Message Personnel (Personal Message)
“Message Personnel” was written in 1973 by Hardy and her producer Michel Berger for her 14th album of the same name. Her child Thomas with Jacques DuTronc was born that same year. The song marked a renewal of her career after her “yé-yé” years and some off time on retreat. This was her first collaboration with Berger at WEA Records (Warner Elektra Atlantic) and it marked a significant transition for her from “auteure/compositeure” to “interprète.”
The song itself includes a remarkable transition. It has two parts--a spoken part and a sung part. Hardy chose the title of the song and wrote and spoke the words in the first part while Berger wrote the music and the lyrics for Hardy to sing in the second part. The song presents a woman in turmoil but also in a process of change. It is especially touching to realize that the words in the spoken part are a perfect depiction of Ms. Hardy’s own personality. She was famously shy, a fact that she attributes to early family circumstances and that led her after 1968 to discontinue live performances that caused high anxiety.
The full nature of the relationship between the parties in the song is unclear. The first, spoken part exhibits the challenges of intimate communication because of fears and vulnerabilities that encourage reticence and inhibit authenticity, with consequent feelings of longing and incompleteness. The first part consists of one long stanza of lines without rhyme where the speaker demonstrates reticence, inhibition and indecision. She is unable to speak words that she wants to speak because of uncertainty how the other will respond. She is a bundle of uncertainties, contradictions and conditionals: “je veux, je ne peux pas” (repeated twice); “j’arrive…je n’arriverez pas;” “je devrais…je devrais…je devrais;” “je voudrais…je voudrais.” Significantly, about three quarters through the spoken part the speaker assays a transition from the formal “vous” to the familiar “tu” personal pronoun, suggesting a tentative erosion of fear and a growing intimacy.
The speaking proceeds over an increasing crescendo of the background melody and then breaks suddenly and dramatically in the second part into song with an accompanying shift in the tenor of the narrative. There is a pregnant pause between the last words of the spoken part (“Je ne peux pas vous dire que je t'aime peut-être”) and the first line of the sung part (“Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes”) as well as a musical demarcation between the two parts. In that last line of the first part, she hedges, combining the familiar “je t’aime” with the dangling qualification “peut-être.”
In the second sung part, Berger projects Hardy as a different woman with decisive ideas. It has 6 complete stanzas that shift to an assertive and invitational tone along with a more urgent background melody. The recurrent refrain “Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m’aimes” (“Just in case one day you think you love me”) opens 4 of the 6 stanzas as a tentative but highly suggestive hypothetical. The same refrain begins the final stanza as: “mais si tu….” (“but if you…”) but fades out, leaving to one's imagination the words that might follow. She cites a range of hypothetical circumstances when he should turn to her, not only “si tu crois un jour que tu m’aimes” but also if inflicted by “le dégoût de la vie…la paresse de la vie” or “de la peine à trouver où tous ces chemins te mènent.” Each of those 6 stanzas ends with an assertive final line and a specific solution: “Viens me retrouver” (4 times) or “Pense a moi”) (2 times) or “cours jusqu'à perdre haleine” (2 times).
So, the narrative moves from initial trepidation, confusion and hesitancy in the spoken part to a confident enumeration of circumstances when he should turn to her and several specific courses of action that he can take. Altogether, the second part represents a powerful persuasive statement, buttressed by a strong rhyming strategy where most words rhyme in each of the 6 stanzas.
“Message Personnel” was written in 1973 by Hardy and her producer Michel Berger for her 14th album of the same name. Her child Thomas with Jacques DuTronc was born that same year. The song marked a renewal of her career after her “yé-yé” years and some off time on retreat. This was her first collaboration with Berger at WEA Records (Warner Elektra Atlantic) and it marked a significant transition for her from “auteure/compositeure” to “interprète.”
The song itself includes a remarkable transition. It has two parts--a spoken part and a sung part. Hardy chose the title of the song and wrote and spoke the words in the first part while Berger wrote the music and the lyrics for Hardy to sing in the second part. The song presents a woman in turmoil but also in a process of change. It is especially touching to realize that the words in the spoken part are a perfect depiction of Ms. Hardy’s own personality. She was famously shy, a fact that she attributes to early family circumstances and that led her after 1968 to discontinue live performances that caused high anxiety.
The full nature of the relationship between the parties in the song is unclear. The first, spoken part exhibits the challenges of intimate communication because of fears and vulnerabilities that encourage reticence and inhibit authenticity, with consequent feelings of longing and incompleteness. The first part consists of one long stanza of lines without rhyme where the speaker demonstrates reticence, inhibition and indecision. She is unable to speak words that she wants to speak because of uncertainty how the other will respond. She is a bundle of uncertainties, contradictions and conditionals: “je veux, je ne peux pas” (repeated twice); “j’arrive…je n’arriverez pas;” “je devrais…je devrais…je devrais;” “je voudrais…je voudrais.” Significantly, about three quarters through the spoken part the speaker assays a transition from the formal “vous” to the familiar “tu” personal pronoun, suggesting a tentative erosion of fear and a growing intimacy.
The speaking proceeds over an increasing crescendo of the background melody and then breaks suddenly and dramatically in the second part into song with an accompanying shift in the tenor of the narrative. There is a pregnant pause between the last words of the spoken part (“Je ne peux pas vous dire que je t'aime peut-être”) and the first line of the sung part (“Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes”) as well as a musical demarcation between the two parts. In that last line of the first part, she hedges, combining the familiar “je t’aime” with the dangling qualification “peut-être.”
In the second sung part, Berger projects Hardy as a different woman with decisive ideas. It has 6 complete stanzas that shift to an assertive and invitational tone along with a more urgent background melody. The recurrent refrain “Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m’aimes” (“Just in case one day you think you love me”) opens 4 of the 6 stanzas as a tentative but highly suggestive hypothetical. The same refrain begins the final stanza as: “mais si tu….” (“but if you…”) but fades out, leaving to one's imagination the words that might follow. She cites a range of hypothetical circumstances when he should turn to her, not only “si tu crois un jour que tu m’aimes” but also if inflicted by “le dégoût de la vie…la paresse de la vie” or “de la peine à trouver où tous ces chemins te mènent.” Each of those 6 stanzas ends with an assertive final line and a specific solution: “Viens me retrouver” (4 times) or “Pense a moi”) (2 times) or “cours jusqu'à perdre haleine” (2 times).
So, the narrative moves from initial trepidation, confusion and hesitancy in the spoken part to a confident enumeration of circumstances when he should turn to her and several specific courses of action that he can take. Altogether, the second part represents a powerful persuasive statement, buttressed by a strong rhyming strategy where most words rhyme in each of the 6 stanzas.
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(Parlé)
Au bout du téléphone, il y a votre voix Et il y a des mots que je ne dirai pas. Tous ces mots qui font peur quand ils ne font pas rire, Qui sont dans trop de films, de chansons et de livres. Je voudrais vous les dire Et je voudrais les vivre. Je ne le ferai pas, Je veux, je ne peux pas. Je suis seule à crever, et je sais où vous êtes. J'arrive, attendez-moi, nous allons nous connaître. Préparez votre temps, pour vous j'ai tout le mien. Je voudrais arriver, je reste, je me déteste. Je n'arriverai pas, Je veux, je ne peux pas. Je devrais vous parler, Je devrais arriver Ou je devrais dormir. J'ai peur que tu sois sourd. J'ai peur que tu sois lâche. J'ai peur d'être indiscrète. Je ne peux pas vous dire que je t'aime peut-être. (Chanté) Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes, Ne crois pas que tes souvenirs me gênent Et cours, cours jusqu'à perdre haleine Viens me retrouver. Si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes Et si ce jour-là tu as de la peine À trouver où tous ces chemins te mènent, Viens me retrouver. Si le dégoût de la vie vient en toi, Si la paresse de la vie s'installe en toi, Pense à moi, Pense à moi. Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes, Ne le considère pas comme un problème Et cours, cours jusqu'à perdre haleine, Viens me retrouver. Si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes N’attends pas un jour, pas une semaine Car tu ne sais pas où la vie t’amène Viens me retrouver Si le dégoût de la vie vient en toi, Si la paresse de la vie s'installe en toi, Pense à moi, Pense à moi. Mais si tu... |
(Spoken)
At the end of the phone, there's your voice And there are words I won't say All the words that frighten when they don't make us laugh, That are in too many films, songs and books. I'd like to say them to you And I'd like to live them. I won't do it, I wish, I cannot. I'm alone to suffer, and I know where you are. I am coming, wait for me, we'll get to know each other Prepare your time, for you I have all mine. I'd like to arrive, I stay, I hate myself I won't arrive, I wish, I cannot I should talk to you, I should arrive Or I should sleep. I'm afraid you'd be deaf. I'm afraid you'd be afraid. I'm afraid I'd be indiscreet. I can't tell you that I love you maybe. (Sung) But if you think one day that you love me Don't think that your memories bother me And run, run till out of breath Come find me. And if you believe one day that you love me And if that day you have trouble Finding where all these roads lead you, Come find me If distaste for life comes to you If tiredness with life sets into you, Think of me, Think of me. But if you think one day that you love me Don't see it as a problem And run, run till out of breath, Come find me. If you think one day that you love me Don’t wait a day, not a weekl Because you don’t know where life takes you Come find me If distaste for life comes to you If tiredness with life sets into you Think of me Think of me. But if you... |
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