Marathon – Dee Duck
Marc Hamilton – Le Tapis Magique
Nino Ferrer – Io, Tu E Il Mare
Nathalie and Christine – Je Fais L’amour
Jean-Claude Vannier – Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi
Helmut Zacharias and his orchestra – Satisfaction
France Gall -N’écoute pas les idoles
Serge Gainsbourg – Les Sucettes
Serge Gainsbourg- Pauvre Lola
Michel Polanreff – Polnareve
Welcome to Show 3 of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Hope you have enjoyed the show so far. We have had some great feedback and social media shares, so please, keep up the good work! We love it when people enjoy the show. Let’s kick straight into it, shall we?
Not much is known of this 1968 single released on Mercury. It was comped in 2011 on the Groove Club vol.1 LP from the Martyrs of Pop label. The best I can think of is a piece Donal Duck-xploitation. It is a very obscure once shot from this French band, a nice garage psych entry to start off the show.
Slight cheat here, but French Canadian garage-psych kind of counts, especially with this great b-side from 1970. This is from the bargain singles collection (killer tracks under a euro), which you can still pick up for under 50cents everywhere. Great beat, killer drum break and a slightly middle eastern vocal performance. Killer.
Also from 1970 and a complete change of pace, the wonderful Nino Ferrer and his Italian crooning piece roughly translated as ‘I, you and the sea’ (released as a b-side to the Cantagiro 1970 entry ‘Les Yeux De Laurence’). What a voice.
OK, time to get a little dirty now, from 1977 this track comes from the exploitation LP ‘Erotique’ and isis probably the only track that doesn’t have a pant and groan NSFW rating! Also featured on this LP are covers of Gainsbourg, Bachelet and other noted porn soundtrackers.
Let’s cool it down a little with Jean Claude Vannier and oh for an original copy of this (sorry LP fans, this does come from the Finders Keepers re-issue). This album (l’enfant assassin des mouches) is full of experimental, orchestrated music concrete whack. Oh, and if you didn’t know, he orchestrated the Gainsbourg masterpiece, the Ballad of Melody Nelson. Get it.
And to round out this little bracket, violin duelling with guitar? It can’t get any better than this 1968 blast by Berlin bandleader Helmut Zacharias and his orchestra doing the Rolling Stones Satisfaction. This album is mainly violin pap, but this track kills it. Phew. I am exhausted.
Time for some Gainsbourg and we start with the first France Gall/Serge collaboration from 1964 and the wonderful little ye-ye piece that N’écoute pas les idoles.
Next up we have the Serge version of Les Sucettes (released in 1969 on the Gainsbourg/Birkin LP). This track called all manner of controversy when he gave it to France Gall to record. It is a thinly veiled blow job song, He called it ‘the most daring song of the century” If you listen to the track, he can barely contain his laughter at the end.
Finally, we head back to Miss Gall and her wonderful laughter on this 1964 Gainsbourg track ‘Pauvre Lola’. It is uncredited on the LP (Gainsbourg Percussions) but of course, with the miracle of the internet, everyone knows! (well actually, there is a clip that appeared in the wonderful Gainsbourg DVD released about ten years back, and well, it is pretty bleeding obvious).
Finally, we can’t by without Polnareff. It is hard to pick a polnahit without go back towards the songs we rely on when we DJ. Time Will Tell with it’s amazing drumbeat, La Mouche, the funkiest song in the canon and of course, our night ender that is Pipette. So instead, I went with one of his many instrumentals. This one comes from his 1974 ‘Michel Polnareff’ LP and features some out there synth work, avant garde indeed.