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Most of the time, the algorithms rinse only the obvious or any garbage on our end devices. But sometimes something extraordinary happens with your help. A few days ago I was offered a appearance by Patrick Hernandez on Italian television. The excerpt from a show for the broadcaster in the Arena of Verona, a Roman amphitheater, was shown in which there is space for 20,000 spectators. On October 1, 2022, she is full of the brim with a well -mood audience.
And after a few seconds I thought: How could I ever forget Patrick Hernandez and his only hit “Born to be alive”? I loved this energetic disco song from the first moment, and I remember exactly how I heard it on the program “Disco” with Ilja Richter for the first time and saw: I couldn’t understand the English text at the time.
But the over-emphasized “Born” with the stretched “O” fascinated me as well as the pounding beat, the strings, the brass, the windows, the women’s choir, the claps, the piano accents and the flashy guitar chord at minute 2:31 and 2:53. Patrick Hernandez (in the white suit) radiated a ghostly nonchalance. And a subversive aggression also resolved in its performance. Maybe this also has to do with the walking stick. He is Hernandez ‘trademark, without which he does not perform.
Perhaps “Born to be alive” is the last almost desperate outcry of the disco era and its hedonistic utopia
I only understood the relation to “A Clockwork Orange” much later. Alex and his droogs are also armed with walking sticks. I would trust this meta level from today’s perspective. After all, the walking stick has not only been seen as a status symbol since the 19th century, but also as a weapon for self -defense. We were born to be alive ”. Perhaps“ Born to be alive ”is the last almost desperate outcry of the disco era and its hedonistic utopia.
“People Asked Me Why I Never / Find a Place to Stop and Settle / Down, Down, Down / But I Never Wanted All Those Things / People Need to Justif Their Lives, Lives, Live”. Patrick Hernandez was born in 1949 as the son of a Spaniard and an Italian in France. He played in a rock band in the 1960s and 1970s and was a studio musician. He wrote “Born to Be Alive” as a rock song in 1973 before publishing him in his current form in 1978. The song became a world success and is still. Hernandez never made a connection hit. But still seems to me that Hernandez is not one of the tragic one-hit Wonder artists.
Hernandez is in harmony with itself
And with that I come back to the beginning, to the appearance in the huge amphitheater in Verona: Hernandez wears a strange mix of training jacket and jacket with the inscription “Team Crusades”; In addition, an orange scarf, jeans in another orange tone, a black T-shirt, chain, sunglasses and gray slippers. In one hand he wears a microphone, in the other, as always with appearances, a walking stick. Something happens with full playback performance; It has nothing sad in itself how the aged star moves his lips and body to his young voice.
Hernandez is in harmony with itself and the positive liveliness is transferred to the audience from the first moment. I have rarely seen something nicer. Afterwards I looked at other Hernandez live appearances. They are all fantastic. And of course he always performs the same song. 2008: Hernandez is equipped with a white tie and slide cap. He sings “Born to be alive” in a duet with Lorie Pester. 2021: This time we experience live singing. Hernandez appears in black skirt and melon. Maybe the walking stick is more of a Charlie-Chaplin quote?
2023: Hernandez plays “Born to be alive” at a gigantic New Year’s Eve Open Air in Paris. He wears a melon again, but pants instead of the skirt. 2024: Patrick Hernandez is dressed in a pop art clash. The list could be continued for a long time. It is best to click through yourself. To your own joy. In an interview from 2012, Hernandez claims that the song “Born to Be Alive” will give him royalties of around € 800 per day. He lives in a house in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in France. Of course with an integrated recording studio and swimming pool. It was granted to him. Patrick Hernandez is 75 years old. I wish him a long life!
This column first appeared in the music express edition 5/2025.