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).
Le Chant Du Desert
Claude Nougaro Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mes vieux chameaux de mots naviguent
Croisant parfois les ossements
D'un poème mort de fatigue
J'ai soif
Bédouin brûlé par l'aveuglant
Je marche, marche, m'ensablant
Un bâillon d'encre sur la bouche
J'ai soif
Il est des bouches oasis
Tout enchantées de phrases fraîches
La mienne suce le supplice
D'une langue qui se dessèche
Pourquoi me suis je, ah là là
Aventuré parmi ces dunes ?
Croyais je y rencontrer Allah,
Son burnous en bure de lune ?
Il m'aurait dit : " Ta soif me plaît
Voici ma gourde d'eau mentale "
Alors j'eusse bu les couplets
D'une chanson fondamentale
Une chanson à l'infini
D'un souffle neuf brisant ces noces
Qui nous font naître dans un nid
Halluciné de becs féroces
Une chanson puisée ailleurs
Qu'à la litanie de nos plaintes
Mêlée aux hymnes fossoyeurs
Dans le poumon des guerres saintes
Une chanson calmant la soif
De nos soifs enfin inondées
Oui qu'une pluie enfin nous coiffe
D'une chevelure d'idées
Idées dictées pour en sortir
De nos mariages et leurs divorces,
De nos bourreaux et leurs martyrs,
De nos contrats et leurs entorses
De nos salam, salamalecs
Au sommet sec de nos puissances
Quand nos enfants claquent du bec
Dans la patrie de l'innocence
J'ai soif, soif
Et me voici là devant vous
Frères humains, but de ma course
Les doigts tendus comme des trous
Vers la lumière d'une source
J'ai soif
Source, chant source
Jaillis, jaillis, jaillis...
The song "Le Chant Du Desert," by Claude Nougaro, is an introspective piece about the struggles of being a writer and the search for inspiration. The first stanza sets the scene in a "desert of white paper," where the writer's words are like old camels navigating the page. The imagery of the desert is continued throughout the song, as the singer's thirst and exhaustion become a central metaphor for his artistic process.
In the second verse, the singer compares himself to a burnt Bedouin, walking through a dry shower of neon lights, carrying a gag of ink in his mouth. He describes the oasis of fresh phrases, where the tongue can be refreshed, and wonders why he has ventured into these dunes to seek Allah, who might offer a mental water gourd. This is where the chorus "j'ai soif," meaning "I thirst," is repeated, emphasizing the metaphorical thirst for inspiration.
The third verse is the most hopeful, as Nougaro describes the kind of song he wants to create. It is not just a song, but a "fundamental song" that breaks the tradition of melancholic hymns and fills us with a "hair of ideas." It's a song that takes us away from marriages and divorces, struggles and martyrs, and lifts us up to a higher state of being. The song ends with the singer reaching out to his audience for that source of inspiration, with his fingers outstretched like holes in the light.
Overall, the song is a poignant and reflective piece about the creative process, the self-doubt and exhaustion that comes with it, and the never-ending search for inspiration.
Line by Line Meaning
Dans le désert du papier blanc
In the emptiness of a blank page,
Mes vieux chameaux de mots naviguent
My old camels of words roam,
Croisant parfois les ossements
Occasionally crossing bones,
D'un poème mort de fatigue
Of a poem that died from exhaustion.
J'ai soif
I am thirsty.
Bédouin brûlé par l'aveuglant
Bedouin burned by the blinding,
Néon d'un néant, sèche douche
Neon light of nothingness, dry shower,
Je marche, marche, m'ensablant
I walk, walk and sink into the sand,
Un bâillon d'encre sur la bouche
With a gag of ink in my mouth.
Il est des bouches oasis
There are oases of mouths,
Tout enchantées de phrases fraîches
All enchanted with fresh phrases,
La mienne suce le supplice
Mine sucks the agony,
D'une langue qui se dessèche
Of a language that is drying up.
Pourquoi me suis je, ah là là
Why did I venture there, oh my,
Aventuré parmi ces dunes ?
Venture amongst these dunes?
Croyais je y rencontrer Allah,
Did I believe I would meet Allah there,
Son burnous en bure de lune ?
In his burnous of moon-dyed cloth?
Il m'aurait dit : " Ta soif me plaît
He would have said to me, "I like your thirst
Voici ma gourde d'eau mentale "
Here is my mental water flask."
Alors j'eusse bu les couplets
Then I would have drunk the verses,
D'une chanson fondamentale
Of a fundamental song.
Une chanson à l'infini
A song that is infinite,
D'un souffle neuf brisant ces noces
With a new breath shattering the wedding,
Qui nous font naître dans un nid
That births us in a nest,
Halluciné de becs féroces
Hallucinating with ferocious beaks.
Une chanson puisée ailleurs
A song drawn from somewhere else,
Qu'à la litanie de nos plaintes
Than the litany of our complaints,
Mêlée aux hymnes fossoyeurs
Mixed with the undertaker's hymns,
Dans le poumon des guerres saintes
In the lungs of holy wars.
Une chanson calmant la soif
A song that abates thirst,
De nos soifs enfin inondées
Of our thirsts finally inundated,
Oui qu'une pluie enfin nous coiffe
Yes, a rain finally crowns us
D'une chevelure d'idées
With a hairdo of ideas.
Idées dictées pour en sortir
Ideas dictated to get out of,
De nos mariages et leurs divorces,
Our marriages and their divorces,
De nos bourreaux et leurs martyrs,
Our executioners and their martyrs,
De nos contrats et leurs entorses
Our contracts and their breaches.
De nos salam, salamalecs
Of our salaams and salamaleks,
Au sommet sec de nos puissances
At the dry peak of our power,
Quand nos enfants claquent du bec
When our children snap their beaks,
Dans la patrie de l'innocence
In the homeland of innocence.
J'ai soif, soif
I am thirsty, thirsty.
Et me voici là devant vous
And here I am in front of you,
Frères humains, but de ma course
Human brothers, the goal of my run,
Les doigts tendus comme des trous
Fingers extended like holes,
Vers la lumière d'une source
Towards the light of a source.
J'ai soif
I am thirsty.
Source, chant source
Source, source of song,
Jaillis, jaillis, jaillis...
Gush forth, gush forth, gush forth...
Lyrics © LES EDITIONS DU CHIFFRE NEUF
Written by: Eddy LOUISS, Claude NOUGARO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind