{"id":32112,"date":"2020-04-03T20:32:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T18:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=32112"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:04:12","slug":"country-music-in-johnny-hallydays-repertoire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/music\/country-music-in-johnny-hallydays-repertoire\/","title":{"rendered":"Country in Johnny Hallyday's repertoire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Little-known and little-acknowledged in his work, country music forms the backdrop to Johnny Hallyday's repertoire. If you're looking for something new to discover, it's well worth delving into this side of the rocker. He has always lived and breathed country, and it's quite possible that Johnny's artistic universe can be understood in terms of this musical genre.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u00abI'm a \u00bbvari\u00e9t\u00e9' singer revisited and corrected by rock'n'roll\", declared Johnny Hallyday in a well-crafted phrase at a recent TV interview<\/a> in 1974. But Johnny wasn't just that. Johnny was a multitude of genres, which can be divided into two categories: the musical genres he embraced for the pleasure of the public, and those he truly loved, and in fact never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Country is one of Johnny's favorite genres. First of all, we mustn't forget that country, along with rhythm and blues, is one of the sources of rock'n'roll, as the French rocker himself says in The Promised Land<\/em>, Philippe Man\u0153uvre's account of his 2014 American tour:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00abBefore, country music was all dry guitars and pedal steel. Today, they've electrified everything, guitars and fiddles. Country is the mother of rock'n roll and blues. Even in the early days, rock'n roll was a combination of country and rockabilly.\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Johnny was a great connoisseur of country music. And above all, a great fan of the artists who have carried this music throughout their careers. With Garth Brooks at the very top. \u00abI listen to Garth Brooks, but the French don't listen to much country music,\u00bb Johnny Hallyday remarked to his pal Philippe Man\u0153uvre. This sentence sums it all up: if when you think of Johnny, you don't necessarily think of country, it's because it's not a genre the French are fond of. So Johnny didn't include it in his musical universe. Rock mixed with French chanson, that's it. what he has<\/em> worn and which has<\/em> finally carried off. But beware of career summaries; Hallyday sprinkled his entire repertoire with country songs, when he wasn't making a whole album of them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two entire albums of country music<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Johnny has released no less than two country albums. Country-Folk-Rock<\/em> in 1972 and The Promised Land<\/em> in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all began when he met Michel Mallory, who became his regular lyricist for ten years. Mallory, just as passionate about country music as Johnny Hallyday, wrote an entire album of songs for Hallyday, delving into the American vein they both loved. The result is an admirable, raw, coherent body of work, featuring such nuggets as My hand to the fire<\/em>, Hello US USA<\/em> (soundtrack of the film I gave it my all<\/em> and composed by the boss himself!), There's nothing like that girl<\/em> or Joe, the city and me<\/em>. The atmosphere is exactly as you'd imagine it to be in the United States that Johnny so often fantasized about. It's the very place in which the singer received his musical education and which, as a brilliant magician, he now creates in his turn. In fact, he really lived there to the end, in those lands, in that country music, as he recounts on RTL in 2013<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00abWhen I'm driving my car listening to country music, I really feel like I'm in the States, you can really feel the great outdoors.\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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