A long time ago ( well, earlier in this blog ) I said I would explain more about my petite obsession with the Maestro ( otherwise known as the Conductor of the Masses, or more simply as Jean Michel Jarre ) ..... well, perhaps it is time ....
This is the image that really started it off .... the cover of "Revolutions" (from 1988). I had heard of Jean Michel before this - I recall some of the boys @ school being into him and remember watching his concert in Houston (Rendez - vous Houston) on television in 1986 . I remember it, at the time, not so much for the music ( which I did enjoy ) or for Jean Michel himself, but for the sheer spectacle of the event (which is something Jean Michel became known for .... his concerts are normally - but not always - huge events ...) . All those lights and fireworks, and having a whole city skyline as a backdrop - it was a concert performed on a mind blowing scale. It really impressed me, but after it finished I didn’t think that much more about it - or about the man behind it all. The next piece of the puzzle came a few years later. I remember looking around Woolworth's one day in '88 with some friends. We were, as usual, looking at the new album releases when my eye was attracted to one cover in particular. A male face was peering out at me; correction - a handsome male face was peering out at me. I took a closer look - the album was ‘ Revolutions ’ . There was something about his picture on the cover that attracted me - his eyes seemed to be looking straight at me, almost into me ( I still didn’t buy the album though ). A few weeks later, I was at home when bigbrother came bounding into my room and said he had bought a new tape, and that I should have a listen. I did, and found I quite liked this ‘ mystery ’ tape - it was different, the music almost classical at one point, yet another track had a very ethnic feel to it. I asked him what it was ( he wouldn’t let me see the tape ), and he produced its case, with a picture I recognised from Woolworth's a few weeks earlier - yes, it was Revolutions. ( So it seemed I like his music just as much as his face ! ). Bigbrother allowed me to make a copy of the album for myself , and it was from this point my interest in Jean Michel and his music started to grow.
Thinking about it now, it is hard to explain just what it is I like about Jean Michel's music ... I've been listening to it for so long now, it is hard to recall a time when it wasn't part of the soundscape of my life. Looking back with hindsight, I had been listening to, and liking, the Maestro's music even before I realised it .... through cheap covers cassettes sold on market stalls I listened to during my childhood. I grew up in the 80's, so I was surrounded by bands playing synths / electronic music, so it wasn't just that element of it. It is not about the style or genre of music he creates either - his music covers everything from minimal ethereal synth doodles to bombastic semi-orchestral epics to world fusion to dance. There is just something about it, an 'X' factor, that connects with me in a way no other music does .... like a key that unlocks a hidden, secret part of me, a key to the gate to my emotions. That may sound over the top to some ( and it might be ) , but that is what I feel. I'm not that interested in the technological side of the music - which instruments he used , how he created the sounds .... I'm more involved in how it makes me feel, about emotions it evokes, about the ideas and concepts behind it rather than in what machine made which noise.
As for Jean Michel himself .... well, lets just say I don't exactly find him ugly..... LOL. As the photos accompanying this post show, he is a very handsome, as well as creative ( he also paints ), intelligent ( degrees in French and English Literature from the Sorbonne ) and talented man ... ( what can I say .... I'm only human ;-) ). I mentioned in an earlier post I am fascinated by peoples eyes ... how you can watch someone grow older, but their eyes stay the same ... so it is with Jean Michel. After all, it was his eyes that attracted me in the first place, on the Revolution cover ..... . Despite his change of hair style, of the style of clothes he wears, of the passing years ... his eyes and gaze stay (almost) the same to me. My head tells me that it is probably now down to clever lighting, or make up, or the photos being "enhanced", but I don't really care .... they still have the power to stop me in my tracks at times. At heart, if you look into my eyes, behind them I am still the naive 17 year old who looked at that cover in Woolworths .... and always will be.
In the movie Forrest Gump the lead character says that " Life is like a box of chocolates " ... my interest in the Maestro and his work is some what like that. How ? ..... well, look at it this way - think about a big box of the finest Belgian (or in this case, French ) chocolates. These chocolates are packaged in the most beautiful, eye-catching, exquisite box and wrapping. The thing is, the packaging can be as eye-catching as it could possible be to attract me to the chocolates, but unless I like the contents - i.e.: the chocolates - then I'm not going to buy them. So it is with Jean Michel and his music ..... yes, I do find him attractive ( still ), but that is just the packaging .... the thing that has kept me interested in him over the past 18 or so years is the music and the ideas behind it...... and it will be that that continues to keep me interested for years to come ... ( His continued good looks are just an added bonus....... ;-) )
