Mostly shunned by television and radio, he has built through word of mouth and frequent touring a considerable following over the years, which allowed him to fill the 17,000-seater Palais Omnisport de Bercy for an anniversary concert in 1998. In recent years he has been increasingly name-dropped as an influence by the latest generation of performers in France, and was the subject of a tribute album of covers in 2002. He has been performing since the late 1960s and releasing records since 1978.
His parents sent him to a catholic boarding school. He spent few years there, where being singled out by his schoolmates started to be interested in great poets (such as Rimbaud) and writers. The catholic education he received will leave its mark on him. He became nonconformist; he wrote blasphemous lyrics, such as "Au nom du Pere, au nom du vice, au nom des rades et des mégots" (In the name of the Father, in the name of vice, in the name of the cafés and the (cigarette) butts), made biblical and latin references in "Femme de Loth" and many others. Musically, H-FT draws mostly from classic rock, with rare nods to the latest musical trends, and generally leaves the arranging to a collaborator. But his songs are most notable for instantly recognisable lyrics, with their trademarks streams of consciousness, surreal and often extreme or dark imagery, often tinged with comedy, cynicism, literary references, neologisms and liberal use of scientific, long or foreign words. The lyrical mayhem sometimes spreads into comically long song titles, such as Enfermé dans les cabinets (avec la fille mineure des 80 chasseurs), or Exercice de simple provocation avec 33 fois le mot « coupable ».
His avowed influences include Léo Ferré, Lou Reed, and many French, Anglo-saxon and German novelists and poets, with a preference for romantic litterature.
Discography
* 1978 - Tout corps vivant branché sur le secteur étant appelé à s'émouvoir
* 1979 - Autorisation de délirer
* 1980 - De l'amour, de l'art ou du cochon
* 1981 - Dernières balises (avant mutation)
* 1982 - Soleil cherche futur
* 1983 - En concert - live (double album)
* 1984 - Alambic/sortie-sud
* 1986 - En concert vol.2 - live
* 1986 - Météo für nada
* 1988 - Eros über alles
* 1988 - 1978-1983 - compilation
* 1988 - Routes 88 - live
* 1989 - 1984-1988 - compilation
* 1990 - Chroniques bluesymentales
* 1993 - Fragments d'hébétude
* 1995 - Paris-Zénith - live (double album)
* 1996 - La tentation du bonheur
* 1998 - Le bonheur de la tentation
* 1998 - 1978-1998 - compilation
* 1999 - En Concert A Bercy - live (double album)
* 2001 - Défloration 13
* 2002 - Au Bataclan - live
* 2005 - Scandale mélancolique
Redescente Climatisée
Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Et tu pleures en essuyant ses yeux figés.
Combien de mutants ayant rêvé ton numéro
Se sont perdus croyant l'avoir trouvé ?
Petite sœur-soleil au bout du quai désert,
Petite gosse fugitive accrochée dans mes nerfs...
Qui me raccompagnait vers mes "verts paradis".
Dans le dernier écho de ton dernier silence
J'ai gardé pour la route ma haine, ma rage et ma connerie.
Un vieux soleil glacé retraverse la nuit
Et c'est le long retour au point zéro.
La dernière étincelle a grillé mes circuits
Et soudain j'ai si froid dans ma peau...
Petite sœur-soleil au bout du quai désert
Petite sœur fugitive accrochée dans mes nerfs...
Maintenant je t'imagine dans un hôtel-garage,
Essayant de marquer des points sur ta machine.
Tes amants déglingués s'accrochent à tes mirages.
Moi je suis en exil ton consul ivre mort, bavant sur ta benzine.
The song Redescente Climatisée by Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine is a melancholic reflection on the alienation, loneliness, and nostalgia that often accompany the experience of transition and change. The opening lines of the song evoke a sense of desperation and confusion, as the singer observes yet another lost soul wandering the streets of the ghetto, while himself struggling to confront his own sense of displacement and disillusionment. Thiéfaine captures the tension between hope and despair, as he acknowledges the allure of the unknown and the fantasy of salvation that draws many towards the illusions of escape and transcendence.
The lyrics also speak to themes of memory and loss, as the singer reflects on his past and imagines his future, even as he is consumed by his present sense of despair. The image of the "petite sœur-soleil" at the end of the deserted quay, and the passage about the ambulance and the "verts paradis" suggest a sense of longing and regret, as the singer grapples with the inevitability of his own mortality and the impermanence of all things. The final lines of the song, in which the singer imagines his lost love in a seedy motel, surrounded by broken men and chasing after illusions, add further layers of complexity to the song's meditation on the human condition.
Overall, Redescente Climatisée is a poignant and powerful rumination on the pain and beauty of being alive, and Thiéfaine's lyrics offer a profound and poetic consideration of the existential questions that haunt us all.
Line by Line Meaning
Un autre paumé descend les rues de ton ghetto
Another lost person walks the streets of your neighborhood
Et tu pleures en essuyant ses yeux figés.
And you cry while wiping their fixed eyes
Combien de mutants ayant rêvé ton numéro
How many mutants dreamed of your number
Se sont perdus croyant l'avoir trouvé ?
Have they become lost believing they found it?
Petite sœur-soleil au bout du quai désert,
Little sister-sun at the end of the deserted dock,
Petite gosse fugitive accrochée dans mes nerfs...
Little runaway girl attached to my nerves...
Je t'ai rêvée ce soir au fond d'une ambulance
I dreamed of you tonight in the back of an ambulance
Qui me raccompagnait vers mes "verts paradis".
That was taking me back to my green paradise
Dans le dernier écho de ton dernier silence
In the final echoes of your last silence
J'ai gardé pour la route ma haine, ma rage et ma connerie.
I kept my hatred, my rage and my idiocy for the road.
Un vieux soleil glacé retraverse la nuit
An old frozen sun crosses the night again
Et c'est le long retour au point zéro.
And it's the long journey back to zero
La dernière étincelle a grillé mes circuits
The last spark fried my circuits
Et soudain j'ai si froid dans ma peau...
And suddenly I'm so cold in my skin...
Petite sœur-soleil au bout du quai désert
Little sister-sun at the end of the deserted dock
Petite sœur fugitive accrochée dans mes nerfs...
Little runaway sister attached to my nerves...
Maintenant je t'imagine dans un hôtel-garage,
Now I imagine you in a hotel garage,
Essayant de marquer des points sur ta machine.
Trying to score points on your machine.
Tes amants déglingués s'accrochent à tes mirages.
Your broken lovers cling to your illusions.
Moi je suis en exil ton consul ivre mort, bavant sur ta benzine.
I'm in exile, your drunk dead consul, drooling over your gasoline.
Contributed by Adeline P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.