My friend Eleonor came to visit Laura. They both met in Metz while staying at the peaceful university of that place, Paul Verlaine, and since then things belonging to Erasmus have maintained an unbreakable friendship. My passion for Johnny, known as Eleonor, has brought me an extraordinary book, photographs and texts; which gave me the opportunity to remember those years when my favorite rocker took over our parties, swept into the rhythm of rock, twist or ballads. We had to move the bricks while hugging the long-haired blonde we love so much.
It was the sixties when Alicante suddenly and with a bang became European modernists. Alcohol-free bars began to appear, and shiny nightclubs filled our free time, ending family parties. It was quite exciting for us rural Alicante when many Frenchmen came back from Alicante quickly and fled an independent awakened Algeria, and when they came back with different ideas. When you can find Salut les copains magazine on the Rambla kiosk, almost every time Johnny Hallyday greets you from a cover he shared with Christophe and his Aline drawn in the sand on the beach, a Sheila “school is over” or for all of us boys and girls her age A skinny muse with straight brown hair who sings.
Exactly, Salut les copains, a nice girl with beautiful light-colored eyes (what’s her name?, what’s her name?) that I acquired at Johnny’s at a record store (one of the few out there) joined us in our musical requests. There were a lot of twists on that album, but above all, a ballad that Johnny dedicated to a very young Catherine Deneuve in an episode of a movie called Les Parisiennes, in which they both looked young and beautiful, stood out, Retiens la nuit. He then worked with notable directors such as actor and rocker Claude Lelouch, Godard, or Costa-Gavras, one of my favorites in dedicated cinema. I’ve only seen Johnny live and directed once. It was in the summer of 1963. He did nuit with Retiens, though not Catherine. Interestingly, in that open-air party room in Campellero, Gallo Rojo performed another Spanish rocker, Miguel Ríos, who recorded a Spanish version of the song composed by Aznavour Stop, presented as “Twist of the Twist” by Popotitos. night.
From then on, Johnny’s four-song EPs started piling up in my room. This book reminded me of a Hallyday LP dedicated to American rock songs sung successfully by other singers from Blueberry Hill to Be bop a lula. Enrique Guzmán and the Teen Tops did it.
At that time, following the example of Los Rítmicos, many youngsters from Alicante would try to learn to play the guitar to form a band that would guarantee success as girls and rock’n’roll. I must hastily add that my biggest failure crowned my efforts because that damn manual capo got stuck on the first change. Goodbye being like Johnny!
Now, with the book that Eleonor de la douce France kindly brought me, I was able to follow the route of Route 66, which set out from here, the route I took in sections on my trip to the United States in 1991. It crossed the entire country until it ended in Chicago, California, the same road that Kerouac recreated for us in his own style and attitude in his book El camino, the landscapes immortalized by John Ford, and the landscapes in Canned Heat: On the Road. Again…
Exactly, this is the title of the book written by Pierre Billon, friend, biographer and “brother” of Hallyday, who after the death of the French rocker almost six years ago, decided to recall this legendary route to the USA. The places and people shared by Johnny Harley Davidson and attended by Halliday’s widow, Laetitia, is the mother of all road movies, despite being my favorite of the genre, just like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper did in Easy Rider years ago. was accepted as It remains Il sorpasso from Dino Risi.
Long married to Sylvie Vartan (la plus belle pour aller danser), Johnny Hallyday had golden and twilight moments in his private/public life but always retained that rogue/musical spot that made him belong to the Olympus of the greats. Paradise of the Gods, which he gave up in his will when President Macron wanted to deposit his remains in the Pantheon of France after an impressive state funeral in Paris Madeleine. Well, because I’m too emotional and a little nostalgic for those times that won’t come back anyway (I turned 76 tacos the other day), I’m going to Spotify (sponsored by my Barça, oh!) and I’m on the Costa Blanca, based on Rafael Chirbes’ novel, in Crematorio I’ll put the song Cruzando el heaven, Johnny and Loquillo, the two of whom are performing together in Spanish and providing the music for the wonderful series about urban degeneration.
A few months before saying goodbye, Johnny released a record that can be considered one of his saddest works, the last of which, of course, Mon pays, c’est l’amour. On this CD, the French rocker assures that in the first of the songs, at the opening of the album, he will soon talk to Satan (he seemed sure he will not go to Heaven) and sit next to him. his side when the final hour comes. tell him your version and hear his decision. He was going to admit that the life he wanted continued at full throttle, a toute casser. Johnny, rock’n’roll making.