Chanson Du Jour 11/17/2016 Pauline Croze “T’es Beau”
Category: Music
Les Punks: The French Connection
Un, deux, trois, quatre: Punk rock’s history lessons are not just found in the work of Anglophone musicians. Soul Jazz’s Punk 45 series moves beyonds American and British recordings with this deep dive into the wave of French punks at play in the late 1970s…
Read the Full Story at: Les Punks: The French Connection album review: Punk à la française
Chanson Du Jour: La Gadoue
It’s raining this Sunday morning, while we are visiting with our lovely and loving Seattle family. What french chanson is better fit today than “La Gadoue?” Petula Clark had a modest hit with this Serge Gainsbourg composition in 1966. I love this 1996 version sung by Jane Birken accompanied by French folk-punk band Les Negresses Verte.
Chanson Du Jour 11/13/2016 “La Gadoue” – Jane Birkin and Les Negresses Verte
Post Election “Hope”
Jain performs the song “Hope” for French TV. America has elected a fascist to lead the western world. Europe – please don’t follow us. Lead.
Hope you love
Hope you’re strong
Hope you will not get it wrong
Stop your bullshit, then make freak
Love is hard but it’s uniqueI’m gonna need it
I’m gonna use it
I’m gonna need it
Yeah, I’m gonna use it
Chanson Du Jour: Vas-tu Freiner?
Chanson Du Jour 11/9/2016: “Vas-tu Freiner” by Nevche
“Vas-tu freiner?” by Nevche, is a haunting French chanson that serves as effective antidote to post-Arcade Fire noise (Monsters and Men, Lumineers, The Lone Bellow …Bellowing Monsters, The Lone Lumineer, etc.)
Is there a barefoot accordionist prancing about Nevche as he sings? No – but there is a very cool sounding Senegalese fiddle called a riti.
The track is from 2015 Retroviseur album which was recorded in Dakar, Marseille, Paris and Réunion Island. Nevche (formerly known as Frédéric Nevchehirlian) makes music that is moody and magical – a sound that would fit in a Sergio Leone’ spaghetti western where the barefoot accordion player gets killed by a stray bullet fired by hombre Lee Van Cleef. (The shooting was unintentional, as the bullet was meant for the banjo player. Not the main banjo player, the additional one who doubles on timpani.)
Jean-Jacques Perrey, 1929–2016
Jean-Jacques Perrey, French composer and electronic music pioneer, died Friday at his home in Switzerland. He had been ill with lung cancer.
Perrey first started recording electronic music in 1952, long before the Moog synthesizer was first made for sale in 1967. His synthesizer music was featured on The Simpsons, and South Park. Perrey was also featured prominently at Disneyland and Disney World, where his “Baroque Hoedown” played over the Main Street Electrical Parade.
I have never been to either Disneyland or Disney World, but I have been to Paris, where Perrey was born, and to New York, where he lived during the 1960s, and produced 1966’s The In Sound From the Way Out.
Below is a clip from the American TV show I’ve Got a Secret, with the great Steve Allen hosting. You may also recognize panelists Betsy Palmer, Bill Cullen, Bess Myerson, and of course, Henry Morgan. Check out the incredible song at 07:40. If they would play this song at Mass, I would have never stopped going to church.
Rest in Peace, Jean-Jacques.
Jean-Jacques Perrey featured on I’ve Got A Secret TV Show
Pas De Merde 