VA The Beginners Guide to French Pop (A Very Short History) 3 CD Set 1962-70

 

Text By Original Sharer.

Well looky here, a new compilation of 60s Frenchness has come my way  - the Beginner’s Guide To French Pop is touted as a “Triple CD set of the most thrilling 1960s French pop from the vaults of EMI full of classic yé- yé, Beatles-esque** hits & psych-pop all with a Gallic twist & compiled by Kid Loco”

What this means, is that there is a copy writer out there who really needs to work on breaking up their sentence structures; and, more enticingly, that French DJ and homme de l'électronique Kid Loco has been let loose in the French EMI archives, given free reign to plunder long deceased labels such as Odeon, Pathé Marconi, Trianon, Ducretet-Thomson, Columbia, and La Voix De Son Maître (His Master’s Voice, to you and me).

Now, the artwork/design really doesn't do it for me (it looks like the kind of thing you can only buy in petrol stations) and the sleeve notes are minimal, no detailed artist biographies here, instead Kid Loco provides us with a pithy one-liner about each track. What really hooked me was when I saw the tracklisting and only recognised 14 of the 45 artists, and even then not all of those individual tracks. Oh yeah and the fact that it was cheapcheapcheap - Here's my money, send me the CDs!

I wasn't expecting much of Disc One (1962-64). I was wrong. Mmmm, it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling with its jazzy Hammond grooves, finger-poppin strut-alongs, Beatnik rhythm'n'blues, galloping surf guitars, exotic percussion, and big band orchestral pop. Thems were more innocent times, but I'm still getting that thrill of dropping the needle onto a crisp vinyl biscuit, hearing the pop and crackle, and then the full-on rush of those naïvely produced sounds all crammed together into a couple of minutes of treble-y hysteria. 

My faves? Les Chats Sauvages & Dick River's racey rock'n'roll surfer C'est Joli Comme; Curt Martin's Hammond instrumental re-working of Alice Dona's C'est Pas Prudent; Hector's Hong Kong, an as-unhinged-as-the-original, cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You; a sappy, pure pop with harpsichords ditty by Gérard Brent (who later played guitar for Jean-Pierre Massiera and Jacky Chalard!); and this moody, cinematic, comme John Barry, epic from Ken Lean. 

Onto Disc Two (1965-66), and now we're swinging into more yé- yé territory: skipping past the lush orchestrations of Serge et Michele Arnaud's Les Papillons Noirs, Dani's pneumatic Ta Machine, and Christie Laume's just-on-the-right-side-of-out-of-tune L'Adorable Femme Des Neiges, you'll find some swoonsome orchestral pop and soulful big band belters, a dose of dark, sitar drenched psyché-rock, a couple of Northern Soul-style floor fillers, and even some Lee Hazlewood-esque baroque pop.

I got a bit foamy at the mouth over Les Ambitieux (who later became Les 5 Gentlemen) - an ultra-urgent beat-group calling everyone to DANSE! DANSE! DANSE! DANSE!; Ken Lean (again!) with some space-age easy-listening from WAYYY OUT; Dick Rivers (on his own this time) and coming over all dark and exotic with a bombastic sitar-psych dirge; Jennifer's John Barry-style spy-flick torch song; Regis Barly's Monsieur Qui Sait Tout - which sounds like it came from an amphetamine-fuelled Lee Hazlewood studio session; and best of all, this brassy Northern Soul femme-pop smasher, with those archetypal Gallic cascading bass runs and fuzz guitar licks all over it:

Onto Disc Two (1965-66), and now we're swinging into more yé- yé territory: skipping past the lush orchestrations of Serge et Michele Arnaud's Les Papillons Noirs, Dani's pneumatic Ta Machine, and Christie Laume's just-on-the-right-side-of-out-of-tune L'Adorable Femme Des Neiges, you'll find some swoonsome orchestral pop and soulful big band belters, a dose of dark, sitar drenched psyché-rock, a couple of Northern Soul-style floor fillers, and even some Lee Hazlewood-esque baroque pop.

I got a bit foamy at the mouth over Les Ambitieux (who later became Les 5 Gentlemen) - an ultra-urgent beat-group calling everyone to DANSE! DANSE! DANSE! DANSE!; Ken Lean (again!) with some space-age easy-listening from WAYYY OUT; Dick Rivers (on his own this time) and coming over all dark and exotic with a bombastic sitar-psych dirge; Jennifer's John Barry-style spy-flick torch song; Regis Barly's Monsieur Qui Sait Tout - which sounds like it came from an amphetamine-fuelled Lee Hazlewood studio session; and best of all, this brassy Northern Soul femme-pop smasher, with those archetypal Gallic cascading bass runs and fuzz guitar licks all over it:

So, what did we learn? 'Beginner's Guide...' is maybe a bit of a misnomer. The budget price is sure to attract a few newcomers to the genre, but much of the music probably isn't immediate enough to hook a casual ear and make them want to dig deeper into the realm of vintage French Pop. 'Intermediate' or 'advanced level' are undoubtedly less catchy, but perhaps more accurate

Novices looking to dabble in the wonderful world of yé- yé would get a much better start with the 'best of' double CD Pop à Paris: Psyché Rock et Mini-Jupes or the more Femme-centric C'est Chic: French Girl Singers of the 1960s.

Text by Original Sharer.

Tracklist

1962-1964

1-1 –Noel Chiboust Royal Madison 2:42

1-2 –Les Chats Sauvages & Dick Rivers C'est Jolie Comme 3 2:51

1-3 –Jean-Yves Gran Grain De Café 3:00

1-4 –François Lubiana Vienne La Nuit 2:55

1-5 –Curt Martin C'est Pas Prudent 2:35

1-6 –The Four Dreamers Attila 1:55

1-7 –Les Missiles Sacré Dollar 2:38

1-8 –Tichky Dis, Tu Reviendras? 2:11

1-9 –Robert Cartier Laissons Les Gens Parler 2:11

1-10 –Ken Lean La Nuit 2:40

1-11 –Hector (22) Hong Kong 2:08

1-12 –Gérard Brent Comment Veux Tu Que Je L'oublie 2:04

1-13 –Les Dauphins Ne Pars Pas 2:15

1-14 –Michel Berger A Quoi Je Rêve 1:53

1-15 –Alice Dona Réveille-toi 2:27

1-16 –Fabienne (7) Cours Si Tu As Peur 2:10

1965-1966

2-1 –Bob Asklof Quel Supplice (Willow Weep For Me) 2:15

2-2 –Gerard Baque* Toutes Les Nuits 2:39

2-3 –Les Ambitieux Danse, Danse Encore 1:35

2-4 –Virginia Vee Le Temps De La Bohème 2:49

2-5 –Ken Lean Gemini Adventure 3:19

2-6 –Dick Rivers Via Lucifer 2:27

2-7 –Michèle Arnaud With Serge Gainsbourg Les Papillons Noirs

Written-By – Serge Gainsbourg

2:49

2-8 –Gribouille (2) A Courte Paille 2:10

2-9 –Jennifer (35) Mais Qu'est-ce Que ça Peut Vous Faire?

Written-By – Jean-Yves Gran

2:51

2-10 –Anne Kern Tant Pis, Tant Pis Entre Donc 2:28

2-11 –The Stormsville Shakers Number One

Written-By – Phillip Goodhand-Tait

2:33

2-12 –Regis Barly* Monsieur Qui Sait Tout 3:22

2-13 –Dani La Machine

Written-By – Frédéric Botton

1:46

2-14 –Nicole Legendre Tu Veux Tout Changer 2:15

2-15 –Christie Laume L'adorable Femme Des Neiges 1:57

1967-1970

3-1 –Les Roche Martin Maria De Tusha

Written-By – Véronique Sanson

2:54

3-2 –Les Anges Une Fille Mais Qu'est-ce Que C'est? 2:24

3-3 –Dick Rivers Psychedelic Inedit 2:55

3-4 –Jacques Filh Wraaaach!!! 2:04

3-5 –Charlotte Walters Fleurs De Pavots Bleus 2:14

3-6 –Charlotte Walters Angel Of Sin

Written-By – Étienne Roda-Gil

2:14

3-7 –Jacqueline Taieb Bonjour Brésil

Written By – José Toledo

Written-By – Jean Manzon

3:05

3-8 –Alain Legovic Locmariaquer

Written-By – Étienne Roda-Gil

2:55

3-9 –René Joly Chimène 3:43

3-10 –Véronique Sanson Le Printemps Est Là

Written-By – Donovan Leitch*

2:10

3-11 –Triangle (3) Listen People

Written-By – A. Renaud*

3:46

3-12 –L'Origine L'Origine 5:25

3-13 –Igor Wakhevitch* Danse Sacrale 6:14

3-14 –L'Assemblée (2) Le Chien

Written-By – Claude Gullain*

3:03

Enjoy

Ty To Original Sharer

"I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free"

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