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“ I give you all my differences, all these faults which are so many opportunities “. For almost 40 years, these cult words have entered the collective memory. This hymn to tolerance that is “I give you” has also become one of the most essential pieces in the repertoire of Jean-Jacques Goldman, also sealing his friendship with Michael Jones. For a new issue of the Purecharts “Face A” podcast, the Welsh guitarist tells us about the birth of this legendary hit. After meeting Jean-Jacques Goldman within the Thaï Phong group (“ immediate love at first sight ), the musician became one of his close friends. It was thus logical that in 1985, Goldman suggested that he record a duet: “ He brought me the model with its text and he said to me: “This tells our story, so you have to sing your part in English. And you have to write the text”. I wrote the text in English which tells our story in the British version and he tells it in the French version. And it turns out it spoke to a lot of people “.
“It’s not a song against racism”
This humanist title, between French and English, became an immediate success. Released as a single in October 1985, in the wake of “Je marche Seul”, “Je te donne” quite simply became the biggest success of the career of Jean-Jacques Goldman, with 1.1 million copies sold and eight weeks spent at the top of the Top 50. If the song was inspired by the rise of the National Front in the early 1980s, it is by no means of a song against racism, as many people may have believed. “ The song is about our lives, about the fact that two people from completely different backgrounds, from different countries, from different cultures can meet and move forward together. It was in the middle of “Touche pas à mon pote” and people thought it was a song against racism. No way ! It’s for crossbreeding » specifies Michael Jones.
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“That it became a success, I was the first to be surprised”
For the guitarist who had been in the shadows until then, the spotlight immediately focused on him. At our microphone, he assures that he did not have a bad experience with this sudden success: “ I found myself in a situation where without having received any money from the sale of records or anything, the bankers said yes to everything. On the other hand, I could no longer take my children to school or go shopping at the supermarket. “. Michael Jones himself is the first to be surprised that this title worked so well: “ When we wrote the lyrics, it was just a great song. That it became a success, I was the first to be surprised. I got carried away by the wave without really understanding why “.
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After this hit, the collaboration between Jean-Jacques Goldman and Michael Jones continued with great strength, peaking in the 90s with the trio Fredericks Goldman Jones, behind the huge successes “A nos acts missed” and “Born in 17 in Leidenstadt”. “ It’s easy to work with Jean-Jacques in general. He is a very good musician and he is an exceptional artist. So he knows what he wants and he knows how to ask for it. He also knows how to give free rein to the ideas of others. And it’s a unifier of good ideas » smiles the artist at our microphone, always ready to talk about his friend who has now retired from the media: “ It’s always a pleasure. Singing any song by Jean-Jacques is always a pleasure. And that’s why I continue “.
