In 1969, Johnny Hallyday's psychedelic blues

Thursday melodies - Jonas Follonier

In 1969, Johnny Hallyday released an album that would become the sixth best French rock album according to the French-language edition of the magazine Rolling Stone. Counting on the participation of renowned guitarists, River... open your bed is a little-known nugget of psychedelic blues.

The album deserves a retrospective. First of all, Johnny Hallyday - as we all know - has done good and bad in his unrivalled career, and this is not only a good musical vintage, but also material of wild inventiveness and bluffing coherence. So we allow ourselves to be nostalgic, nostalgia being also and above all a faith in the eternal return rather than in the irremediable beauty of the past. Marc Bonnant won't contradict us.

Fifty years ago, then, on our Old Continent, the French Elvis renewed himself for the twelfth time in the darkness of a studio, surrounding himself - and this was his greatest strength of all eras - with excellent musicians. While his faithful musicians Tommy Brown (drummer) and Mick Jones (guitarist, later a founding member of the cult band Foreigner) wrote most of the tracks on the album, psychedelic rock beasts Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane also contributed to the compositions.

And it's no small thing to notice. Because these two are the composers of one of Johnny's most beautiful rock ballads - a ballad that is truly rock, not pop rock as he did hundreds of others: Look for me, a song to break hearts and resentments. Gilles Thibault wrote the lyrics for this gem, which I invite you to listen to. listen here, as are all the other tracks on the album, with the exception of Angels of the night by Ralph Bernet and Journey to the land of the living by Long Chris. A song that's well worth the detour, too:

If this black anthem has gained a cult following, it's also vital to take an interest in it, because it is representative of the style of blues proposed by the ten tracks on River... open your bed. It's blues tinged with psychedelic rock. Saturated guitar riffs, harmonies bordering on a descent into hell, unleashed organ, lyrical flights from a body that's not necessarily in the right place. clean, The influence of the two aforementioned musicians is evident. Dare we say it: this album initiates and completes the French psychedelic blues genre. Psychedelic blues, that is.

It's not for nothing that this UFO album is included in the book Philippe Manœuvre presents: French rock, from Johnny to BB Brunes, 123 essential albums. It's a showcase for virtuoso, madcap art, helping rock evolve into the variants it was in its heyday. It lets the voice of the street be heard in the language of Molière, on blue and black notes. He creates a boomerang musical that you take in your face, only to reconsider it over the next few listens. River... open your beda monument. To be listened to again and again.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

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