Le reel facile

June 24 is St-Jean-Baptiste!

For the occasion, here is a song I love, by Quebec singer Emmanuelle.

Emmanuelle was a classicaly trained singer who veered towards pop music, much like Sarah Brightman did many years later. She was discovered by Quebec lyricist Luc Plamondon (who shot to fame with the musical Starmania in the late 70’s) and later became a favorite of Stéphane Venne, a prolific Quebec songwriter. Venne namely wrote the theme song to Expo 67 among many, many others.

Emmanuelle’s “Le reel facile” (written by Venne) is unbelievably groovy, and a modern touch on traditional québécois music, which itself is taken from traditional Irish/Scottish music and dance.

Santé!

Emmanuelle – Le Reel facile

Après Ski

Here is the complete A-Side of the soundtrack to a 1971 Québec movie called Après Ski, with music by Jacques Crevier & son ensemble. Most people would refer to this movie as “soft core”, but I don’t think it even came close to that. It was, to put it simply, a sex farce with very little content, like the British “Carry On” movies, maybe.

In those days the province of Québec had just gone through the Quiet Revolution and had finally broken itself free from the conservative and manipulative Catholic Church and from the Duplessis government. Sex, drugs, Catholic Church words used as swearing, etc., quickly became socially tolerated. That’s why so many movies like this one started popping up in the province in the late 60s and early 70s (“L’initiation”/”Valérie”, etc.), moreso than in the rest of Canada.

The B-Side of the soundtrack are pop songs by Quebec artists of the time. The movie starred Daniel Pilon (who later became an American soap opera star) and Céline Lomez. Even René Angelil had a small part.

I love how IMDB lists “Fingering” as the first keyword search for this movie.

This record somehow found its way into record collectors’ want lists, and is now worth a ridiculous sum of money because of it. I suggest you just download it here instead.

Le grand Marc
L’âme de feu
Le doux renard
Les yeux brûlants
La course endiablée

Zaine Bowi…Griff

Who is Zaine Griff?

The single didn’t do too well, but that didn’t stop Griff from releasing a few more, before retiring from the music biz and focusing on his career as an artist. At least, that’s what Mr. Internet tells me.

Previous to all this, Griff was vocalist for the group Screamer, who recorded one of my favorite singles from the late ’70’s, “Interplanetary Twist”.

Zaine Griff – This Could Mean Everything