France Gall - "1968" Vinyl, Album, Reissue, 1968/2020 (Third Man Records)

France Gall, a teenage singer, for whom Serge Gainsbourg wrote many of her hits. That is interesting, but France is also a great Jazz orientated singer singing French Pop. Beside Gainsbourg, her pop, Robert Gall, wrote a lot of her lyrics with various composers. On the surface, Gall sang for teenagers, but the songs were all written by men in their 30s. This is not an unusual occurrence in the world of French pop music. One of her principal arrangers is Alain Goraguer, a remarkable music figure as well. He worked with everyone from Boris Vian, to Gainsbourg and made a significant electronic soundtrack album "La Planète Sauvage." The other arranger on this album is the English composer and arranger David Whitaker. All of the above, including France Gall, contributed to "1968."

The album captures the year 1968 as if it was an early colored photograph. "1968" yells out the decade due to the exotic instrumentation as well as the balance of pure pop with something substantial. The interesting thing about following French pop music is one should not only pay attention to the headliner (the singer of course) but also equally important are the arrangers. Whitaker and Goraguer have a unique sound, and they truly put their mark on their recordings. "1968" is not only a great France Gall disc but also a crucial recording made by the French, with the help of an Englishman (Whitaker) in a highly inventive album. There are two Gainsbourg songs on the album as well. They are highly recommended. 

Alain Goraguer - "J'irai Cracher sur vos Tombes" OST, Vinyl, 7" 45 rpm EP, 1959 (Philips)

I have a bit of history with Alain Goraguer, in the sense that I published with my press TamTam Books, J'irai cracher sur vos Tombes (I Spit on Your Graves) by Boris Vian.  Vian had a love and hated relationship with this book due that he got into much trouble with the law on this title, as well as loathing the film version of his novel.  Also, the fact that he died during the screening of this film, sort of makes this a cursed book/film.  Still, and even Vian agreed, Alain Goraguer is a fantastic musician and composer.  

I had the music as a download for years but had a hard time finding the original edition of this classic.  Until I found a copy at HMV in Shinjuku Tokyo.   In pretty great condition, and with a price of around $30, I purchased this piece of history.   The EP is approximately 10 minutes long, with six pieces, but an essential work by Goraguer.   

His most famous work in the English speaking world is his electronic soundtrack to the animated film "La Planète Sauvage," but sadly it ends there with most listeners of that work.  Goraguer is a jazz pianist who also played and arranged the early Serge Gainsbourg records of the 50s,  as well as working with  YéYé teenage acts of the 1960s.  Throughout that decade up to the 80s, he worked on with other French artists and wrote and performed various soundtracks, including adult films.  Whenever I see his name on the record label, either as artist, arranger, or his orchestra, I pick it up and never am I disappointed with the music or recording. 

Goraguer also wrote songs with Boris Vian, and it is probably due to this relationship that he composed the score to "I Spit on Your Graves."   A haunting melody, it is a perfect film writing score that shows all of Goraguer's strength as a composer and artist. 

Serge Gainsbourg ' "Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg" Vinyl, Compilation, LP, 2015 (Decca)

This is volume one of a two-volume set of the vinyl release of Serge Gainsbourg's soundtrack work for French films.    It's an excellent compilation for those who want to put their toe in before putting their entire body into the bath water that is Serge Gainsbourg and his music making for films.  For me, it's impossible to have the name Serge Gainsbourg on a disc or CD label that it's essential for one to buy and enjoy.  But in real life, there is, of course, better compilations or albums out there than "Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg."  For instance the CD box set "Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg 

Musiques De Films 1959-1990."

For those who are not fussy with formats of vinyl or CD, the box set is the completist choice where one has all the Gainsbourg film music in one container (three CDs in the box set).  For the nerd, such as yours truly, I need the vinyl edition as well.  Don't ask why.  It's a collector's illness if anything else.  But to focus on this particular vinyl compilation, it's a gem.   Throughout his career, Gainsbourg worked with three great arrangers: Alain Goraguer, Michel Colombier, and Jean-Claude Vannier.  All three are represented in the vinyl edition of "Le Cinéma..."  

This is not a greatest hits collection of songs, but a thoughtful approach to his soundtrack work - which at times he co-wrote with his arrangers.   The one thing that never changes is the lyrics - which belongs entirely to Gainsbourg.   It's a solid and delightful collection of music.  If you are like me, this is a springboard or entrance to the Gainsbourg world.  Enter, and for sure you will be spending more money and time locating the actual soundtrack albums or EP's. 

Serge Gainsbourg - "Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin" CD, Compilation, Remastered, 1996 (Mercury)

In the year 1996, Philips/Mercury organized a series of releases focusing on a specific time and music style of Serge Gainsbourg.   For me, it was my first real introduction to Gainsbourg's music and his world.   So, for the last 21 years, I have been obsessing about this man's music, which led me to publish a full biography of Serge as well as releasing a fictional work by him as well, with my press TamTam Books.   

"du jazz dans le ravin" is a collection of Gainsbourg's early recordings, that are mostly jazz-based, but still in a pop song format.  Lyrically, he was on the button of greatness.  Like most English speaking people I sort of knew Gainsbourg through his recordings with Brigitte Bardot and of course, Jane Birkin.  Beyond that, I knew very little till I bought this CD compilation.   Compared to his pop and Latin-based pop music, I love his jazz period.  At this time, he was singing in a croon, that conveyed wickedness and someone who can give great advice.   The music is very seductive,  but not always in the physical, sexual sense.  He was a writer that could convey a world and make it into a "Gainsbourgian" landscape, and us listeners are just passing through the neighborhood.  

His partner-in-crime was the great arranger/songwriter/jazz player Alain Goraguer.  Gainsbourg throughout his career depended on these sort of musical characters, and Goraguer was the jazz guy for him.   It's either Goraguer's jazz arrangements or the great recordings with electric guitarist Elek Bacsik and double bass player Michel Gaudry.  A Minimal arrangement with Gainsbourg's voice floating over these two instruments.  Yet, the songs are incredible. "Chez Les Yé-Yé" and others are Serge's most excellent commentary on the Paris world at that time (the late 1950s/early 1960s).  

Often I'm overwhelmed when someone asks me what's the entrance to Serge Gainsbourg's music.  For me, I'm one of those who gets one,  I must have everything.   To properly understand his work, you have to dive in with head and body - and head first!

Sacha Distel - "La La Song" 7" 45rpm EP, French, 1964 (RCA)

The Last of the International Playboys, if that were a social club, then surely French singer/guitarist Sacha Distel would have been a member.   I discovered him through my obsession with the world that surrounded Boris Vian, the author I published with my press TamTam Books.  Distel was a guy who was in the right place, Paris, and to be specific, at the Saint-Germain des Prés nightclubs and had an obsession with be-bop jazz.   Studied under and pal with the great Henri Salvador, Distel played guitar with artists like The Modern Jazz Quartet, Dizzy Gillespie, as well as with top French jazz musicians.  In the late 1950s, he became internationally famous for being Brigitte Bardot's lover, which in turn introduced himself into a favourite vocalist.

When I think of Sacha Distel, it is in two separate compartments.  One as a massive French pop singer star, and the other as a great jazz guitarist.  Rarely did the two forms of music met on his recordings.  For the casual fan, he is probably thought of as an entertainer who sings.   It's much harder to locate his work on vinyl/CD of his Jazz-leaning guitar work.  I went to Amoeba yesterday and found this French issued 7" EP, of Sacha singing  "La La Song," which is not fantastic, but nevertheless a good French pop song.  The other three songs on the EP are based on Amerian songs with French lyrics written by Maurice Tézé, who worked a lot as a lyricist with Distel.   The best song on this EP is J'aimerais Être Là (I Wanna Be Around) which is based on a Johnny Mercer tune.   The real stars of these recordings are the arrangers.  Three songs are arranged by the Boris Vian/Serge Gainsbourg associate Alain Gorgaguer (as well as doing the futuristic soundtrack to the animated "La Planète Sauvage) and Michel Colombier, another artist who worked with Gainsbourg.  For those in the know, when you see those names attached to a recording, it is usually a good sign that they're good. 

Various - "Mister Melody - Les Interprètes de Serge Gainsbourg" 4 x CD, Box Set, Compilation, 2006 (Mercury)

The problem or the genuine delight, there is not one Serge Gainsbourg album to purchase.  I shudder when someone asks me advice with respect to choosing their first Serge album.  My honest reaction is to buy them all!   Although when push comes to a shove or a kick, I would easily recommend the box set called "Mister Melody."   What makes it unique is that it's 4 cd's that covers every major (and nonmajor) period in Gainsbourg's music career.  Besides making his own albums, his bread and butter job was writing songs for other artists.  This CD Box Set focuses on Serge Gainsbourg as the composer (or co-songwriter).

I bought this album at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, just right before I enter my plane back to Los Angeles.  It's funny that I couldn't find anything to buy for myself in Paris, and it was at the airport that I found the greatest music package.  For a package that has almost 100 songs, it's rich with quality.  There are the songs that we all know and love with Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin, and France Gall, but it's the rare or unknown cuts, at least for this American, that are the delights of this CD set.  Marianne Faithfull's "Hier Ou Demain" is a standout track as well as recordings by Michèle Torr, Régine, Nico ("Strip Tease" - a wow), Catherine Sauvage and so forth. 

Gainsbourg was a genius.  He also worked with the best talents, such as arrangers Jean-Claude Vannier, Alain Goraguer, Michel Colombier - all of them superb and their talents were individualistic.  Not all female artists, there are some male artists here as well.  But Gainsbourg actually knew how to use the female's sensibility in getting his songs across to the public.  "Mr. Melody" is clearly a work of many decades, and the one thing that is consistent is Gainsbourg's excellence throughout the years.  Even the later years have their gems.  Fantastic.  

Barney Wilen/Alain Goraguer - "Jazz & Cinema Vol. 1" CD, Remastered, France, 2000 (Gitanes Jazz Productions/Jazz in Paris)

It's no top secret that the Paris culture loves American Jazz.  Similar to American pop culture being in tuned to the British Invasion of the early 1960s.   Gitanes, the tobacco company that probably killed Serge Gainsbourg and many others, had the good taste to sponsor a series of classic French Jazz sessions, that are way out of print, yet, essential to the jazzier and French cultural maven.  I think I have the complete series.  The majority of the recordings are from the post-war years in Paris, from 1946 to 1959.  A lot of it is American and French musicians who made recordings for the French market.  A lot of American musicians, especially Black Americans, made a good living in Paris during those years.   Thanks to people like by beloved Boris Vian.

"Jazz & Cinema" comes to five separate CDs.  Their first volume is devoted to the soundtracks of "J'Irai Cracher Sur Vos Tombes" by Alain Goraguer (based on a Boris Vian/Vernon Sullivan novel) and Un Témoin Dans La Ville by Barney Wilen.  Both from 1959.   Both are great scores by these magnificent talented musicians.   Goraguer is of special interest to me, due that he had worked with Vian, Serge Gainsbourg, and made a pioneering electronic score for La Planète Sauvage.  The CD series is not expensive, and all come with great liner notes and images of the original release.  Their outer CD covers look like a tourist trap attraction but believe me, the sound is great and the talent/recordings are all magnificent. 

Brigitte Bardot - "La Madrague" CD, Compilation

Brigitte Bardot - La Madrague

CD, Compilation, France, 1991

Philips

One can criticize Brigitte Bardot, but it won’t be from me.  For one, she was the first movie star I have ever seen on a big screen.  I may have been in a movie theater before, but seeing Roger Vadim’s “A God Created Woman” was my first experience, and in a sense Bardot was my first woman, besides my Mom, in acknowledging a female presence in my life.  A lot of women are beautiful, but Bardot somehow went even beyond that.  

This collection of Bardot’s hits are a part of an interesting series that France Philips put together called ‘Actrices.’   A collection of releases by iconic actresses who happened to make music, and it looks like every major French female movie star made a recording of some sort.  Most of them were lucky enough to have the talents or arrangers Alain Goraguer, Andre Popp and the writing talents of Serge Gainsbourg.  Bardot had them all, well at least musically.  

Still, this is not a great collection, because they left out major Bardot recordings like “Contact” and avoided some of her more ‘odd’ recordings.  But all have the Bardot personality stamped on the grooves, and she doesn’t disappoint as a vocalist.  A limited vocalist yes, but her personality and sexuality comes through as if it was transparent paper.   Her work with Gainsbourg are noting but masterpieces.  Her version with Serge of the classic erotica Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus is a must and worth the price of this CD/Vinyl.  Much more lush than the Birkin version, this is one of the key songs by Serge, and Bardot adds an equal amount of sexuality on this record.  Essential.  Not an easy find anymore, but there are better Bardot collections out there, but still it does have Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus, the original version.  

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 - "Rock n' Roll: Naissance d'un Nouveau Rythme en France" Vinyl Lp

Boris Vian - Rock n’ Roll: Naissance D’un Nouveau Rythme en France

Vinyl, LP Compilation, France, 1976

Disques Jacques Canetti

Boris Vian, in his last decade, focused on the world of making music.  Both in the studio as well as being an A&R man for Phillips and other labels.  Vian became a mover and shaker in the French music industry, which is incredibly fascinating when you look at his whole career of being an icon, writer and then a music industry figure. 

Vian was a hardcore jazzier, so I think he had mixed-thoughts regarding the world of commercial Rock n’ Roll.  Yet, ironically enough, he probably recorded the first French rock n’ roll record.  This is a fascinating compilation of Vian’s strongest ties to two artists:  The actress and singer Magali Noel and the great over-all everything talent of Henri Salvador.   Vian wrote songs with Henri, that were mostly humorous and sort of a piss-take on the rock n’ roll medium.  Yet, they’re a joy to listen to.  Noel is sort of a muse for Vian in the recording studio.  She reminds me of a teenage Lottie Lenya (although she was an adult) due that she’s all character, and Vian had her voice in mind with such songs like “Fais-Moi Mai Johnny (a duet with Boris on top of that).  Also Vian shared her talents with another great artist - Fellini!

Henri Salvador is probably looked upon as a humorist singer, but the fact is he was a great guitarist, and a wonderful singer.  He had a long career in the French world, and is often treasured as a gem of an artist. 

This collection is a good introduction to Vian’s world of the 1950’s.  Also all the great arrangers worked on these recordings such as Alain Goraguer, Claude Bolling, and Michel Legrand.

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

Alan Goraguer - "Go-go-Goraguer CD Album

Alain Goraguer – Go-go-Goraguer

CD album, 2001 (recored 1956 in Paris)

Universal Music (France)

Alain Goraguer is one of the amazing music figures in contemporary French music. In the late '50s he was Serge Gainsbourg's arranger, and made some incredible recordings with him, and a tad earlier he made this album Go-go-Goraguer. Hearing this I imagine Alain Delon playing a gangster walking into a crowded bistro in a Jean-Pierre Melville film. The music reflects on the beauty of its time and its played somewhere between between dusk and dawn. Jazz is always cinamatic to me, and especially French jazz. I can practically smell Pigalle off these melodies.

Goraguer plays the piano in a manner that is bopish but with a sense of lightness. Beautifully and tastefully backed by Double Bass Paul Rovére and drums by Christian Garros. Also do note that Goraguer in the early '70s made a remarkable electronic soundtrack to the film La Planéte Sauvage as well as composing the imfamous Boris Vian related J'iri cracher sur vos tombes.