The songwriter whose oeuvre arguably best defines the French nouvelle chanson,
Etienne Roda-Gil was born August 1, 1941, in Montauban, France, the product of a family of Spanish Republicans forced to flee their homeland by the rise of Francisco Franco and his fascist death squads. His father's ardent belief in Communist values and his mother's great love of tango music proved equally formidable forces in the young
Roda-Gil's development, although as a student at Paris' prestigious Henri-IV Lycée he announced his intentions to pursue a career in teaching. In 1959 he was called to serve in the Algerian conflict but refused to fight, seeking refuge in London and spending the next nine years immersing himself in the city's bohemian counterculture.
Roda-Gil returned to Paris in 1968, working odd jobs and haunting a student café, L'Ecritoire, on the Place de la Sorbonne. There he met 20-year-old student and aspiring musician
Julien Clerc, who asked
Roda-Gil to add lyrics to one of his original melodies -- the result was "La Cavallerie," a sardonic protest song that made
Clerc an overnight superstar and emerged as one of the anthems of the 1968 student rebellions. The
Clerc/
Roda-Gil collaboration would become one of the most successful in French pop, generating a series of classic hits including "La Californie," "Ce N'est Rien," "Si On Chantait," "Le Patineur," "This Melody," "Elle Voulait Qu'on l'Appelle Venise," "Ça Fait Pleurer le Bon Dieu," and "Utile." Such was
Clerc's fame that
Roda-Gil became a household name in his own right, and he soon began writing for other performers, including
Mort Shuman's 1972 hit "Lac Majeur" and
Claude François' "Magnolias Forever." Over time his relationship with
Clerc grew strained, as the singer publicly complained that he was tired of fans asking him to explain
Roda-Gil's complex, often polemical lyrics -- ultimately, they did not speak for close to two decades, until
Clerc declared a truce by attending the funeral of
Roda-Gil's wife Nadine in 1997. In the interim
Roda-Gil authored hits including
Angelo Branduardi's 1979 smash "Le Seigneur des Baux" and
Richard Cocciante's 1983 effort "Sincérité" in addition to trying his hand at stage musicals, beginning with 1979's 36 Front Populaire. Off and on for about a dozen years, he also collaborated with
Pink Floyd frontman
Roger Waters on a never-finished rock opera based on the events of the French Revolution that they intended to premiere during the landmark event's 1989 bicentennial. In 1987
Roda-Gil was asked to write for the 14-year-old ingénue
Vanessa Paradis, resulting in the worldwide smash "Joe Le Taxi"; he went on to write her hits "Marilyn et John" and "Maxou." In 1989, he composed Mirador, a full-length album for
Johnny Hallyday, and four years later helmed
Gréco, the comeback album that revitalized the career of
Juliette Gréco after a seven-year absence from the spotlight. A recluse in the final years of his life,
Roda-Gil died of a stroke on May 30, 2004 -- his death was front-page news in France, where even President Jacques Chirac commemorated the passing of a "songwriting genius." ~ Jason Ankeny