Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070009
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
At home in Geneva, he writes music every morning. When he gives concerts - he recently finished a 103-concert stint - all the songs he sings are his, either totally or written in collaboration. Most are romantic or despairing or nostalgic.
Aznavour doesn't feel despairing, nostalgic or too old to sing romantic songs. In his song, ``The Age for Loving,'' he says, ``I explain there is no age limit for being in love.''
Probably his best-known song in America is ``Yesterday When We Were Young,'' which country singer Roy Clark recorded in 1969.
Angel Records released his latest album, ``You and Me,'' in June, while Aznavour gave concerts in the United States.
It isn't difficult to sing the same songs - ``Yesterday When We Were Young,'' ``The Old-Fashioned Way'' (``Les Plaisirs Demodes''), ``Happy Anniversary,'' ``She,'' ``Isobel'' - year after year, Aznavour says.
``Just to be happy to do it, not to complain inside,'' is how he explains continuing to sing with feeling. ``Nobody forces me to work. I work because I want to. I enjoy the stage, oh, yes. It is a space I like.''
Aznavour now stands nearly alone as a French singer of chansons (songs which are part of the French way of life). Maurice Chevalier, Yves Montand, Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Tino Rossi and Jean Sablon all have died. Charles Trenet, 82, and Gilbert Becaud, 67, still perform in France. Younger French singers tend to be in the rock, not chanson, tradition.
He's still popular, he thinks, ``because I haven't tried to do anything else. It was this or nothing. I'm not trying to pretend that I'm something else than I am. The lyrics are very important. The young generation finds through my songs something they heard in their family home before they come to see me.''
Aznavour finished 98 concerts in France in late April, including six weeks in a 4,000-seat theater in Paris, plus three concerts in Switzerland and two in Belgium. His most popular songs in France right now are about youth, he says, ``Yesterday When I Was Young,'' ``La Boheme'' and ``Sa Jeunesse'' (``The Wine of Youth'').
Last month, he appeared in Los Angeles, Miami and New York. In August, he'll give concerts in Canada, Brazil and France. ``Then I'm making a movie for TV, which I do very often,'' he says. ``If our agents agree, I will do a French movie in India. That is not sure yet.'' Aznavour has been in more than 50 films, plus many more TV films.
Becoming a star in other countries after you've made it at home is work, Aznavour says. ``And you have to be very humble. When you open in a new country, no matter what kind of star you are in your country, you have to start over again.''
His first goal, he says, is to be understood by the public. So, he learned English, Italian and Spanish. His first language was Armenian, at home with his family in Paris. His second language was French.
He writes lyrics in French and delights in using unusual words.
``It is my discipline and pleasure; I'm a little crazy for that. When you're a self-made writer and it didn't come from school, I think we're more difficult with ourselves than others.''
He doesn't think his English is good enough to translate his songs into English himself, but he says he drives his translators crazy making them redo rhyming attempts like gone and beyond.
Aznavour enjoys composing even more than singing. ``It is something you can do at home, something you need nobody else to do it. You don't need musicians, lighting people, microphone people.
``When I'm home, I write every day, bad or good. You can't write good every day. Sometimes you feel, `This is great.' The day after, you think, `It's awful.' I don't fix it. I start another one. You can keep the idea. You have to do it all over again.''
Aznavour started singing and acting as a child to help support his family, who ran an Armenian restaurant in Paris. He shortened his name from Aznavourian to Aznavour to fit on theater marquees.
He had a hard time getting accepted. Critics didn't think he presented a romantic image and didn't like his songs of despair. Aznavour wrote about despair because, he says, ``I used to see despair around me. I felt it was in books and movies but not in songs. I didn't invent it; I only put it in songs.''
The famous French chanteusse Edith Piaf heard him on the radio when he was 22 and engaged him as an opening act for a tour and to write some songs for her.
His early struggles, the singer says, ``are not important. I made it. I don't think back over my life. The past is not important to me. I'm not somebody who says it was better yesterday.
``I have four children and two grandchildren who live in Fresno, Calif. One of my children married an American. What is important is the future of my kids.''
by CNB