I got the blues for Françoise

'Scuse me for possibly being a little bit fashionably late for the party, but I got violently ill at the weekend and, well, some things (like being violently ill*) are more important than blogging.

I've been rather enamoured of late by the new Ace Records Françoise Hardy compilation. which brings together her English language output between 1968 and 1972, a period when she worked a lot with Tommy Brown and Micky Jones (who also worked with Sylvie; and then as Johnny's backing band The Blackburds; and who have had honourable mention before here and here), and a time when rumours that she might work with Nick Drake, sadly never came to fruition.

You get 2 almost complete albums of post-psychedelic folk rock and Françoise charming your ears with her delicate, slightly hesitant English. Some fine sleevenotes from Mr Bob Stanley too!

You can (and should!) buy the CD direct from Ace Records for £11.50 inc. free delivery in the UK via the following link >> Francoise Hardy - Midnight Blues Paris London 1968-1972 (Ace Records)

Now, if only my mp3 files were accessible, I would post a song... but they ain't so I'm currently looking round for a more reliable host body. Watch this space.


*such things are not necessarily as much fun as, though they are often a lot more work than, blogging... Both can certainly be draining though.

Françoise, Nicolas, Jean-Benoît et Jeanne

Let's toddle back to 1998 when Air released their, oft-copied/seldom matched, sci-fi lounge masterpiece Moon Safari. Tucked away on the b-side of simian-disco smash 'Sexy Boy' was a gem that saw them calling on the voice of a certain first lady of the French yé-yé scene.

This passed me by completely at the time, and though I loved the song 'Sexy Boy', I could only afford to buy the album and not the single too, and so I missed out on those bonus b-sides.  Instead I discovered something magical when my now wife and I did a tape swap, where we both compiled some Gallic-flavoured numbers for our first holiday together in Paris.

Back then, neither of us had much of a French record collection, so we had to be imaginative: anything with even a hint of the old ooh la la about it was recorded and sequenced, and a certain track on her C90 shone through. It was taped off an Elefant Records compilation Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics (1999) - a tasty little album if you can still find a copy: it has French language covers and originals including that Heavenly/France Gall one I posted recently; and Chaîne 17 contenders-by-proxy The Magnetic Fields doing a creaky version of 'Le Tourbillon' from Jules et Jim, that sounds like a busted old merry-go-round.

But I digress. The song by Air with a guest vocal by Françoise Hardy is entitled 'Jeanne' - a beautiful, breathy wisp of pastoral synth-pop with possibly the most melancholy oscillator solo I have ever heard. Make sure you have a handkerchief nearby before you listen...

Air feat. Françoise Hardy - Jeanne

[as mentioned above, this was issued as a b-side to Air's 'Sexy Boy' single, and also on Pop Romantique (Elefant Records/Emperor Norton). There are cheap used CD copies of both on the usual 2nd hand sites, and a couple of reasonably-priced vinyl copies of Pop Romantique on discogs.com]

I found this, lurking in the shadows...

Darby left a comment requesting a song in relation to the last two L'Amour à la Chaîne posts...

As mentioned in those posts, Françoise Hardy recorded a version of the song Son Amour Pour Un Jeu in English under the title Strange Shadows (and this was more recently covered in a dreamy, mellotron-tinged version by Fabienne Delsol). Françoise also recorded her own French language version, L'Ombre. And this is what Darby has requested.

The recording has the same arrangement as Strange Shadows, and I'd be willing to bet the same instrumental backing was used for both, however the French version has just a little more yearning in the vocal, which just clinches it for me.

Françoise Hardy - L'Ombre

[this is taken from her 1970 album Soleil]

She's Francoise, it's not her fault

This video combines 3 things that I love: Françoise Hardy, Paris and neon.

I love her knowing smile just before she sings "A girl like many others"...

 

Le Premier Amour

The new Wes Anderson film has a Françoise Hardy song on the soundtrack - this is a good thing.

It's not surprising that he chose the Jacques Dutronc-penned Le Temps de L'Amour: a song which perfectly captures the wide-eyed innocence and burning intensity of first love, and is a perfect introduction to the delights of mademoiselle Hardy.

Unfortunately, bringing such music into the populist consciousness means it will very quickly be picked up and sullied by crass TV execs from Channel 5...  Oh thank you Mr Anderson!

Francoise and the Man from Mars

Ask me what my favourite era of Françoise Hardy records is and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to say the mid- to late-60s. A time when the production values on her records went HUGE, the arrangements (by Charles Blackwell, Mickey Baker, Jacques Denjean, Johnny Harris, et al) were GRAND and the songs were unashamedly POP (see her London-based 60s TV special The Piccadilly Show for some Hardy evidence).

So when someone comes along and tells me that an album from 1971 is one of her best, I refuse to believe them.  This was the case with La Question, recommended to me by a few bods (in person, and in print).  I had to see what the fuss was all about so I downloaded it, stuck it on and did some work whilst it passed by like so much background noise.  I dragged it onto my i-affixed personal stereo and forgot about it until one day I needed something gentle to block out the sounds of the commuter train on the way home from work.

Then the magic happened...

La Question is much sparser than the baroque pop of her output throughout the 60s, but the high production values are still there albeit in a far more tempered and subtle form.  Orchestrated throughout with pared-down strings and intricately plucked Spanish guitar, Françoise's voice is pushed to the forefront, sounding intimate and confessional - it's almost as if she's leaning in close to your ear to confide in you, the listener.

Studio trickery is simple but effective, panning voice and instruments across the whole Stereo spectrum, with a light and airy reverb added to everything. The only bells and whistles are a bit of piano and organ, sleepy upright bass, plaintive whistling, and the desolate winds of the Martian tundra as manifested by the human voice in this song...

Please do yrself a favour and stick yr headphones round yr ears before listening. Do this and I promise you're in for a spine-tingling and majestic listening experience.

Françoise Hardy - Le Martien

[buy La Question from amazon.uk or allmusic]

Voila

Over at Filles Sourires Guuzbourg has just posted a pleasing new take on Françoise Hardy's Voila. Dirty Beaches samples that familiar piano riff and delivers a laid-back velvety croon over the top of it.

Perfect for exorcising any memories of R*bbie W*lliams' god-awful Voila rip-off of a couple of years ago.

And now, as if an excuse was needed, a photo of the lovely Mademoiselle Hardy.

Falling for Françoise

This Saturday 21st May, 10.30am on Radio 4, Falling for Françoise 
[it will then be available for 7 days on the iPlayer]

Synopsis:

It was on a language-learning trip to Paris that John Andrew first heard the music of Francoise Hardy and fell for the sexy but shy singer. He was not alone - she was the dreamgirl of many an English schoolboy in the early 1960s.

In 'Falling for Francoise', he revisits Paris and the streets in which he first lost his heart and he talks to others who've suffered the same fate - the Hardy fan website curator, Yorkshireman Warren Gilbert; musician Ben Christophers, who's written songs for the mature Francoise; journalist Laura Barton, who's besotted with the whole French 60s 'ye ye' scene... and in a real coup, John gets to meet the singer herself, falling for Francoise all over again!

Introduction by John Andrew from the BBC Radio 4 blog

"Picture the scene. A girl walks down the street, alone and unloved, while around her loving couples hold hands and gaze into each other's eyes. That was the theme of 'Tous Les Garcons et les Filles de Mon Age', a self-penned melancholic song which in the early 1960s catapulted Françoise Hardy to Europe-wide fame, and achieved something rare: being one of the few French language songs to make the British charts. Globally it sold around two million copies-shifting more records than the legendary Edith Piaf did in eighteen years.

In Britain, Françoise had no shortage of schoolboy admirers. And I was one of them.

She suddenly made learning O and A Level French that much cooler. Hardy stood out from other girl singers of the time on both sides of the Channel. There was no fancy hair style or heavy duty cosmetics. Her hair was long and straight, her make-up minimal. She had a natural, wholesome look that made her the perfect 'girl next door.'

One of the fans I talk to in Falling for Françoise tells the story of a French girl who came to England to stay with a penfriend and turned out to be a dead ringer for Françoise. All his schoolmates made a beeline for her but he got there first. It was the start of a 10-day whirlwind romance that took in such delights as the Droitwich Lido.

But it wasn't just school boys who fancied Françoise. Just about every male rock star was effusive about her too. Mick Jagger called her his 'ideal woman' and David Bowie said that 'for a long time I was passionately in love with her. Every in male the world and a number of females also were.'

One of her most remarkable encounters was with Bob Dylan during his 1966 concert at the Paris Olympia. Dylan, she recalls, was 'in bad shape' and not singing well. In the interval he sent her a message to say he wouldn't complete the concert until she'd come to meet met him in his dressing room. It was an awkward encounter but later that day he gave a her a a private preview of two new songs later to become classics: 'I Want You' and 'Just Like a Woman'.

In a frank and often self-effacing interview, Françoise plays down the adoration and tells me she's always been uncomfortable with fame.

She says that like many of her early fans, she was a shy and anxious child and jokingly suggests it might be to do with the circumstances of her birth. She was born in Paris during an air raid warning in January 1944 when the city was still under Nazi occupation.

Home life was hard. Her father was largely absent. Her mother had to work hard to keep Françoise and her younger sister well fed and clothed On one of her father's rare appearances he gave her a guitar. Soon she was writing her own songs, as many as one a day. Eventually she successfully auditioned for the Vogue label. It was the start of a string of hits which included 'All Over The World' - a regular choice on The BBC Light Programme's Two-Way Family Favourites.

Though now approaching her seventies she looks as stunning as ever, though the long brown hair has given way to a grey, cropped cut.

More than fifty years since her first hit Françoise is still making albums. She's worked with a string of British musicians including Damon Albarn, the late Malcolm McLaren and the young singer/songwriter Ben Christophers.

EMI have signed her up for two more albums but with typical self-doubt she worries whether she can write enough new material to fill them.

This most reluctant of French icons though is sure of one thing. She says she's rarely happier than when curled up in bed with a book by her favourite author, Henry James."

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.2

From Jacques Dutronc's L'Amour à la Chaîne we move on to...

Françoise Hardy's Je Changerais D'Avis.

There are some obvious links: We could focus in on Dutronc and Hardy, arguably French pop's most beautiful couple, who finally married in 1981, and only recently separated (though they still remain close); Or on the fact both tracks were released on the Disques Vogue label; It's also worth mentioning that Dutronc penned one of Hardy's early hits Le Temps De L'Amour.

But no, Jacques Lanzmann is the shared interest. It was he who co-wrote the majority Dutronc's back-catalogue, but did you know he collaborated with Françoise Hardy on the French lyrics for Je Changerais D'Avis?

Released in 1966, this is possibly the most emotionally charged song in Françoise Hardy's back catalogue: it opens with a disarmingly understated verse and bridge, then just explodes into a great, big heartbreaking chorus. A brief pause for breath and a snare-roll, then it rockets off higher into the stratosphere. It's one of those songs, like River Deep, Mountain High, that leaves you breathless and ragged, and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye.



And the composer of this musical rollercoaster?  Genius cinematic soundtracker Ennio Morricone.

According to legend the 3-note melody was based on the police sirens Morricone heard from his Marseille hotel room one night. He composed a spiralling, repetitive cycle which ran through 8 tonal transitions, the tension building with each one. The song was originally released as Se Telefonando earlier in 1966 by Italian belter Mina, with lyrics by Maurizio Costanzo.


Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis
[buy Françoise Hardy from iTunes | Amazon.uk | cdandlp.com]

...................................................................
L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain? Leave your suggestions and reasons in the comments.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Amour à la Chaîne > Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis > ?

a good charity shop haul

Last Friday we went for a little day-trip to Bexhill-on-Sea, where we trawled the many charity and junk shops for second-hand treasures. I flicked my way through record-after-record of James Last and Sound Of Music LPs, but I came away with a nice little haul.

In the very first charity shop I picked up a copy of The Art Of Noise's 1984 proto-sample cut-and-stick pop hit Close (To The Edit) for 30p. A little musique concrète gem amongst the Lionel Richies and Band Aids. The b-side is a curious one – a medley/sampler of all the tracks on their album Who’s Afraid Of (The Art Of Noise), and the sleeve has a punch-out token for 50p off the album (offer closes 30th November 1984).












The Art Of Noise - Close (To The Edit)









The Art Of Noise -A Time To Hear (Who's Listening)
[buy The Art Of Noise from iTunes | Amazon.uk]

Our final stop of the day unearthed something even better – a 1965 Françoise Hardy seven-inch, the UK version of Le Temps Des Souvenirs sung in English as Just Call And I’ll Be There. And on the flip-side, one of my faves, You Just Have To Say The Word. It used to belong to Hazel, who lost the sleeve, but did stick a little name label on with (age-yellowed) sellotape. And the price: a mere 49p!









Françoise Hardy - Just Call And I'll Be There
Françoise Hardy - You Just Have To Say The Word
[buy Françoise Hardy from Amazon.com]

Other records I picked up:
A Link Wray Early Recordings LP for 50p
A 1981 reissued Sun Records compilation LP Rebel Rockabilly for 50p
And, er, The Most of Lulu for 50p for the track Love Loves To Love Love.

Once we’d got charity shop fatigue we went for a little walk along the prom, and in the evening we went to see our dear friend Bat For Lashes at the De La Warr Pavillion.

[image source]

It was a grand day out.

………………………………………………………………
ps. I’m pleased to say I’ve finally set up my record player so I can record vinyl.

SETLIST from 28 NOVEMBER 2009

In the foggy mists of lat November we held our final L'Amour Electronique of 2009. We had something of an enforced guest DJ situation (long story), but it all worked as well as it could've, with their electronic burblings mixing not-too-jarringly with our French bubblegum and poppier synth sounds.

Verity
New Order – Elegia
Glass Candy – Life After Sundown
Zouzou – Tu Fais Partie De Passé
Etienne Daho – Rendez-vous á Vedra
Michel Polnareff – La Mouche
Add N to (X) – Poke ‘Er ‘Ole
Pram – Omnichord
Sarah
Ladytron – Another Breakfast With You
Brigitte Bardot – Oh! Qu’il est Vilain
Sebastien Tellier – Sexual Sportswear
John Foxx – Mr No
Giorgio Moroder – From Here To Eternity
Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose
Professor Genius – La Grotta
Dominic
Chorus Reverendus – Ne Poussez Pas Meme Dans Les Orties
Marie Laforêt – Marie Colère, Marie Douceur
Tubeway Army – Me, I Disconnect From You
Coralie – Vis à Vis
Serge Gainsbourg – Le Poinçonneur des Lilas
Brigitte – Battez Vous
Dessous Chics – Garçon Façile
Jacques Dutronc – Il est Cinq Heures, Paris S’eveilles
Verity
Luna – Bonnie & Clyde – (Clyde Barrow version)
Serge Gainsbourg et Jane Birkin – La Decadanse
Stereo Total – Joe Le Taxi
Françoise Hardy – Les Petits Garçons
Jean-Michel Jarre – Equinoxe pt. 5
OMD – Electricity
Visage – Fade To Grey
Sebastien Tellier – Divine
France Gall – Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges
[--guest DJ set--]
Sarah
Datarock - Computer Camp Love
Katsen – Island in an Island
Luke Haines – Off My Rocker at the Artschool Bop
Les Roche Martin – C'est Toi Qui a Gache Notre Vie
Prototypes – Je Ne Te Connais Pas
Stereo Total – Plastic
The Associates – Party Fears Two
Ultravox – Slow Motion
France Gall – Les Sucettes
Dominic
Petula Clark – Il y a Tellement de Filles
Baby Birkin – St Tropez
Charlotte Leslie – Les Filles C’est Faites Pour Faire L’Amour
Serge Gainsbourg – Chatterton
Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
Gong/Daevid Allen – Est-ce Que Je Suis
Les Soundtracks – Ce Soir C’est Ma Fête
Antoine – Un Éléphant Me Regarde
L’Infonie – J'ai perdu 15 cents dans le nez froid d'un ange bronzé
Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator
L’Infonie – L’Affaire
Michèle et Ses Wouaps – Dam Dam
Michel Legrand – Digue Ding Ding
French language disque “Please will you come to my house”
[--guest DJ set--]
Verity
Hot Butter – Popcorn
Stereolab – John Cage Bubblegum
Pulp – Le Roi Des Fourmis
Serge Gainsbourg – Docteur Jekyll et Monsieur Hyde
Blancmange – Living On The Ceiling
The Knife – We Share Our Mother’s Health
Simon Bookish – Fantastic Piss Experiment
Mareva Galanter – Pourquoi Pas Moi
Sarah
Chantal Goya – Une Écharpe, Une Rose
Sylvie Vartan – Les Hommes Qui N’ont Plus Rien à Perdre
Serge Gainsbourg – Pauvre Lola
Pulp – Razzamatazz
Devo – Peek-a-Boo
The B-52’s – 6060842
Add N to (X) – Metal Finger In My Body
[--guest DJ set--]
Dominic
Takako Minekawa – Fantastic Cat
Die Dorau & Die Marinas – Fred Vom Jupiter
Brigitte Bardot – Contact
Serge Gainsbourg – Qui est ‘In’, Qui est ‘Out’?
Adèle – C’est Bon
Silicon Teens – Let’s Dance
Fad Gadget – Fireside Favourite (I Monster toasted crumpet mix)
Jacqueline Taïeb – 7 Heures du Matin
Stereo Total – Orange Mecanique
Dopplereffekt – Pornoviewer
Ronnie Bird – Chante
Jacques Brel – Amsterdam (live a l’Olympia, Paris)


November's mp3 selections
Sarah
Brigitte Bardot – Oh! Qu’il est Vilain
[buy Brigitte Bardot from iTunes | Amazon.uk]
Verity
Françoise Hardy – Les Petits Garçons
[buy Françoise Hardy from Amazon.uk]
Dominic
Dopplereffekt – Pornoviewer
[buy Dopplereffekt from iTunes]

Is nothing sacred?

The other day I heard a song on the radio which bears an uncanny resemblance to Voila by Francoise Hardy. It was early morning, I was half asleep, but every now and then a snippet of that unmistakable piano line wafted out of the speakers, and sections of the chord progression sounded very familiar too.

It has taken me until today to look up what it is. Fucking Robbie Williams. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

He can't possibly get away with this can he? Yes, unfortunately he can. Being a payed up member of the PRS I was able to look up who is credited as a writer on the track. There on the database is HARDY, FRANCOISE MARIE AUBINE, though rather cheekily she's not actually been assigned a royalty percentage for having her song heavily sampled/ripped off. I imagine Robbie and his writers first heard Voila when it was used on a Horlicks advert - he's about that cultured.

Enjoy Francoise's original. Then suffer Nobbie's monstrosity if you must...






Right, I'm off to email Francoise to tell her. That'll show Nobbie.

Lux Interior R.I.P. [21.10.46 - 04.02.09]

Cramps frontman Lux Interior died this week – he’s gone to that great goth graveyard in the sky / bowels of the earth [delete as appropriate].

It’s no secret that we are BIG fans of The Cramps (the sound of Miss Pain has oft been described as a kind of “electro-Cramps rumble”, and we’ve covered their ‘Call of The Wighat’, and done our own Cramp-ed up version of ‘Fever’ in our live sets). Here’s our little tribute to him…

First, a raunchy, blues-y stab at 1978 their buzzzzzzzzzzzz-erk tremelo-drone ‘Human Fly’ by slinky French bossa-nova merchants / arch-ironists Nouvelle Vague.

Nouvelle Vague – Human Fly
[buy Nouvelle Vague: iTunes | Amazon]


And here's a filthy, squelchy synthed-up Sonovac version of the same song

Sonovac - Human Fly
[buy Sonovac: iTunes / Amazon]

The Cramps made a bleak and tear-jerking rendition of Ricky Nelson’s ‘Lonesome Town’ on their Gravest Hits ep. Françoise Hardy’s 1968 version is lusher and grander, but no less fragile. There won’t be a dry eye in the house…

Françoise Hardy – La Rue Des Coeurs Perdus
[buy Françoise Hardy: iTunes | Amazon]


Lux Interior, We salute you!

Look! New Poster!

Yes we have a lovely new poster to show-off our lovely new night in a lovely new venue.

Here it is:

Now we are 5 - a retrospective

Zut Alors! It would appear that we have racked up 5 whole years of French and electronic pop goodness under the tricolore banner of L’Amour Electronique.

Here's a little poster artwork retrospective...