Brigitte Fontaine - "13 Chansons Décadentes et Fantasmagoriques" CD Album

Brigitte Fontaine - 13 Chansons Décadentes et Fantasmagoriques

CD, Album, France, 2002 (originally recorded 1966)

Disques Jacques Canetti

What planet is this woman from, and why am I not born on this same planet?   Brigitte Fontaine, is a force that goes forward and rarely looks back.  But for me who just discovered her maybe five years ago, I have a lot to catch up on.  So I believe this may be her first album.  Chansons Décadentes et Fantasmagoriques.  Fontaine, who I know very little of, with respect to her background, but I have a strong suspicion that she is the bohemian’s bo-ho.  A chanson singer by trade, but one who took that form into another world.  Her singing style is very theatrical with a tinge of contemporary feeling or soul.   What is interesting to me (among a lot of stuff regarding her) is that Jimmy Walter arranged this album, and also worked with Boris Vian.   And she also did an album of recordings of Vian’s music as well.  So that thread between Saint Germain des Prés culture is very much part of Fontaine’s world, yet different because it is being made for the May ’68 generation.  This is an artist who didn’t stand still. I want to belong to her cult.

Boris Vian, Marie-José Casanova - "Marie-José Casanova chante Boris Vian" Vinyl LP

Boris Vian, Marie-José Casanova - Marie-José Casanova Chante Boris Vian

Vinyl LP, Album, Canada, 1965

Disques Jacques Canetti

A very interesting album on a couple of accounts.  First of all between the songs of Marie-José Casanova (is she a relative?) there is poetry by Vian recited by Pierre Brasseur, an actor who played the  great insane doctor in Les Yeux sans visage (“Eyes Without A Face”)  Also Jimmy Walter who co-wrote a lot of songs with Vian, arranged this album.   So what is one getting is very much an on-hands-because-I knew him approach to this specific record.  Also there is Vian himself either reciting his poetry or making commentary about his work.  I don’t speak French so I am not sure about this.

Nevertheless this is a fantastic album.  In a way it reminds me of Lotte Lenya’s great recordings of her husband Kurt Weil’s music.   Which is not a bad comparison because Casanova covers a Brecht/Weil song here that was translated or re-worked by Vian.  The beauty of this album is that it is very much a late-in-the-evening type of feel.  The arrangements are full but simple, and never gets in the way of Casanova’s smokey bluesy voice.

Boris Vian By Various - "À Boris Vian "On N'Est Pas Là Pour Se Faire Engueuler !”

Boris Vian By Various - À Boris Vian "On N'Est Pas Là Pour Se Faire Engueuler !”

2 x CD, Album, Enhanced, Reissue, France, 2009

AZ

Contemporary French pop singers paying their tribute to the Boris Vian songbook.  In theory this is a no-brainer, and a compilation that needed to be made.  But saying that, it should have been something more…. exciting.  Every cut here is well-recorded and extremely well-arranged, but it lacks a sense of danger that is truly Boris Vian.   One can wonder what this collection would have been like under the ears and eyes of someone like John Zorn.  Zorn is an artist who is a jazzier, but who goes beyond that category into another world.  He would have given these songs a fresh touch but faithful to the vision of Vian.  

The songs here are workable and perhaps it is a good introduction to the Vian songbook to those who don’t know his world.  But I think the hardcore Vian fan would want something more challenging or subversive.   But saying that, there are recordings here that work for me.  “Quand J’Aurais Du Vent Dans Mon Crane” is a great song - and actually the music is by Serge Gainsbourg.  He has the monster talent to make anything he touches into something special.   Vian had three serious songwriting partners that he worked with:  Alain Goraguer, Henri Salvador, and Jimmy Walter.  The hits are here, but also some new music attached to his poetry.  It is all very tasteful and respectful, but one misses Vian the Rebel.

Boris Vian - "Chansons possibles et impossibles" CD album

Boris Vian - Chansons Possibles et Impossibles

Vinyl Album, Reissue

Phillips

My life for the past twenty years can be two words.  Boris.  Vian.   I devote my press TamTam Books to  this Jacques-of-all-trades, and slowly and surely been collecting his books, his recordings, and like Chick in “Foam of the Daze” would also collect his nail clippings.   On the other hand it is probably best and more sane just to focus on his work - which is his writings and of course, his music.  

This album originally came out as two 7” EP’s.  Chansons Possibles and Chansons Impossibles, and then eventually as a 10” vinyl LP, and what I have is the CD version of the vinyl album.  I want to get the originals of course, but the inner-Chick in me has to wait.  Nevertheless I do have the songs and they’re quite remarkable.  Half of the songs were co-written by Alain Goraguer and the other half with Jimmy Walter.  Think of it as Morrissey working with Johnny Marr, Alain White or Boz.   Different melodies but all with the unique witty Vian lyric and voice.  

For a man who over a hundred songs, this is his only solo singing album that he released or made.  The record wasn’t successful in the sales department, but like they say about the first Velvets album, this album is still around, and many many French singers, including from America -  Peter, Paul & Mary have recorded his tunes. 

It is a shame that Vian’s singing career didn’t take off, and from all accounts it seems he was uncomfortable to be on the stage.  Chansons Possibles et Impossibles is a classic piece of pop-music making.  Its not the music itself (although wonderful) but his lyrics that set them apart from the rest of the pack.  A major influence on Serge Gainsbourg, Vian had the right combination of outrage and humor in his songs.  “Je Suis Snob” can be easily covered by an older Iggy Pop.   He brings the role of the snob as the ultimate aesthetic figure.  And how true is that!

Chansons Impossibles

Chansons possibles