*The English version of this interview will be posted shortly. Stay tuned. (It’s just a lot to translate!)*

Le 8 juillet 2009, je partageais sur ce blogue mes EPs de Bernard Chabert, un artiste que je ne connaissais pas, mais qui, selon moi, méritait une écoute attentive. Je louangeais ses sonorités beatlesques et britanniques, un son que peu d’artistes français abordaient à l’époque, du moins pas avec tant de finesse. Très honnêtement, ces maxis figurent parmi mes préférés de l’époque et je m’étais toujours demandé qui était ce Bernard Chabert, pourquoi était-il si méconnu? Pourquoi avait-il mis un frein à sa carrière de musicien, sûrement très prometteuse si l’on se fie à ces quelques enregistrements? Surtout à l’écoute de Helga Selzer et Une plage bordée de cocottiers, deux méga-bombes rock/psychés!

Voici avec grand plaisir son histoire, dans ses mots :

***

“En 68, je fais une période de training dans un institut nommé OCORA qui appartient alors à l’ORTF, et qui forme des journalistes et techniciens radio et télé dans un studio-école de grand luxe à Maisons-Laffitte. J’y rencontre un ingé-son, déjà célèbre de par son style et sa culture rock and rolleuse, Patrice Blanc-Francard, et on devient copains comme cul et chemise. Puis je pars faire le journaliste, et Patrice après Mai 68 se fait virer de l’ORTF et entre comme patron du catalogue rock and roll chez EMI France. Comme lorsque nous étions ensemble à l’OCORA on avait passé les pauses-déjeuner à faire de la musique dans l’un des studios équipés d’un piano, et qu’il savait que j’écrivais un peu, il me fait un jour convoquer chez EMI-Pathé Marconi pour une audition. J’y vais, on se met en studio au Pont de Sèvres, et on en sort un souple d’essai. Ça passe en comité, et ils me proposent un contrat.

Je signe, je me retrouve avec un directeur artistique (Jacques Sclingand) qui a dans son équipe deux jeunes assistants, Claude-Michel Schonberg et Michel Berger, et un conseiller musical, l’extraordinaire Hubert Rostaing, un des plus grands clarinettistes français (sa version de la Rhapsodie in Blue est restée célèbre).

Là-dessus, on se met au travail, et on sort le premier 45 tours EP, “Tramway 7B” :

Tramway 7B

Le Tramway entre dans les charts, on enchaîne sur le second disque, un simple celui-là : “Une plage bordée de cocotiers“. Là, semi-bide: comme je dis sur ce titre que je m’emmerde sur cette plage, et qu’à l’époque on ne dit pas ces choses-là, le disque est boycotté entre autres sur RTL. (J’ai grandi à Madagascar et à l’île Maurice, et je me suis vraiment emmerdé sur ces plages magnifiques, sable blanc et cocotiers, mais désertes et sans trop de filles ni de rock and roll…).

“L’ascension sociale de Francis F.” parlait justement de ça, d’ascension sociale, et malgré Mai 68, ça n’avait pas encore filtré jusqu’au show-biz alors politiquement très correct. Et même techniquement, lorsque je débarquais en cabine, regardais les vumètres alors qu’on rejouait la dernière prise, et que je constatais qu’entre les pointes de volume et le trait rouge il y avait de quoi glisser un piano à queue, je m’insurgeais: je voulais que ça sature, je voulais un maxi de son sur la bande, pas des plics-plics. Et ça allait contre la culture des ingénieurs du son d’alors, chevaliers de la prise ultrapropre pour qui si ça saturait, c’était à jeter…

L’ascension sociale de Francis F.

Alors vous imaginez: quand j’ai enregistré “Helga Selzer” (inspirée par deux copines: l’une sobre comme un chameau, était mannequin vedette chez Chanel, l’autre, copine d’enfance, était totalement déjantée et est même ensuite partie tourner dans des triples X…), et que j’ai annoncé que je voulais chanter la voix dans un téléphone, ça a fait une quasi-révolte du côté des ingésons. Mais bon, on y est arrivé, et c’est le seul morceau où j’ai obtenu la couleur de guitare que je voulais (je jouais sur une Rickenbacker empruntée à un magasin de la Bastille, j’avais pas les moyens de m’en acheter une à moi).

Helga Selzer

J’avais fait, pour l’anecdote, “Dear Jean” pour Jean Seberg que j’avais connu par un bon copain. Elle était étrange, et on avait passé quelques moments assez étranges ensemble…

Dear Jean

Il part en Californie

La musique m’a fait vivre entre 69 et début 72, donc, et j’y ai passé des moments géniaux. Par exemple, une paire de journées pour enregistrer une émission TV de Jean Christophe Averty avec Led Zep, avec qui nous avions passé des heures à jouer pour faire passer le temps… Ou une amitié avec Isabelle de Funés, qui alors chantait les compositions de sa copine Véronique Sanson, avec qui on mangeait un croissant le matin…

Easy Miss Lizzy

Seulement voilà, pour ma part je m’emmerde un peu dans le monde d’un show-biz parisien où il ne se passe pas grand’chose de mon point de vue. Je viens du rock and roll, j’aime jouer en live, mais je n’ai pas de groupe, juste des potes, et la politique d’EMI est de faire du commerce, pas du rock and roll.

Comme à cette époque se déroulent les missions Apollo vers la Lune, et que ça me fait complètement rêver (j’ai toujours piloté, c’est de famille, et j’ai toujours voulu être reporter, c’est aussi de famille), je finis par laisser tomber le show-biz un peu trop embourgeoisé, et me servant de la notoriété acquise chez Europe No. 1 grâce aux disques dans leurs charts, je rencontre le boss de la rédaction et je me fais embaucher.

Direction Houston, pour couvrir Apollo 14, début 72, et je n’en sortirai plus…”

Mare Serenitatis

***

En terminant, je vous invite à jeter un coup d’oeil à l’émission “Pégase” de Bernard Chabbert, un magazine sur l’aviation et l’astronautique :

Oh…Bourvil. How I love thee.

I suppose, however, that not too many people outside of French speaking countries would know who he was.

Bourvil was a French comedian, mainly known on the big screen for his roles in Louis de Funès movies. His comedy persona usually consisted of a naive, vulnerable and good natured man (much like Jacques Villeret, another gone-too-soon French comedy actor).

An underrated dramatic actor as well, Bourvil’s last role before his untimely death at the age of 53 was in one of my all time favorite movies, by my all time favorite French movie director, Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterful “Le cercle rouge“, in which Bourvil plays a police detective, on Alain Delon and Yves Montand’s pursuit. Casting Bourvil in this role was a brilliant move, and he is shockingly poignant and graceful as detective Mattei.

With Paul Piot’s orchestra, here is Bourvil performing two classic Serge Gainsbourg songs, along with French comedian Jacqueline Maillan (“Pauvre Lola” & “Ça”). In “Ça” (“That”, a cover of “Je t’aime, moi non plus”), Bourvil & Maillan play an old, tired couple sitting in front of the TV and going on about their routine, until they decide to finally do…”that”, amidst lots of giggles!

Both these covers are actually quite endearing.

Come back tomorrow for more !

Bourvil & Maillan – Ça
Bourvil & Maillan – Pauvre Lola

All right ladies: take a good look at this guy.

Have you not been seduced yet by the double/triple/quadruple vision of extreme hotness?

Oh yes, it’s À la carte’s countdown to Valentine’s Day! In the next couple of days I shall be bringing nothing but LUV songs for all my gentile readers.

First off, in case you haven’t noticed, all the MP3s previously archived on this site are gone. From now on, every post will feature MP3s for 2 WEEKS ONLY! Before you hit the panic button, hit the “Subscribe to à la carte” button on the right hand corner of this blog. You’ll have a choice to subscribe to either my RSS feeds, or to receive email notifications everytime I post to my blog. That way you are sure to never miss a post!

Back to Monsieur Charby : Pierre Charby was a French/Moroccan singer whose claim to fame was that he participated – and didn’t win – in Eurovision’s 1977 contest.

This song is an ode to his fans. It’s also the greatest and creepiest tribute to “fans” I’ve ever heard from any artist in my life.

First off, the song is GREAT and is always a dance floor favorite. It has grooves you would not expect from someone wearing *that* shirt.

Secondly, the lyrics are just insane. In a nutshell, Charby has a huge hard on for his “petites fans chéries” (his “young female fans”). As he puts it, he loves them because they “follow him everywhere”. So, this song is for his psychotic league of fans. Love it! (so does he!)

He also doesn’t have “one wife”, he sings, but “5000 wives”. Big Love!

But how much does he love his fans, I hear you ask? “More than my wife, and my dog”. The greatest love of all!

He’s a keeper!

This one goes out to the Facebook Pierre Charby fan page!

Come back tomorrow until Sunday, February 14 for more Valentine’s Day offerings!

Pierre Charby – Mes petites fans chéries

Ah yes, Christmas! For the last two years now, I have been offering my wonderful readers a special little X-Mas offering. I already consider it a sort of twisteuse tradition. Remember this one?

I hereby offer you the angels of French pop: Les Anges.

One of their songs, “Une fille mais qu’est-ce que c’est?” (my fave of theirs), has already been featured on the comp “Gentlemen de Paris“. They were very poppy and saccharine, and took most of their inspiration from American “barber shop” pop such as Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, which I am a big fan of. In fact, they do a cover of The Four Seasons’ “Girl Come Running” (“Aimons”) on this EP. Les Anges’ harmonies are right on the money, too.

Their title song, “Les Anges”, makes me smile every time I hear it. Especially near the end, when the final chorus kicks in with more harmonies. I love it! I have no clue who these guys were or what their story was, but they make me happy, and I thought I’d share the happiness.

To top it off, and oddly enough, the musical direction of this EP was by none other than Tony Meehan of The Shadows! If anyone has any details on that collaboration, I would love to know more!

Joyeux Noël!!

Les Anges – Les Anges

Here is an artist that appeared on volume 10 of the GITG series, volume 10 being an all French volume. If you have this particular volume, perhaps you noticed the amazing cover artwork featuring two girls cat fighting over a Jacques Dutronc LP? It was drawn by the same talented woman who did the caricature that you see at the top of the page on this blog. Her name is Sophie Cossette, she lives in Toronto, and she’s amazingly talented. When I was doing the Zoï Zoï French pop DJ nights in Toronto (hence the name of this website) in 2005-2007, Sophie generously drew all the posters for us, and featured a different French pop icon every month.

The Sylvie-Anne track on GITG 10 was taken from the same 45 single I’m offering you today. I apologize in advance, as my record is very scratched. In fact, this track almost didn’t make the cut, because of its condition.

The “Retro Jeunesse” website (follow the link to see a photo of her!) says this about her: Sylvie-Anne was born Sylvie-Anne Trudeau, in 1951. She was given the nickname of “Mademoiselle Dynamite”, because her voice and style was similar to another energetic Quebec singing star: Jenny Rock.

This was her first of two singles, and she was accompanied by legendary Quebec musician, Georges Tremblay.

Interestingly enough, the two songs on this single are blatant copies of the Hazlewood produced and Billy Strange arranged Nancy Sinatra covers of “Day Tripper” and “Lies”. In a nutshell, they are covers of covers. And they are great!

If you listen closely (and I mean *very* closely!) to the first seconds of “Un tour dehors”, you can (faintly) hear her clear her throat.

One wonders where she is today and what became of her.

So here’s Mademoiselle Dynamite doing the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” in French (check out GITG 10 for a clearer copy though, oops!) and its B-side, her cover of “Lies”, both done à la Sinatra/Hazelwood.

Sylvie-Anne – Un tour dehors (Day Tripper)
Sylvie-Anne – Reste (Lies)

Bébé Suong is – to my knowledge – a severely underrated female singer/songwriters of the 50s and 60s.

Her voice reminds me of Shirley Bassey and Eartha Kitt: beautiful, powerful, sexy and very unique. And, much like Bassey, she was first and foremost a jazz vocalist who recorded pop songs.

This beautiful woman was born to a French father and Asian mother. She moved to Belgium at the age of 7, and already at 16 was singing in Jazz clubs and touring. In the 1950′s, she was writing and recording her own jazz material (including the Belgian hit “Rio de Janeiro”), an unbelivably rare thing for a woman at the time.

She wrote and recorded a few pop songs in the 1960s, including “Mine de rien” in 1966 (written, arranged and produced by Suong). The song was a deliberate attempt at having a hit with the young crowd: Bébé was in her 30s by then, yet here she was singing about boys and screaming like a 15 year old at a Beatles concert.

The record unfortunately didn’t do that well. One could argue that her voice was not typical of French pop at the time, and not necessarily a crowd pleaser. Most people I know who hear this single for the first time are either put off by her voice, or consider it the song’s strongpoint.

I’m with the latter: Bébé kicks some serious derrière.

Bébé Suong – Mine de rien

Those are all fine choices, and of course all very subjective, since not everyone is expected to agree with “Top 10″ lists of any kind. Sooooo….that being said, here’s my geeky rant opinion: CBC, you can’t do a Top 10 Greatest Moments in French pop and not include Antoine’s “Les élucubrations d’Antoine“!! It is a song that affected everything and everyone in France in 1966. It sparked debates on the pill, on drugs, on the Vietnam war; it created a “song war” between Hallyday and Antoine, not to mention the countless “Antoine” joke novelty acts who started poppin’ up, like Edouard:

…the song also helped kick start Jacques Dutronc’s career, with his “Et moi, et moi, et moi“, which was a direct parody of Antoine’s song.

Someone over at bootlegsfr.com recently did a brilliant mashup of OutKast’s “Heya” with Antoine’s “Les élucubrations” (“Les Hey-lucubrations”)! Click on the “play” button below to hear it, or download the MP3 by clicking on the image!

“Oh yeah!”