Of course, when we Anglo-Saxons watch a French rock-‘n’-roll performance, our usual reaction is that nothing can really be more awkwardly, tellingly French than French rock. Canadians who grew up with MusiquePlus know that francophones—whether French, Canadian, or from overseas France—can make pop music of the highest quality and assuredness. Hallyday was a really electric performer, a man raised in cabarets who knew every trick of stagecraft that has ever been. If you read his history you get the sense that he was, at times, operating a sort of exclusive French franchise for rock music. The strange life of Johnny Hallyday, French hero, French secret, reminds us.

Source: National Post December 06, 2017 14:15 UTC