One of the benefits of leaving the radio on ALL day, whether I'm actually listening or not, is I'll occasionally catch something unexpected, and very exciting! Just like the old days pre-podcast, when radio discoveries were much more about flicking the dial around and landing on something serendipitously.
I'm a big Serge Gainsbourg fan, and I love all the female French pop singers of the 60s, especially Francoise Hardy. I used to co-present a French music show on
Eastside Radio (Sean also had a show on Eastside, which continues to this day). Serge Gainsbourg got a great deal of airplay when I was on air, and even though my French is a little bit rusty, the more I listened to his songs, I started to realise how clever they were, loaded with puns and wordplay that I only understood a fraction of. The man was prolific, a master of so many musical styles, and I think he was by far the best interpreter of his own songs. I love his deep voice and emphatic vocal delivery.
Anyhow, this is a great radio feature. I'm starting to notice Lea Redfern's work on RN, her pieces have a great energy to them. In this piece, I love the mix of voices, music and the lovely way a French male voice formally announces each song and singer. And best of all, I love how all roads ultimately lead back to Serge!
I caught this show by accident too, and loved it. Lea really does have the magic touch with radio features. Vanessa (good ye-ye name that!) used to play French pop on Eastside Radio, and I used to play French pop at my club, The Tender Trap. A relatively obscure track by Francoise Hardy was a dance floor favourite (which she sang in english) - Who'll be the next in line?
ReplyDeleteCheck it on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S31Fe6BrFy8
I'm also a huge fan of Claudine Longet (she was a kind of ye-ye girl repackaged for the US market and released on Herb Albert's schmaltzy A&M label)
check out Claudine's version of Meditation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=immytiwYfi0
Claudine's career came to an end when she shot her boyfriend Olympic skier "Spider" Sabich, although Claudine has always maintained it was an accident.
And finally, my first encounter with Serge Gainsbourg - at a party in the early 1970s in the then new and funky "exhibition" suburb of Westleigh, while the adults got smashed, us kids were in the rumpus room playing 45s on the turntable, and we happened to put on a little number called "Je t'aime - moi non plus", the original version with Jane Birkin with Serge. We weren't sure what was being sung, but by the sultry whispering and sexy sighs we new it was very, very naughty! And so played it again and again giggling uncontrollably until an adult burst into the room and told us to turn it off. A completely drunk adult. The good thing about the early 70s was that adults were so out of control they held no moral sway over us kids. Good old Serge Gainsbourgh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Fa4lOQfbA&feature=kp
You have the BEST stories, Sean!!
ReplyDeleteIt's just because I'm 50 that I have good stories! Especially being able to reach way, way back to the 1970s. That decade was like a gift to the mature storyteller!
ReplyDeleteI had a bit of a French themed drive today - first your story and then TAL's Americans in Paris. This was such a fun listen and I had to laugh because my knowledge of ye-ye girls is mainly from the scene from Mad Men which opens the story. Zou bisou bisou has been stuck in my head all day! I loved how each performer was given goddess qualities - like the goddess of forgiveness and animal liberties!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad people have taken an interest in this music over the last few years, but it's a shame most of the info out there in English on it is quite wrong. This podcast and its accompanying article is mostly very inaccurate, unfortunately. I did enjoy the interviews, though. Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe's book is very good and probably the only decent English-language, non-academic source on 60s French pop, but I think a lot of his points were misinterpreted here.
ReplyDeleteHave just found your blog and I'm liking what I've seen so far.... do you plan to come back?