"As soon as the wind blows..."
In the early 80s, Renaud felt unsatisfied with the life he was living, and, inspired by the singers Antoine and Jacques Brel, who left to go and live on a sailing boat in French Polynesia, decided to sail around the world with his family (his wife and his daughter, then a baby).
He buit an aluminium sailing boat in the town of La Rochelle with some friends, and lifted the anchor for a few months... I told you he was a dreamer...
Unfortunately, he had never sailed before as he admits at the end of this short documentary, and the voyage did not go as smooth as expected.
He tells with humour and irony the story of his incredible adventures in this great sailors' song he wrote later on.
His boat has been sold to several owners since the 80s and, apparently, still exists nowadays.
I have first put the video of the official audio, then a fantastic live version in an incredible scenery!
The Karaboutjan, the huge model boat presented on the stage of this live version, is a reminder of the Karaboutjan, a boat that appears in one of Tintin's album "The Golden Claws". If you do not know Tintin very well, which is a masterpiece of Belgian graphic novels, please refer to the official website.
Enjoy the video! 😀
I will not propose any translation of this song, as there is a lot of slang, and also Renaud plays a lot with the language, introducing wrong grammatical and syntax forms on purpose (provocation is sometimes part of his style), also in order to make his verses rhyme.
So just enjoy the song, which is full of joy of life, where he tells about his hopes, his dreams of adventures, and finally his desillusions.
