French singer-songwriter. He was born in Châlons-sur-Marne on 24 April 1963… Read Full Bio ↴French singer-songwriter. He was born in Châlons-sur-Marne on 24 April 1963. He's the son of the French caricaturist Cabu. From age 17, Mano Solo played guitar in a punk rock group, les Chihuahuas. He began singing his own compositions in the early nineties. Mixes ska, jazz, java, punk and chanson française.

His first album, La Marmaille Nue, was released in 1993 and sold 100,000 copies in the first year. His second album, Les Années Sombres ("The Dark Years"), a somber album that also went gold in its first months was released in 1995. In 1996, he regrouped with part of the Chihuahuas for the album Frères Misère (Brothers in Misery). Its rhythms are closer to punk, and the texts are more topical than his solo albums. With little media attention, the album failed to meet immediate success.

The release of his next album: Je sais pas trop ("I don't really know") was in 1997. Recorded live and featuring, once again, original melodies and sounds, it was a Gold record in France. Two years later, Mano Solo recorded the double album Internationale Shalala, live at the Tourtour, a little theatre where he played regularly since the beginning of his music career. He sings and plays guitar on the album, accompanied only by another guitarist, Jean-Louis Solans. The songs come from earlier Solo albums, except for Shalala, a hymn of "inner revolution" that the artist sang together with his audience at the end of every concert, with a positive and dynamic message.

His second live album, La Marche (The Walk), was released in 2002. It consists mostly of songs from the album Dehors ("Outside"), released earlier (August 2000). With the album comes a DVD featuring photos and videos from concerts, and CG animations from Mano Solo's imagination.

In 2004, Les animals was released. As with other Solo albums the sound was new, the lyrics contained much poetic language, and the songs were performed energetically. Some titles were new recordings of old songs. The song Botzaris, recorded with Les Têtes Raides, was featured on the album. Solo appeared on two tracks on the album Dans le caillou by Karpatt.

Solo had been HIV positive for years secondary to his youthful drug use. He was rushed to hospital after a concert in Paris on 12 November 2009. There he died at the age of 46 on 10 January 2010, due to his illness. He is buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

tango
Mano Solo Lyrics

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Faut voir comment qu'on tronçonne les rêves
C'est de la vraie boucherie
Et t'as l'espoir qui coule là puis qui se répand
Sur un carrelage tout blanc
A la morgue du désir, au cimetière d'un fil
Et je retrouve le vent d'hiver et je retrouve la pluie d'hier

Pour le prochain coup je suis pas sûr de tenir debout

Je suis pas sûr d'être encore assez vivant
Va peut être falloir que je m'arrête là maintenant
Que je remette sur mon dos voûté ma défroque de givre
Et mon cœur en parpaing
En parpaing ça rime avec ne pars pas

Va encore falloir se rogner une patte
Et ramper dans un autre monde
Dans d'autres mâchoires à broyer les histoires
C'est pas une vie la sécheresse en hiver
Toute cette peau sur des hectares que seul le vent glacé
Vient durcir jusqu'à craquer
C'est pas une vie la sécheresse en hiver

Même si c'en a tout l'air
C'est pas une vie.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Mano Solo's song Tango in 2-3 describe the harsh reality of how dreams are crushed and hope is lost. The metaphor of dreams being chopped up like meat in a butcher shop adds to the gruesome imagery of the lyrics. When hope is lost, it spills out and covers everything, leaving a morgue-like feeling in its wake. The singer seems to be resigned to this fate, as they talk about how they have already seen the wind and the rain before. They anticipate that the next time reality hits them, they won't be able to stand up against it. They are unsure if they are even alive anymore, and may just have to stop trying entirely.

The second half of the lyrics continues this thread of hopelessness. The singer seems to be warning themselves that they will have to sacrifice something, perhaps even a limb, in order to navigate through this world that seems to be trying to destroy them. They are resigned to the fact that they will have to crawl through this harsh world, where stories are constantly being ground to a pulp. They compare it to the dryness of winter, where everything is tough and hard, and even the skin is hard enough to crack. The singer concludes that this is not a life, even though it may look like it from the outside.

Line by Line Meaning

Faut voir comment qu'on tronçonne les rêves
It's necessary to see how dreams are chopped down

C'est de la vraie boucherie
It's real butchery

Et t'as l'espoir qui coule là puis qui se répand
And hope is dripping and spreading

Sur un carrelage tout blanc
On a completely white tile floor

A la morgue du désir, au cimetière d'un fil
At the morgue of desire, at the cemetery of a wire

Et je retrouve le vent d'hiver et je retrouve la pluie d'hier
And I find again the winter wind and I find again yesterday's rain

Pour le prochain coup je suis pas sûr de tenir debout
For the next time I'm not sure I'll stay on my feet

Je suis pas sûr d'être encore assez vivant
I'm not sure I'm alive enough anymore

Va peut être falloir que je m'arrête là maintenant
Maybe I'll have to stop now

Que je remette sur mon dos voûté ma défroque de givre
That I put back on my hunched back my frosty rags

Et mon cœur en parpaing
And my heart made of cinder blocks