00:00 I was kicked out of all the French vice-presidents' houses for 6 months.
00:03 But like my friends, I reassure everyone,
00:04 it's something we've all experienced.
00:07 When I wrote this song, I was particularly angry with my surroundings.
00:17 They were doing things half-heartedly,
00:18 both in their professions, in their love, in their relationships.
00:24 And the "until the end of this" I am, is a bit of a surging against that.
00:28 I was an official in the Paris Palace Hotel group as a guitarist and singer.
00:32 The title "Born to be Alive" didn't come right away.
00:36 I wrote the lyrics first, the verses, and I sang "Born to be Wild".
00:41 But "Born to be Wild" is a Stephen Wolf song, which came out in the 70s.
00:46 So I thought, I can't keep "Born to be Wild".
00:48 It's not possible, it's already done.
00:49 I thought that the sound of "Alive" was a bit of a bang, a bit of a clear sound.
00:55 And I was mainly based on the sound of the word "Alive".
01:00 So the song "Born to be Alive" was written in a very calm acoustic way,
01:04 like a folky song.
01:05 And there was a first recorded version, which never came out,
01:09 which was a purely rock version.
01:10 This version was recorded, but unfortunately,
01:12 well, or fortunately, maybe, it never came out.
01:16 That was in '75, so writing in '73, folky,
01:20 rock version in '75, and a version that everyone still knows today,
01:25 I hope, in 1979.
01:27 To be completely honest, I think it was the producer's idea in 1978,
01:33 it was his idea to transform this song in the way that everyone knows it today,
01:38 which made this song a standard, a hit first and then a standard.
01:43 I honestly think that with the previous versions,
01:45 be it the folky version or the rock version,
01:47 I would never have had the success that this song has had.
01:50 So congratulations to the producer, thank you very much.
01:53 Coming from this world of English pop, rock, English, etc.,
01:58 the idea of making "Born to be Alive" in a disco way was,
02:01 for me, a very bad idea.
02:04 However, the producer, who was a smart guy,
02:06 had an argument that made me a little flinch.
02:09 In fact, he told me, "Listen, I'm going to make you a parallel."
02:12 He said to me, "Do you like the Kings, do you like the Beatles,
02:15 do you like the Stones, do you like the... Do you not like the Bee Gees?"
02:18 I said, "Indeed, I love the Bee Gees."
02:20 And he said to me, "Do you consider that what they did on 'Saturday Night Fever'
02:24 is shit?"
02:25 I said, "No, not at all, I love it."
02:26 Well, he said to me, "Well, I would like to make your song,
02:29 which is a pop song at first,
02:31 I would like to make something that has a bit of a danceable, dancing aspect."
02:35 And very quickly, there are only idiots who don't change their mind,
02:38 very quickly, when we made the model for this song,
02:40 I thought, "The costume suits this song very, very well."
02:43 I was thrown out of all the French record companies for six months,
02:46 which have absolutely... But like my comrades, I reassure everyone,
02:49 it's something we've all experienced.
02:51 I think the originality of a song is that at first,
02:55 it's so original that you say, "Oh no, no, no, I don't want it, no, no, no,
02:58 the tempo is too fast, blah, blah, blah."
03:00 And when you manage to get past the barrier,
03:03 the originality ends up paying, and that's what happened at Bound to be Alive.
03:06 So, first country, Italy, and then Belgium,
03:09 since the producer was Belgian.
03:10 And after having picked up the two number ones,
03:13 the French started to get interested in the song.
03:17 In Anglo-Saxon countries, it's this famous message, "Bound to be Alive,"
03:21 which I realized was philosophically something interesting,
03:25 which resonated with all minorities, especially in the United States.
03:28 That's when I realized there was something about this song.
03:31 It reacted in the same way as "I will survive."
03:34 It's the same message.
03:35 It's like, "We're the high point, and we exist,
03:37 and we want to do things, and everything, etc."
03:39 Well, in Anglo-Saxon countries, I think the greenness of the title
03:42 is that it's a good song,
03:44 and that it conveys a message that I didn't want,
03:47 that I didn't write in that sense.
03:49 But I realized that chance had done things right.
03:52 So, it represents life, it represents positivity.
03:55 So, I've experienced success in various ways.
03:57 I mean, in the end, that's what I wanted to do when I said,
04:01 "I want to do Beatles,"
04:02 because that's what pushed me to make music.
04:05 So, I was screwed, because for two or three years,
04:07 a number one in the whole world,
04:09 you live this somewhat peculiar life
04:12 of someone who's trying to smash the world with his song.
04:16 So, that was a bit funny, a bit pleasant.
04:19 And then, finally, the analysis and the introspection that took place afterwards
04:23 made me realize that, in the end,
04:25 it wasn't exactly how I wanted to do this job.
04:27 That it was something that had frustrated me a bit,
04:30 to only resonate through a song.
04:32 And then, you have to say that
04:34 doing a promotion for a song for three years is both exhausting,
04:38 and it also prevents you from moving forward in terms of creation.
04:41 After the analysis, it's a way of functioning that doesn't suit me.
04:46 And then, once you've smashed the world once,
04:48 it's no use smashing it twice.
04:50 I'm not addicted to that point,
04:52 nor to notoriety,
04:53 nor to the satisfaction of having people at your feet.
04:56 I was lucky, or unlucky, we don't know for certain,
05:00 to be so immensely successful at the age of 30.
05:03 It would have been different if I had been 18 or 19.
05:05 At 30, I was already a lot of talker,
05:08 I had already done a lot of things.
05:10 And so, I didn't really smash the world once,
05:12 because that's my nature too.
05:14 I'm the happy dad of a song that is a standard all over the world,
05:19 but what more could you ask for in life?
05:20 For me, it's just fun now, really.
05:22 (upbeat music)
05:25 you
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