songs of his choice which, according to him, best summarize the author, composer and performer so dear to the hearts of the French.

The RTL host, who has just published

published by Hugo Doc, has accepted the challenge.

And in the end, it is six titles that he sifts through.

• "All it takes is a sign", the song Springboard (1981)

This is the reveal song from his first solo album. It is also the fruit of ten years of work and music within groups, The Phalansters of which he was the guitarist and Taï Phong with which he had his first small success,

. Goldman was a fan of English rock, American rhythm'n'blues. One day, he went to see Zoo, a Parisian progressive rock group who accompanied Léo Ferré. He was captivated by the singer's words. Since then, he has never stopped singing in French. In this first album where he sings too loudly, where the themes are those that Trust could sing, there is

.

Monique Le Marcis, the patron of music programming on RTL at the time, was a fairy.

Certain of the song's potential, she insisted that it be broadcast.

The title was released in September 1981 and was number 1 in the spring of 1982 before becoming a summer hit.

Le Marcis also introduced Jean-Jacques Goldman to Michel Drucker, who then hosted a program on RTL and made him do his first big TV, in

.

1982 was also the year the FM band exploded which allowed the song to be played everywhere.

• "Fly me", the social song (1984)

Jean-Jacques Goldman signed this song for his third album.

He was in his prime songwriter period, which was to say he was trying to study and understand what was going on in the world.

At the time, we talked a lot about the suburbs: a few years earlier, there had been riots in Minguettes, Vénissieux (Rhône), the murder of a teenager in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne ), it is also the period of the march against racism.

He put himself in the shoes of a kid living in the suburbs.

He delivers an important message for him: the fact that education, books, school, learning, can change everything.

It is one of Goldman's first great social songs.

It is positive and a bearer of hope.

• "She Had a Baby All Alone", Song of an Observer (1987)

This song was originally written in reggae form for Philippe Lavil, who didn't feel it. He has captured the spirit of the times: it is the period of

of Cookie Dingler, of the “woman of the 80s” sung by Sardou… Women make babies on their own.

We are not yet in single parenthood or homoparentality but in their premises.

In her close entourage, there is a press attaché who brings up her daughter Emilie on her own and, from time to time, Jean-Jacques gives her a helping hand.

He wanted to write about the adventure of this woman who decided to do without men.

I like to say that Jean-Jacques Goldman is a songwriter because, as a rule, he does not tell his life but things that he observed.

He has a little notebook in the back right pocket of his jeans and he's taking notes.

He would have made a very good journalist.

He then pulls out his notes, puts some music on them and it becomes songs.

• "Born in 17 in Leidenstadt", the masterpiece (1991)

For me, it is his masterpiece at all levels. When he wrote this song, in the 1990s, he was in his forties and trying to take a little height, a position of wise. This text is almost a treatise on philosophy. He says so much about him: he is the son of a man of Polish origin, Mojsze Goldman, who left Poland from the anti-Semitic pogroms for France, enlisted in the army, obtained French nationality, was mobilized to the front, became a war hero, then a resistance hero. It was he who was at the head of the commando which freed Villeurbanne. Jean-Jacques' mother is a German Jew whose family has been decimated. In the song, he takes three points of view. The first is that of a German who was born in 1917 in Leidenstadt, “the city of pain”, an imaginary city.That year, Germany lost the war, was humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles, and a whole generation of Germans grew up hating the French. If he, the son of a Jew who fought against the Nazis, had been born in this humiliated Germany, he would have been 19 when, in 1936, Hitler came to power. Would he have been angry? Would he have hated and done what these people did? He doesn't excuse the Nazis, he just wonders what he would have done. This song is carried to music very inspired by that of Bruce Hornsby - it's the same bridge ashe would have been 19 when, in 1936, Hitler came to power. Would he have been angry? Would he have hated and done what these people did? He doesn't excuse the Nazis, he just wonders what he would have done. This song is carried to music very inspired by that of Bruce Hornsby - it's the same bridge ashe would have been 19 when, in 1936, Hitler came to power. Would he have been angry? Would he have hated and done what these people did? He doesn't excuse the Nazis, he just wonders what he would have done. This song is carried to music very inspired by that of Bruce Hornsby - it's the same bridge as

.

At the beginning, Jean-Jacques wanted this American musician to produce this album but that was not possible for reasons of schedule.

Since it's a big hit, you don't always realize it, but if you really dive into it, the song is fascinating.

• "Rouge", the historic song (1993)

Musically, the structure is not far from that

of Queen's

.

it starts with choirs - those of the Red Army, a fantasy for Jean-Jacques.

His father used to take him to see them at the Palais des sports when he was little.

For him it was huge to record with them.

Then there is this big guitar riff that he gave to Nagui for the credits of

.

It's a kind of one-song musical about communism.

It starts with hope, the Popular Front of 1936, then, with saturated guitar, war, then disillusion.

It is almost the history of communism that is summed up.

• "Together", the ultimate song (2001)

Jean-Jacques had been invited to the Rencontres chorales d'Arles. He was dragging his feet to get there but realized it was amazing. He took a big slap when he heard a hundred people sing his songs. At the end of the show, he told them: “In a year, we'll be recording a song together. It will be called

 ”. He kept his word. It became the first single from his latest album,

. I think it's an album he made for friends, for musicians, he wanted to do one last tour. The last date took place in Bordeaux but the very last show was in July 2003 at the Francofolies de La Rochelle to pay tribute to Jean-Louis Foulquier. And then it was over.

goes well to Jean-Jacques Goldman who has always preferred the collective to individuality, shadow over light.

He wanted to be number 1, sell records, make good songs, but he didn't like being a star at all.

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