Jean-Louis Murat

Jean-Louis Bergheaud was born in Chamalières, France to a father who was a carpenter and a non-professional musician. Further to his parents' divorce, he spent his whole youth in the isolated farm of his grandparents in Murat-le-Quaire, a village overviewing the thermal city of La Bourboule. From his earliest days, solitary and introverted, Jean-Louis Murat showed he was gifted in music and with many instruments, which will lead him to the local wind section at the age of 7 with his father, then to the conservatory brass class where he will improve his talent for singing too. At the same time at 15, his English teacher let him discover soul and jazz music and he met several blues artists such as John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker or Memphis Slim. Thanks to his English teacher, he continued studying against his father's advice. Keen on poetry as well as romantic and upheaval literature amongst others, Oscar Wilde, André Gide, D. H. Lawrence and Vladimir Nabokov, he was the first member of his family to pass the Baccalauréat. Married at the age of 17, he joined the University of Clermont-Ferrand for a short period of time; he had a son and divorced when he was 19 and left in order to travel, living by doing odd jobs in France and around Europe all by himself, in the style of Jack Kerouac. He held a couple of positions between Paris and several French tourist spots; he was ski instructor in Avoriaz and a beach attendant in Saint-Tropez, and he finally went back to his village in 1977 at the age of 23 and devoted himself to music.

With some Clermontois' friends from Clermont-Ferrand, he created a rock band called "Clara" with him as lead singer and songwriter. He also played saxophone and guitar in the band. William Sheller noticed them and invited them to do a couple of his opening acts and then employed them as musicians for a while. The band split and thanks to William Sheller, Jean-Louis Berghaud at the age of 27, in 1981 (under the name of Murat) he recorded a 45 rpm record including 3 songs, called Suicidez-vous, Le Peuple est mort with Pathé Marconi EMI, with Jean-Baptiste Mondino's photo as cover of the sleeve; critiques were positive but the sales did not take off. The French radio station Europe 1 censored the song since a girl was said to commit suicide because of it. A mini eponymous album followed in 1982 including six songs, under the name of Murat and an album in 1984 called Passions Pivées garnered very low sales (2,000 copies), and after a tour with Charlélie Couture, his record label withdrew the contract. At the time he was around thirty.

In 1985, Jean-Louis Murat did some recording with CBS but none of the discs came out, then the year after, he jumped on the opportunity to record at Virgin Records and in 1988, the 45 rpm record Si je devais manquer de toi came out. This one met with some success, allowing the singer to start being recognized at last. His success was confirmed by the sales of his new album which came out in 1989, called Cheyenne Autumn. It was recorded in London and included other singles which were also successful (L'Ange Déchu; Te Garder Près de Moi). ...

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