Son of an opera singer and an Italian piano teacher (Liette), he was raised by his grandparents in Toulouse, where he heard Glenn Miller, Édith Piaf and Louis Armstrong (among others) on the radio.
In 1947 he failed his baccalaureat and commenced a career in journalism, writing for various journals including Le Journal des Curistes at Vichy and L'Echo d'Alger. At the same time he wrote songs for Marcel Amont (Le barbier de Belleville, Le balayeur du roi) and Philippe Clay (Joseph, La sentinelle). He met Georges Brassens, who became his friend and mentor.
In 1949 he performed his military service in the foreign legion at Rabat, Morocco.
He sent his lyrics to Marguerite Monnot, Édith Piaf's songwriter, who put them to music. (Méphisto, Le Sentier de la guerre). He started to sing for a livelihood in 1959 in a Parisian cabaret in Montmartre, Le lapin agile.
In 1962, he decided to sing his works himself: Une petite fille and Cécile ma fille (dedicated to his daughter, born in 1962 to his wife Sylvie, whom he met at Le lapin agile). These songs made him immediately known to the larger public, which he had already started to penetrate by participating in the concerts of Dalida.
A car accident immobilised him for several months in 1963. The following year he travelled to Brazil, and sang in prestigious halls in Paris: the Olympia, the Palais, the Théâtre de la Ville.
Following the death of his friend Jacques Audiberti in 1965 he wrote, in homage, the song Chanson pour le maçon.
The events of May 1968 inspired him to the torrential Paris Mai, a plea for life, which would be banned from the airwaves. The same year he recorded his first live album at the Olympia: Une soirée avec Claude Nougaro.
His career continued normally punctuated with success: Le jazz et la java, Tu verras, Île de Ré, Armstrong, Toulouse, Petit taureau. But in 1984, his recording company did not renew his contract. Nougaro left for New York, seeking inspiration, and while there wrote and recorded a self-financed disc, Nougayork, whose resounding success was a surprise.
In 1988 Victoires de la musique rewarded him with best album and best artist, and between 1993 and 1997 he released three new albums.
His health deteriorated after 1995, when he underwent a heart operation. In 2003, his condition left him unable to appear at the festival du Verbe at Toulouse. From 1998 to 2004 he devoted himself more to concerts and festivals, apart from an album in aid of children suffering from AIDS. Having undergone further surgery in early 2004, he died of cancer in March, 74 years old.
His music drew inspiration, among other sources, from American jazz, from which he borrowed heavily (Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins), but also from Brazilian music (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Baden Powell de Aquino, Chico Buarque).
La Danse
Claude Nougaro Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Nous allions à l'école de danse
À la barre de chêne se pliaient les roseaux
De nos corps amoureux de cadences
La danse est une cage où l'on apprend l'oiseau
Nous allions à l'école de danse
Face à la grande glace, petits canards patauds
De voir nos blancs tutus reflétés par les eaux
Du lac noir où meurt la " Mort du Cygne "
La danse est une étoile, qu'elle est loin, qu'elle est haut
Sur les pointes on lui faisait des signes
Dans un coin du studio, le piano convolait
Hardiment vers des prouesses russes
Et le plancher des vaches de son mieux décollait
Sous nos pieds ivres de sauts de puces
La danse est une bête, la sueur est son lait
Le désir, sa coutume et ses us
Alors, chacun les bras en chœur, corps à couteaux tirés,
Se tendait vers la ligne suprême,
Vers les extrémités d'un ciel, d'un soleil délivré
De la nuit et de ses théorèmes
La danse est un espace où les ronds sont carrés
Où le temps, ô miracle, nous aime...
Sur des rythmes d'Astaire, des tambours brésiliens
Elle danse, la Danse, elle danse
Pas par pas, bond par bond, elle brise les liens
De nos poids épris de transcendance
Paysanne est la danse, le cosmos est son grain
En sabots de satin, le balance !
Petits chats, petits rats avec nos frêles os
Nous allions à l'école de danse
À la barre de chêne se pliaient les roseaux
De nos corps amoureux de cadences
La danse est une cage où l'on apprend l'oiseau
Nous allions à l'école de danse.
Claude Nougaro's song La Danse pays tribute to the art of dance and its all-encompassing power over the human body and spirit. In the verses, Nougaro portrays the image of young ballet students, "petits chats, petits rats," with their fragile bones, attending dance school to learn the art of movement. He describes how the dancers' bodies become enamored with the rhythms, and the dance becomes a "cage where one learns the bird," implying that the freedom of movement and expression that the dance brings also comes with a sense of discipline and restriction.
Nougaro portrays the dance school as a place where young dancers come to lose themselves in the pursuit of perfection. They focus on their reflection in the mirror and the way the tutu flares as they spin, and they become intoxicated with the movement. The "bête" of dance, the sweat it produces, and the desire it evokes are the norm at the dance school. As they reach towards "the supreme line" and the "extremities of a sky, a sun delivered from the night and its theorems," they feel the dance's transformative power. The dance becomes a space where "ronds sont carrés" (circles are squares) and where time, miraculously, seems to love them.
Overall, Nougaro's poetic portrayal of dance in La Danse is one of passion, discipline, and transcendence. It is a tribute to the power of movement and its transformative power over the human condition.
Line by Line Meaning
Petits chats, petits rats avec nos frêles os
As fragile beings, we were young dancers in training
Nous allions à l'école de danse
We went to the dance school
À la barre de chêne se pliaient les roseaux
Holding onto the sturdy wooden bar, our slender bodies swayed
De nos corps amoureux de cadences
Our bodies were in love with the rhythms
La danse est une cage où l'on apprend l'oiseau
Dance is like a cage where we learn how to free our inner bird
Face à la grande glace, petits canards patauds
In front of the big mirror, we looked like awkward little ducks
Nous vivions pour le bonheur insigne
We lived for the great happiness
De voir nos blancs tutus reflétés par les eaux
Seeing our white tutus reflected in the water
Du lac noir où meurt la "Mort du Cygne"
In the black lake where the "Death of the Swan" dies
La danse est une étoile, qu'elle est loin, qu'elle est haut
Dance is like a star, so far, so high
Sur les pointes on lui faisait des signes
We signaled to the star dancing on our toes
Dans un coin du studio, le piano convolait
In one corner of the studio, the piano soared
Hardiment vers des prouesses russes
Boldly towards Russian feats
Et le plancher des vaches de son mieux décollait
The floor, as best it could, lifted off the ground
Sous nos pieds ivres de sauts de puces
Underneath our feet, drunk with jumps and hops
La danse est une bête, la sueur est son lait
Dance is like a beast and sweat is its milk
Le désir, sa coutume et ses us
Desire is dance's custom and habit
Alors, chacun les bras en chœur, corps à couteaux tirés,
Then, everyone with arms linked, bodies pressing against each other
Se tendait vers la ligne suprême,
Straining towards the ultimate line
Vers les extrémités d'un ciel, d'un soleil délivré
Towards the ends of a sky, a sun liberated
De la nuit et de ses théorèmes
From the darkness and its theories
La danse est un espace où les ronds sont carrés
Dance is a space where circles become squares
Où le temps, ô miracle, nous aime...
Where time, oh miracle, loves us...
Sur des rythmes d'Astaire, des tambours brésiliens
To the rhythms of Astaire and Brazilian drums
Elle danse, la Danse, elle danse
Dance itself dances
Pas par pas, bond par bond, elle brise les liens
Step by step, leap by leap, it breaks free from constraints
De nos poids épris de transcendance
Freeing us from the weight of transcendence
Paysanne est la danse, le cosmos est son grain
Dance is like a peasant, the cosmos its seed
En sabots de satin, le balance !
Dancing in satin clogs, it sways!
Nous allions à l'école de danse
We went to the dance school
À la barre de chêne se pliaient les roseaux
Holding onto the sturdy wooden bar, our slender bodies swayed
De nos corps amoureux de cadences
Our bodies were in love with the rhythms
La danse est une cage où l'on apprend l'oiseau
Dance is like a cage where we learn how to free our inner bird
Lyrics © LES EDITIONS DU CHIFFRE NEUF
Written by: Maurice VANDER, Claude NOUGARO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind