A look back at his career in five standards.

. "And me, and me, and me", but not him at first

This counter-point of the committed song is not intended for Dutronc, who had written the music and tells the backstage.

"We could only find tocards to sing it, so finally I was told: +go, you, do it, you have accountant's clothes, it fits perfectly to the song +", reads in "Dutronc, a life in songs" by journalists Olivier Cachin and Eric Jean-Jean (Hugo Doc editions). This hit crowned his debut as a singer in 1966.

Singer Jacques Dutronc in concert in Paris, September 28, 1966 © / AFP/Archives

"Everything about him is happy accidents: when he learns the guitar, then sick, in bed, at 16; when, later, he becomes an actor by accident; when he recently goes back on stage for a sold-out tour because his son Thomas asks him, "summarizes for AFP Olivier Cachin.

. "Les Cactus", "brit-rock" and Pompidou

"Dad, plug your ears: in the history of French rock, my father did such magnificent things," Thomas told AFP in 2021, alongside Jacques, in preparation for their joint tour.

"Cacti" is a good example. "We are in a French sixties rock, Kinks influence, it's very brit-rock, very Anglo-Saxon, before Jacques Dutronc became a crooner, there are big guitar riffs, like on +La fille du Père Noël+", unfolds Olivier Cachin.

Jacques Dutronc (r) and his son Thomas during a rehearsal for their joint tour, on April 11, 2022 in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP/Archives

This 1966 hit was even quoted by Georges Pompidou, then Prime Minister, in 1967 at the National Assembly: "I learned that, in government life, there are also cacti".

. Flute, "It's five o'clock, Paris wakes up"

It was after a dinner drunk by the three Jacques - Dutronc, Lanzmann (lyricist) and Wolfsohn - that the latter, artistic director of the Vogue record company, had the idea of a piece about Paris at dawn.

"And the flute part, which makes all the salt, happens by chance, because there is a flutist in the studio next door, Roger Bourdin, to whom we say: + you do not want to come?+", says Olivier Cachin.

Singer Jacques Dutronc in Paris in December 1969 © - / AFP/Archives

It was Wolfsohn who asked Lanzmann to be inspired by a popular song of the nineteenth century: "Painting of Paris at five o'clock in the morning". Another success, in 1968.

. The timeless "opportunist"

Recorded shortly after May 68, the song mocks those who have recovered the protest movement. Those who know how to make "only one gesture", that of turning their jacket, "always on the right side".

In 1982, the group Indochine covered it and, in 2015, Dutronc performed it with the singer of the group, Nicola Sirkis, for the album "Joyeux anniversaire M'sieur Dutronc".

Singer Jacques Dutronc at the Casino de Paris, February 22, 1992 in Paris © PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP/Archives

"It's typically the timeless song, the proof when Indochine covers it, people think it's topical, and it's not just about politics, we can also apply it to cinema and music," laughs Olivier Cachin.

. "The little garden", green before its time

"Le petit jardin" denounces the creeping "concretization" of cities, to the detriment of corners of nature. In 1972, when ecology was not a central concern.

"This is also one of the reasons why Jacques Dutronc refuses to sing it on stage for a long time, because it could be too militant," contextualizes Olivier Cachin.

His son asked him to take it with him for the enriched reissue of "Frenchy", Dutronc junior's successful album. This is the "trigger" element of the joint tour, where Jacques Dutronc sings it again on stage. "It's a beautiful song, which is about his childhood neighborhood," notes Olivier Cachin.

Jacques Dutronc after a rehearsal with his son Thomas for their joint tour, April 11, 2022 in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP/Archives

The Lanzmann-Dutronc duo will take up this theme with "La France disfiguree" (1975).

© 2023 AFP