In
June 1989, after having met her public live while going on tour for the
1st time in the Palais des Sports a Paris, Mylene goes back to the
recording studio with Laurent Boutonnat to record two new tracks, A
quoi je sers... (what is my purpose) and La veuve noire (the
dead
widow).
Mylene will divulge a few details about the creation process of the
song during an interview with Tele 7Jours:
"I wrote "A quoi je sers..." shortly after the beginning of the tour.
Because it was the question on my mind. (...) About this: to scream out
loud what others won't dare do."
Mylene had strongly been influenced while reading Luc Dietrich's master
piece, which will provide her with the expression "poussiere vivante"
(living dust), the first line of the song which the theme also seems to
be inspired by two quotes of "L'apprentissage de la ville": "Si je ne
sers a rien, ce n'etait pas / La peine de m'empecher de mourir" (If I
have no purpose, then it wasn't worth preventing me from dying).
Three
commercial formats were available at the end of July: one 7'' single,
one maxi-CD (the old maxi CD's had paper covers, not yet in crystal
covers or digipak) and a 12" maxi-single.
(
more details about formats)
The track will be # 16 on the French Top 50 and will sell approximately
120 000 (
more details about charts)
The video was shot by Laurent Boutonnat and seems to announce the end
of an era.
All about the video A quoi je
sers...
Photo: Mylène Farmer - Clip A quoi je sers...
réalisé par Laurent Boutonnat - Capture
Mylene will sing
A quoi
je sers... three times on French TV in the fall before
going on tour: September 2nd during "J'y crois dur comme terre",
September 5th during "Sacree Soiree" and September 15th during "Avis de
recheche".
(
more details about TV and the Videos)
It's actually during the
Tour
1989 that people will be able to hear the
song live
Photos: Mylène Farmer - A quoi je sers... -
En concert
1989 - Captures
In 1999, the song was originally supposed to be included in the
Mylenium Tour
setlist, but they will end up using
Rever
instead.
In 2009, to everyone's surprise, Mylene once again sings
A quoi je sers... during
the French portion of the
Mylene
Farmer Tout 2009.
For the Russian portion of the tour, in St Petersburg and
Moscow, they will play
L'amour
n'est rien... instead, which had been a big hit in that
country.
Photo: Mylène Farmer - Tour 2009 - A quoi je sers... -
Photo d'un fan greg-007
À
quoi je sers... on the albums:
En
concert (1989) in live version,
Dance
Remixes (1992) in a remixed version and
Les mots (2001).