Francoise Hardy and Antonio Sabato
The music, as he wrote Piazzola, enters through the ear and travels directly to the heart . It is the most direct art, a bridge to the invisible, the only path to the transcendent … Taking advantage of its evocative power, we embark on Valentine's Day on a romantic tour of the world. Our roadmap: the cities and places where these five love songs were composed.
They are not all, but there are several of my favorites seasoned with memories of my travels.
CHELSEA HOTEL No2., LEONARD COHEN
He was not the first nor would he be the last to portray the iconic Chelsea Hotel . Canadian musician Leonard Cohen captured his love affair with singer-songwriter Janis Joplin in the song 'Chelsea Hotel No.2'.
- I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel,
- you spoke to me with such courage and sweetness,
- tempting me on the unmade bed,
- while the limousines waited in the street.
A “sinister and lethal drink” in a Polynesian restaurant in Miami it functioned as Proust's cupcake three years after that meeting. Cohen exorcised the death of the rock star – who died in 1970 of a heroin overdose – on paper.
Interior of one of the rooms at the Chelsea Hotel
- You turned your back on the crowd
- You ran away, I never heard you say
- I need you, I don't need you
- I need you, I don't need you
- and all that nonsense
Elusive success eluded Cohen in the spring of 1968. After shopping around to clear his head, eating a cheeseburger at Bronco Burger, a greasy joint, and pay tribute to Dylan Thomas at his temple, the White Horse Cavern , where the poet drank his last 18 whiskeys before dying with a shattered liver , he returned to the Chelsea hotel at three in the morning. He was already giving up the night when he met Janis Joplin in the elevator – the slowest in the city, according to legend. “Are you looking for someone?” Cohen asked. "Yes, to Kris Kristofferson," the singer replied. “ Lady, you're in luck, I'm Kris Kristofferson ”. Cohen was much shorter than the country legend, but Joplin played along. And together they shared a memorable night in room 424.
I followed in his footsteps and those of Grace Slick, Patti Smith, Thomas Wolfe, Gregory Corso, Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski ) and stayed in a bare room with mustard walls and wooden beams many years ago. I didn't run into any celebrities but I did take the opportunity to enjoy a torrid early morning with my companion as I hummed over and over in my head, "I need you, I don't need you. I need you, I don't need you."
Chelsea Hotel: rock creation and destruction
COMPUTER LOVE, KRAFTWERK
Kraftwerk, the quartet that revolutionized electronics, predicted in 'Computer Love' (1981) the loneliness of a hyperconnected world.
- computer Love,
- computer Love,
- I call this number, I call this number,
- For a data quote, a data quote,
- I need a meeting, I need a meeting.
Dusseldorf , the Rhenish city in which it was composed and written, has always been a visionary. The cradle of krautrock, also baptized the Memphis of electronics by Rudi Esch (ElectriCity: Electronic Music from Dusseldorf ), was an artistic mecca in the 1970s and 1980s. in front of the Kunstacademie was the provocateur Joseph Beuys, a regular at Creamcheese Club , where kraftwerk They gave their first concerts. It takes a lot of imagination – or having been to the Guggenheim the night they recreated its exhilarating atmosphere – to enliven the current nondescript office block where Creamcheese was located with wild parties, crazy performances and a Gerhard Richter mural . Kraftwerk's first Kling Klang studio, at number 16 Mintropstrasse, in the middle of the red light district, is not bustling with life either.
When I visit the city again NEU!, from La Düsseldorf, Reheingold and DAF I promise to follow the recommendations of the guide and drink an Altbier in the Altsdat (old city) instead of praying to meet Florian Schneider, one of the founders of Kraftwerk, at the Da Forno restaurant . If I didn't run into him twenty years ago, I won't now: Schneider died last April at the age of 72.
In this corner of Dusseldorf the magic of Kraftwerk was born
WILL YOU LOVE ME TOMORROW, THE SHIRELLES
The first success of The Shirelles, the quartet from New Jersey, was a scandal . Several radio stations censored the explicit song sung by a black woman ( Shirley Owen s) about a one-night stand.
- Is this a lasting treasure?
- Or just a moment of pleasure?
- Can I believe in the magic of your sighs?
The Shirelles
He composed it the same year the birth control pill was launched. the couple formed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin . King came up with the tune in his new house in Brooklyn (New York) while his baby played in the same room; her husband put lyrics to it that same night. The house, by the way, is still standing. It is located at 2635 Brown Street, about two kilometers from Brighton Beach. , the beach that leads to Coney Island. I can't think of a better setting to invoke love than the dystopian park where they celebrated their first anniversary singer Patti Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe . I am so fascinated by seeing the sunset on this kitsch beach while eating some potato chips with Nathan's Original Hot that the last time I was in New York I cycled there from Carroll Gardens by bike (with the Citybike system, one hour practically in a straight line).
TOUS LES GARÇONS ET LES FILLES, FRANÇOISE HARDY
- All the boys and girls my age
- They walk down the street two by two
- All the boys and girls my age
- They know well what it means to be happy
- But I walk alone through the streets, the soul in pain.
Françoise Hardy was still living with her mother when she wrote the first lines of Tous les garçons et les filles. She was 17 years old and she felt different: she was passionate about Paul Ank , playing the guitar that her father gave him when he faced Bac (the French selectivity) and reading. withdrawn and nostalgic, she unexpectedly managed to get enough courage to audition for the Vogue label. She was hired after the second audition and in 1962 she recorded her debut. The first time she heard one of her songs on the radio, she was in the kitchen. She incredulously went on vacation to Bavaria to perfect her German . Her surprise grew upon her return to Paris: she had sold 2,000 records; two years later, it would be two million.
I met Françoise Hardy as a teenager in the media library of the French Lyceum of Alicante . The cover read, "The Frenchwoman David Bowie Fell In Love With" ; Encouraging enough to borrow the disk. She had not yet visited Paris, her city, but I liked walking through it guided by her melancholy voice.
- Like the boys and girls my age
- She asked me when the day would come
- In which, eyes in eyes and hand in hand
- I will also have someone who loves me.
Francoise Hardy
JEALOUS GUY, JOHN LENNON
Transcendental meditation stimulates creativity: according to a study by the American University, it increases the production of alpha waves, related to the imagination. The Beatles wrote not one, but between thirty and fifty songs (the number remains unclear) in India . Her stay in Rishikesh practicing this type of meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was very productive. John Lennon reused the melody of one of those themes, 'Child of Nature', for Jealous Guy . “The lyrics speak for themselves: he was a jealous and selfish guy. A very insecure man who wanted to put her wife in a little box, lock her up and take her out when he wanted to play with her ”, Lennon confessed to David Sheff.
- I felt insecure
- Maybe he didn't love me anymore
- I was shaking inside
- I was shaking inside
- Oh I didn't mean to hurt you
- I'm sorry I made you cry.
- Oh I didn't mean to hurt you
- I'm just a jealous boy.
Chaurasi Kutia, the ashram where the English band stayed, reopened in 2016 after almost 20 years abandoned . At the time I was living in India (2009-2010), if you wanted to visit its graffiti ruins you had to bribe the guard or jump over the wall. Apparently now it is enough to pay the equivalent of 8 euros . In Rajaji National Park, they organize guided walks through the forest where elephants and panthers live.
The Beatles (along with their girls and Mia Farrow!) surrounding yogi Maharishi Mahesh
THE FINAL PLAYLIST FOR THE MOST ROMANTIC WEEKEND