The new Daniel Lavoie, personal and general
"Le
Journal de Montréal", 20
May 1995
Manon
Guilbert
A
total body-blow. Daniel Lavoie’s life has been marked over the last few years
by serious financial difficulties. Twenty five yeas of work suddenly went down
the drain. Lavoie had learnt, had made the big change which was necessary and he
rooted out what was good from that very bad experience.
Daniel
Lavoie had lost everything and he found himself in the same position that he was
in when he first arrived in Québec, a young man from Manitoba with nothing in
his pockets. “I wanted to re-build myself, he says. I have the acute feeling
of being in transition. I must try to be forgiving. I have to put it behind me
and stop wishing. I’ll need a lot of energy.”
“I
lost everything that I had. It’s clear that it’s very difficult to start
again after 25 years. But, I have my health, I know what I’m worth. I’m not
bitter, I don’t want to harbour a grudge. Music has been my safety-net, it’s
saved me. It’s my “zen”, my meditation.”
Lavoie
is discreet about the unknown quantities of this hard blow. He’s not tempted
to add anything to recover from what is still a public scandal: that is the
financial disaster of the recording company Trafic of which he was partner/producer
with Réjan Rancourt.
Once
again, the magic of music became his work. Daniel had the support of his
musician friends, he put on a show with François Dompierre and he made a tour
of 10 concerts with a string orchestra. Again, he found people everywhere to be
extremely warm. “Occasionally I saw little tears of emotion glistening in the
eyes of those who’d come to listen to us. That was truly salve to my wounds.
The slate was wiped clean.”
Ici,
five years after Long Courrier
came out, is an album deliberately full of gentleness. “It’s personal and
general, it defines exactly what I wanted. It leaves from one place and arrives
much further on, always talking about love. Love, it’s serious, it tears you
apart as well. It’s not sad, perhaps a bit melancholic, but that’s all in
the tradition of French “chanson” and it’s what I wanted.”
At
La Rochelle last year, Daniel Lavoie sung Léo Ferré’s songs on the exact
anniversary of his death. Before he did it, he ran through the list and, in this
way, re-connected himself with the memory of this strong, sizeable tradition of
French “chanson”. “It spoke to us. I went on a search through the French
speaking poets. I had fun putting Verlaine, Baudelaire and Gautier’s Carmen
to music. I think I’ve reached the age when I can do that. I have the
impression that people don’t expect as much as they did before from me.
We’ve now attained a mutual respect. I remain the same character to whom they
were attached before.”
Nevertheless,
Lavoie has gone through many transformations, evident where he wishes he had the
re-assuring comfort of the leather jacket with the little red spotted scarf,
like Renaud’s. In the same way, he wears the uniform of President Marcos on
stage. Today, he states that he finds it fun, seduced by the theatrical
appearance that he needed only as far as experiencing it. Now I prefer small
groups of musicians, modest stages where three musicians set themselves up. “I
sing better than ever, I don’t overdo it any more. Before I had to fight
battalions of foes.”
Ici
is inspired by lots of other feelings, Lavoie had wanted it personal and general.
Besides, he writes the majority of his songs with his wife, Louise Dubuc, and
borrows one song from Louise Forestier and another from Sylvain Lelièvre. “I
admire Forestier a lot, he emphasises, I’m searching for a partnership like I
had with a female lyricist for my English language projects. A woman writes
things that I wouldn’t know how to write. I’m a great fan of Forestier and
I’m very happy to include her in this album. It’s a mutual liking, we worked
together, a big private understanding was born. She often advised me in the
production, I ended up by generally not seeing what was under my nose!”
Lavoie
had wanted words which were like him, which had a close affinity with his life.
Sylvain Lelièvre had also found the right words.
His
career in France had been left high and dry. Nevertheless, Lavoie knows that the
French public remains faithful to him. The huge success of Il
s’aiment guaranteed him a privileged place in their hearts, that
song having been designated one of the 10 most beautiful French songs of all
time. Jours de plaine had made
its mark several years ago but, over there, he remains the composer of
Il s’aiment. On each of his visits there’s always one fan who
goes up to him and questions him on his long absence. “I’m bored with the
French. This disc is also meant for them. I’ve gone along in the purest of
traditions”.
Ici
is a disc of love, about men and women. It’s solemn and serious, with here and
there some funny bits. “Love, he says, needn’t be taken casually there.
It’s the fate of a nation that mucks about in the bedroom.”
Daniel
Lavoie is enlivened by a new confidence. But, being a fatalist, he also knows
that no one owes him a living, that he needs to start again. And that, he knows
to his cost.
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