R.I.P. Johnny Hallyday (1943-2017)

[Pierre]

Johnny Hallyday: Death of an icon

The famous singer died this morning in his home at the age of 74. He suffered from lung cancer since several months.[...]The singer has sold more than 110 million albums and sung more than 1000 songs. He had 40 gold discs, 20 platinum discs and 5 diamond discs.

Just so you know, his real name was Jean-Philippe Smet.

OK, let me elaborate a bit: Johnny has been dubbed "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in the English world, and you have no idea how true this is. Today, France has gone crazy: the info channels will be stuck talking about his death all day-long, with no way of knowing what's going on elsewhere. Screw Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, to Hell with the diplomatic visit of Macron in Algeria. It's Johnny Hallyday's passing day, and here we have a nation-wide mourning on the scale of what happened when Michael Jackson passed away. I am DEAD serious.

Hallyday's up there here in the rock Pantheon with the biggest names - actually, here in France in the 1960s, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with whom he was friends, opened for him. Although little-known outside France, he was well-known among musicians: Lenny Kravitz published a tweet in tribute to Johnny's death:

"Farewell Dear @JohnnySjh. Your friendship, sweetness and support are imprinted in my heart. It is an honor to have known you and to have spent time with you and your beautiful family. Your soul is pure Rock and Roll. Repose en paix."

Several French personalities have said that his death was like if Paris lost one of its monuments.

Now, am I a fan? Definitely not. I'm more pragmatical and in my opinion his discography has been highly inconsistent. Back in his early days (he was instantly famous) his work was a mix of rock'n'roll, blues and yéyé (almost always adapted from foreign hits) and he recorded enormously, so it's difficult to pinpoint great albums. Critics and fans alike consider the late 60s-early 70s to be his best period. Afterwards, in the 70s, his music devolved into post-yéyé variété with only shards of rock music left (and his rockers were often inferior to what he published before) and aside from a mid-1980s flirt with pop which has some acknowledgement from music critics, in my opinion his artistry never really recovered. Johnny was most famous for his live tours, which always featured sold-out venues in entire stadiums, and of which a LOT of live albums have been published. Johnny was a huge showman, and his musicians were usually top-notch.

The studio album that is usually recommended as an introduction to Johnny Hallyday is the 1969 album Rivière... ouvre ton lit (or self-titled) which notably featured Mick Jones and several members of the Small Faces and Humble Pie, including Peter Frampton.

Some key recordings:

Laisse les filles (1960)

Le Pénitencier (1964) (The House of the Rising Sun)

Noir c'est noir (1966) (Black Is Black)

Cheveux longs et idées courtes (1966)

Les Coups (1966) (Uptight (Everything's Alright))

Hey Joe (1967)

Aussi dur que du bois (1967) (Knock on Wood)

Mal (1968) (Hush)

Voyage au pays des vivants (1969)

Je suis né dans la rue (1969)

Fils de personne (1971) (Fortunate Son)

Oh ma jolie Sarah (1971)

La musique que j'aime (1973)

Gabrielle (1976)

Quelque chose de Tennessee (1985)

[Shaun2oo3]

Thanks for this, Pierre. RIP to a true legend!

[StevieFan13]

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about him, but he sounds like an important and influential guy. RIP.

[JohnnyBGoode]

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about him, but he sounds like an important and influential guy. RIP.

& with that StevieFan moved to no.2 http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/me ... memberlist

[StevieFan13]

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about him, but he sounds like an important and influential guy. RIP.

& with that StevieFan moved to no.2 http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/me ... memberlist

As long as Romain doesn’t talk I’m safely runner-up.

[Pierre]

Thanks for this, Pierre. RIP to a true legend!

You're welcome!

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about him, but he sounds like an important and influential guy. RIP.

You have no idea. A few days ago, a priest held a mass to help him recover from his cancer (obviously, that didn't work). Today, half of the main TV channels have been running all day-long specials about Hallyday's death. In the street, people were randomly going crying and carrying images or wearing clothes with Hallyday's face. The government has announced that he would have a national homage. And they have no idea how they'll manage to organize his burial because they fear that the crowds will be so massive, it could be dangerous. France has gone bananas.

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about him, but he sounds like an important and influential guy. RIP.

& with that StevieFan moved to no.2 http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/me ... memberlist

As long as Romain doesn’t talk I’m safely runner-up.

Thread hacking detected I don't mind.

I've always been wondering if there was a ranking above Die Mensch Maschine. Looks like Stevie is poised to bring us back the answer.

[StevieFan13]

Is Hallyday to France as the Tragically Hip is to Canada? Is there even a parallel in the USA? (Maybe Bruce? Tom Petty had kind of a similar nationwide reaction).

[Romain]

Is Hallyday to France as the Tragically Hip is to Canada? Is there even a parallel in the USA? (Maybe Bruce? Tom Petty had kind of a similar nationwide reaction).

Clearly, the parallel with Bruce Springsteen is the better you can do.

[StevieFan13]

Is Hallyday to France as the Tragically Hip is to Canada? Is there even a parallel in the USA? (Maybe Bruce? Tom Petty had kind of a similar nationwide reaction).

Clearly, the parallel with Bruce Springsteen is the better you can do.

Gotcha. Bruce's appeal went a little further than America though (which I always found interesting, as he's as American as it gets).

[StevieFan13]

I will say it's very interesting to hear a French version of Uptight (Everything's Alright).

[Pierre]

Is Hallyday to France as the Tragically Hip is to Canada? Is there even a parallel in the USA? (Maybe Bruce? Tom Petty had kind of a similar nationwide reaction).

Clearly, the parallel with Bruce Springsteen is the better you can do.

Gotcha. Bruce's appeal went a little further than America though (which I always found interesting, as he's as American as it gets).

Though I'd personally say you'd have to climb back a generation to have an accurate context. Johnny's from the Cliff Richard generation: when artists were less songwriters themselves than cover artists or who sang material provided to them by professional songwriters, also he was from the European rock & roll imitators generation, but he quickly rose beyond that to become the poster man for French rock (Pavlov reaction of an average Frenchman: French rock = Johnny Hallyday) and has been called the French Elvis Presley (that's exaggerated).

After the mid-1970s, though, his songwriters were less interested in providing him their best material, as Johnny just sold truckloads of albums on his name alone. Besides, at this point his music turned into the middle-of-the-road/adult contemporary stuff you'd expect from an artist catering to an aging demographics, and it continued that way until his death. As I said, his strength was the live shows, in which he was a showman who became a mix of John Fogerty and Bruce Springsteen (like Romain said), and consistently benefitted from the greatest touring musicians available, as any of them would kill to be featured in a Hallyday show. This too continued that way until his death. That's why he has a shitload of live recordings commercially available.

[nicolas]

Is Hallyday to France as the Tragically Hip is to Canada? Is there even a parallel in the USA? (Maybe Bruce? Tom Petty had kind of a similar nationwide reaction).

Clearly, the parallel with Bruce Springsteen is the better you can do.

Romain, I can't let you say that

I never liked Johnny H, he always felt like a fake to me. Pretending he was a rock star while he had nothing to do with a rocker, sorry I can't find the words in English, mais il n'en avait que l'apparence. He only had the looks.

So he has absolutely nothing to do with Bruce. He is not a songwriter. If I had to find a parallel, I'll pick a pop country singer.
The only thing in common was that he was a white working class hero.

[Romain]

Coucou !
Je ne parlais pas du tout du côté musique mais uniquement de son "rapport à la population du pays". Il me semble que l'on peut les rapprocher dans le fait qu'ils soient adorés par une certaine couche de la population et qu'ils parlent au cœur du pays