Jacques Higelin, poet and inspiration.

The ? funny ? thing is, when my all time ? hero ? David Bowie died, I kept mum. Now that my favourite French singer /songwriter, Jacques Higelin (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Higelin) has died I feel I have to say something.

When I was 5 and a half years old, I remember sitting on my mum’s knee watching Top of the Pops (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops)  and a song by the Beatles came on, a song that would play a determining role in my life. That “silly love song”, Michelle Ma Belle, triggered me to tell my mother that one day, when I was grown up, I would live in Paris. I had fallen in love with the French language on the spot, well, sitting on her lap, to be more precise.

Fast forward a bunch of years, I am now 17 and living in a small seaside town on the north west coast of England called Lytham St Annes. It was here that I met some the most important people who have been in my life. JDLC, (my girlfriend’s initials) was in town as she was studying English. I met her at the library. I immediately saw that she wasn’t English and when I discovered she was not only French but Parisian, I just knew she was the girl for me! JDLC was sharing a flat with another French girl, the one and only Joséphine. It so happens Josée was on a break from her boyfriend Jean-Paul Letellier, (https://jp-letellier.fr), a painter who was also breaking into the music business and who had just brought out an album. Jean-Paul, with whom I am still great friends, came over to see Josée to patch things up and he brought with him a cassette of a new French singer whose name was Jacques Higelin. Jean -Paul was mad about the guy! Higelin’s album was called ? Alertez les Bébés! ?. Not quite my cup of tea when I first heard it but my French friends loved it so much that I thought I should make an effort to try and understand why this album was so important to them. I spent hours working on understanding the lyrics (not even A level French, at the time) just as JDLC had spent hours studying the lyrics of English and American artists. By the way, JDLC, also introduced me to a famous French singer called Barbara (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara). I now live in the same block of flats Barbara lived in when she was very close to a certain Gerard Depardieu, but that’s a different story. 

I did countless trips between Paris and England over the years and when I finally settled here in Paris at the age of 22 I had become a huge fan of Higelin’s songs. These had been very much my bohemian years hanging out with some incredibly gifted artists who really deserved to be at the top of the business but maybe weren’t prepared to compromise their work for material success. 

Fast forward more years, this is when I met the mighty Diablo, harmonica player extraordinaire! I will always remember the first time I met him as it was only a few days after I had seen him live on stage when he was playing with Jacques Higelin! Diablo is an incredibly gifted musician and a wonderful person. He must be gutted by the loss of his friend. Diablo introduced me to another crazy guy, Micky Finn. (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Finn_(guitariste)

I could go on for hours about Micky and his adventures but I would just like to mention two people Micky introduced me to: Nino Ferrer, an extremely famous French singer/songwriter and more especially Ronnie Thomas. Micky played guitar on one of France’s best loved tunes ? Le Sud ? written by Nino and was in a group called The Heavy Metal Kids with Ronnie. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Metal_Kids). Ronnie is a wonderful bass player and songwriter. As he has pointed out, Keith Richards, David Bowie and Lady Gaga were all inspired by their work. The Heavy Metal Kids were the backing group for Nino touring and recording with him on several occasions.

Andrew, where are you going with this, you may well be asking yourself ?

Friendship leads to beautiful places and creates memories and influences one in ways we cannot easily imagine. When a friend or a friend of a friend dies, we look back on their life and we look at all the good they did. Culturally, we are required not to speak ill of the dead. There’s a very good reason for that, (unless the person was thoroughly bad). The positive connections and influences we make in life are so important. Grace Jones, then married to Jean-Paul Goude, covered Higelin’s song, ? Pars ?. How many people did that make happy or whatever sentiment corresponds to a song such as that? 

When Micky died, Higelin went to his funeral. They had worked together for years. When Diablo introduced me to Micky I was so excited because of his contribution to Higelin’s work more than any of the other artists he had worked with because of the memories he had created for me with my friends.

The other day one of my clients said he was anxious that his son wanted to pursue an artistic career. I told him about all the people and others I have mentioned here. I pointed out that as true artists they would have been really unhappy working in office environments. Materially life isn’t easy every day but they are doing what they love. Isn’t it a fantastic feeling to be surrounded by people who do what they love? I think they make a positive difference on people’s lives. What I love about France is that the state helps artists in a way that is so generous by providing studios for them, when it is possible (https://www.google.fr/search?q=189+rue+ordener&client=safari&rls=en&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJxuWmwKraAhWJcRQKHeSWBnYQ_AUICygC&biw=1324&bih=897). My friend Jean-Paul lives and works in the studio at this address, surrounded by many other talented artists.

One thing I do know about Higelin is that he knew a whole lot about love. Love from his family, his fans, his musicians. He was loved because he gave so much love. My thoughts go out to Higelin’s talented kids, who have all opted to pursue artistic careers. 

Thank you Jacques Higelin for all the fond memories. Life is good.