This is the kind of item that can't even be considered rare. Easy to find, it simply remains under the collector's radar because of its vague junk aura. But it's way more than another collection of these bawdy songs french people excell into: well-composed and written, this anonymous bunch of sexually explicit songs save themselves from the expected vulgarity with an original piano / organ drum machine combo layered on classy lyrics. Classy, well, as much as can be.
No label, few credits, ... At most three aliases, "Mac Fornick" being the most notable. A surprising graphomania seems to be the only clue we have regarding the man, acccording to the unusual amount of "signed copies" avalaible online. Even less infos regarding the mysterious"G.Crisland", and we will also never know if this J.dupont credited has anything to do with the one who commited La danse des pompiers ... Men fade away, talent remains.
There was a time, following WWII, when japan was still for many french people synonymous of an unaccessible question mark. For many of the nowadays geeks evolving in an instant globalized world, fascinating may be these years of careful approximation, paved with pitfalls and naïve misunderstandings: pure product of that context, this Yokohama obsessive hit is a perfect audio pendant to movies such as Typhon sur Nagasaki or Rififi à Tokyo (maybe not major masterpieces, but an interesting testimony for those who do care about that specific western / eastern encounter age). An uncomfortable and ambigüous INA document refers to Danielle Darieux's experience in that country during the Typhon movie's shooting in the 50's, in which she appears both fascinated and bitterly annoyed as a woman (also very unpurposefully yet slightly condescending with her japanese co-actress Kishi Keiko).
More generally, other far-east countries had a quite similar statu in the french collective unconscious, despite a different colonial situation. As already mentionned by Choron, one of the only way for common people to travel and see Indochine in the 50s - before mass-tourism arises - was, insanely, to military engage. Or to get one of these musical postcards intended to help the listener to travel, let's say, in a less butcher way...
Introducing the "Cornak de Bangkok" song during one of his concerts in Bobino, the sweet Henri Génès described it as "a song I brought back from India... where I almost managed to go". Bangkok being located in Thaïland, this gives you a certain idea of the lyricist's level of approximation...
This modern rigodon not only sounds nice, but reminds me how much I'm fond of this music even if I must admit that I know few about it: basically, a folkloric musical genre from France who spread to canada, now synonym of happy & danceable folkloric stuff in Quebec.
Another example with this track I especially love, recorded in the 30's by one of Quebec's major musical character: "La bolduc". Being the most famous popular singer of her time, influenced by folkloric music, she deserves another especially dedicated post that will follow in the near future.
I love the vocal gimmick she uses in this song ("Turluté" we call it in french, nice word isn't it ?): a specific vocal technique she used in many different tunes.
Extract of a 2005 must-have cd reissue still avalaible here, Saizansu mambo is maybe the most representative hit of Tony Tani. As a beloved popular actor, he also stays in the memories of many as a master of the abacus, tirelessly demonstrating his percussive skills on that tool year after year along family tv programs.
Although this TV appearance is from 1982, the original version from the 50s is a pure old school mambo classic. Therefore, he easily could be seen as a japanese alter-ego of the french Bourvil: both had this unique ability to build and camp a sympathic and memorable comic character, doing a crossover between movies and chanson and sneaking their personnality into these typical 50s latin instrumentals, from mambo to rhumba.
Enjoy a quick comparison between this frenchy nugget and these two movies extracts in which appear his two biggest hits: Saizansu mambo and Bukubuku mambo:
Both belong to a recent past that often appear dusty to youngsters: being too much in the light among your dad's generation blinds most of the wannabe trendy, although Tony Tani is still sympathic to most of the initiates.
As often with such classic icons belonging to popular culture, a now sold out 1988 remix attempt was released on 7" just after his death in July 1987, an item I discovered thanks to the precious Record Battler monthly live stream event: a use of sampling that is typical in the techno kayo 80s period, alongside interesting shuffle TR808 patterns, although it didn't completely preserve the specific groove of the original version.
He was the man of one song, but what a song! Bobby Hebb wrote SUNNY in 1963, twice shocked by the murder of Bob Kennedy, and two days later, of his own brother. It's one of the most covered song in the recording history: Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and among french singers: Eddy Mitchell, Richard Anthony, Christophe Willem etc. ...
Bobby Hebb - Sunny (1965)
Boney M - Sunny (1976)
Ella Fitzgerald and Tom Jones - Sunny (1970)
Dusty Springfield - Sunny (1967)
------------------------------------------------------------------------- I like very much this cover, so Italo saxo lounge !
First artist from Hong Kong to appear on American TV, Grace Chang had such success singing in the Dinah Shore show that Capitol records shortly decided to release a LP afterwards, sung in chinese, but split between an A-side blended of various wordwide styles (Mambo, Calypso, Hawaïan...), and a more traditionnally chinese B-side.
Liner notes try to both explain and justify the use of these various musical styles more familiar to american people: "The colorful port of Hong Kong, one of the busiest in the world, is a melting pot of music from all over the world. Businessmen, travellers, immigrants, students, sailors, everybody brings his music (or musical preferences) when he comes to Hong Kong, and the result is a free exchange unmatched anywhere else. In the selections of this Miss Chang dips into a world-wide variety of styles, and comes up with a demi-dozen of surprises to delight you."
I love Cha cha is an extract from the 1957 movie Mambo Girl, classic but charming musical produced by MP and GI film studio (main rival to the Shaw Brothers). This huge commercial success definitely turned her into one of these delightfully out of time musical icons, a statu confirmed later by various killer sequences like this 1960 floating carmen cover extract from The Wild, Wild Rose:
When he released They're coming to take me away in 1966, I'm not sure Jerry Samuels necessarely knew it would turn into a massive hit. He probably could imagine even less that this track would be covered afterwards by a bunch of various french irresponsible dudes, among many others.
Apart from its direct content, I wonder how much the track's posterity may be due to the fact that the song is based on a beat / flow principle: striking, and easy to appropriate. Besides, most of author rights society accepting only melodies and lyrics to register a track as an intellectual property, therefore it is highly possible that Jerry Samuels never heard about many of the the countless cover versions of his hit, neither received any specific royalties...
On the controversy attributing sometimes the track's paternity to Kim Fowley, this one replied in a Chronicart interview that Samuels was actually the author and composer. But also that he, Fowley, did a few live shows under the name and mask of Napoleon XIV, as Samuels decided he was too old to appear on stage anymore.
Many of us heard the song made by Jean-Pierre Massiera under the alias Basile in 1968, but its link to Napoleon XIV is often reduced to a small credit line. In this version, the surface of the track remains intact, but the lyrics and content in itself have nothing to do with the original schyzophrenic monologue, as he transfers the song in the field of a farmer and his cow surprised by the arrival of UFOs.
Finders Keepers and Mucho Gusto Rds recently had a huge resonsability in bringing Massiera back to the lights of fame, and if you didn't get them already, their reissues are a must-have.
Hugely frenchy big band (mock-heroic elements + wigs and makeup), in some ways close to the Orchestre du Splendid, Au Bonheur des dames did on its side a song on the topic of stuttering, actually also a pretext for various wordplays, in a close-to-cumbia version due to effects that sounds strangely modern for 1988 (avalaible on cd since a 2006 reissue).
C'est tout pour aujourd'hui, but Arc de Triomphe will continue the story with a second volume soon, à suivre...
Sairaji Hiromi is an oversized lament, a lysergic twister, a sonic scar caught among the bottomless abysses of obscure Enka production. Mind-blowing voice on orchestral earthquakes, although you can hardly tell wether you're about to cry or laugh. Enka in itself is traditionally built on this extreme vocal emphasis and modulation, but Sairaji brings it to an excessive levels that makes it hardcore, not only for foreigners' ears (as tested and confirmed by a team of japanese specialists).
For those less familiar with this specitic style of song, a common gossip is that some of the gender's gems actually have a fundamental importance for many PSF records related people, including the label founder Hideo Ikeezumi, and artists such as Mikami Kan or Kazuki Tomokawa.
2 titles excerpt from a LP that used to be part of the second-hand recommendations of Tiliqua Records, explicitely titled "Boat of tears" and "The little boy's last train".
Quite surprisingly unreissued so far while most of their discography was, this is probably one of the most interesting element to emerge from the 1968 moog records high tide, following Wendy Carlos' first huge commercial success in the story of electronic music.
Pionneers by their own production, Beaver & Kraus may also today appear as visionnar characters who played a fundamental role in building the bridge between pop and electronics, being responsible of the electronics' appearance in the soundscapes of many legends as Micky Dolenz, George Harrison, or the Doors.
In this Ragnarök, among concrete and textural instrumentals appear therefore delicate classy popsongs, subjectively selected here for their mesmerizing power.
CLOSE YOUR EYES, imagine your sleeping in a pleasant night, suddenly you hear a voice from beyond, someone entering the room, open your eyes, and you see THIS!!
Then, you realise that your safe and sound, just a youtube video, but then you see THIS!
