(Brussels) Belgian singer and composer Lou Deprijck, who claimed authorship of the success Ça plan pour moi by Plastic Bertrand, died at the age of 77, his partner announced on Tuesday.
This punk-sounding success has been covered numerous times, notably by the American rock groups Sonic Youth and Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2006 the Coca-Cola brand chose it for an advertising campaign in Southeast Asia.
“My darling, my man… I accompanied you until your last breath as you wanted… You will be my one and last love,” wrote Vanessa Vanderkimpen, herself an artist, on Facebook, specializing in Michael impersonations Jackson.
Lou Deprijck, born in 1946 in Lessines, French-speaking Belgium, was a figure in Brussels nightlife and parties in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was a friend in particular of Grand Jojo, who sang On a soif, and of the filmmaker Jan Bucquoy (The Sexual Life of the Belgians), willingly provocative artists like him, presenting themselves as the heirs of surrealism.
Lou Deprijck took over his “underpants museum”, originally opened in the center of Brussels, from Jan Bucquoy to install his collections of underwear that belonged to celebrities in his house in Lessines.
Singer, composer, producer – he produced Viktor Lazlo at the end of the 1980s – Deprijck’s name remains above all associated with the legal saga surrounding Ça plane pour moi, a success released at the end of 1977 and quickly became a global phenomenon.
In 2010, based on an expert report requested by a Belgian court, Lou Deprijck claimed to be himself the interpreter of the song (which he composed) and not Plastic Bertrand.
The report, underlined Mr. Deprijck, “reveals that with the endings of sentences noted on the tapes, we can only attribute the voice to a Ch’ti or a Picard.”
For his part, Plastic Bertrand, whose real name is Roger Jouret, who is now 69 years old, has always opposed this in two Brussels judgments, at first instance and on appeal in 2006, designating him as the legal interpreter of the song.
In its repertoire of works, Sacem (French society of authors, composers and music publishers) presents him as the “performer” of the success, Francis “Lou” Deprijck being the composer and Yves Lacomblez the author.
