Les Cactus - Jacques Dutronc (1967)
Blast from the Past highlights Dutronc's exploration of cacti, realizes the world is like a cactus, and says Aïe aïe aïe!
The whole world is a cactus. Ouch!
Those cacti are everywhere. Another way to say it is you might get burned. Spurned. Stabbed in the back by betrayal and things that might seem tame enough. Ouch!
April is a cactus. 2025 is a cactus. What exactly isn’t a cactus?
I want to sit down. Who wouldn’t? Maybe at a table on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, but ouch! as soon as I do I have to order something from the menu and it's going to be expensive.
Aïe aïe aïe!
Cactus money, cactus hearts, cactus smiles, cactus hellos. Watch out!
Le monde entier est un cactus
Il est impossible de s'assoir
According to music critic Mark Deming: "Dutronc's early hits were rough but clever exercises in European garage rock ... like Dutronc's role models Bob Dylan and Ray Davies, he could write melodies strong enough to work even without their excellent lyrics, and his band had more than enough energy to make them fly (and the imagination to move with the musical times as psychedelia and hard rock entered the picture at the end of the decade)".1
How can we protect ourselves from so many potential cacti? At least they don’t need watering. They have staying power. Lurking in a smile there is a cactus.
Dans leurs sourires, il y a des cactus
Dans leurs ventres, il y a des cactus
Dans leurs bonjours, il y a des cactus
Dans leurs cactus, il y a des cactus
Aïe aïe aïe!
Ouille!
Aïe!
Jacques Dutronc "Les cactus"
Deming, Mark. "Et Moi et Moi et Moi: Jacques Dutronc 1966–69". All Music Guide.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/et-moi-et-moi-et-moi-jacques-dutronc-1966-69-mw0001314911