Ass Kicking French Pop Culture

January 31, 2006 9:39 AM

Unbelievably ass kicking playlist of french pop culture hits from the 60's. Featuring the ever zany Brigitte Bardot, Jaques Dutronc, France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg, and more. (via)
posted by sourbrew (30 comments total)

doh... should have said it was a playlist of of music videos...
posted by sourbrew at 9:39 AM on January 31, 2006

J'y pense et puis j'oublie... c'est la vie c'east la vie!

Je vous remercie de votre poste, sourbrew. Bien fait!
posted by psmealey at 9:44 AM on January 31, 2006

Also I have done Jacques Dutronc a disservice by misspelling his name.
posted by sourbrew at 9:44 AM on January 31, 2006

Damn there's a lot to like here. You just made my lunch hour more fun. Now I have to find an album by Les Chats Sauvages!
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:50 AM on January 31, 2006

The story behind "Les Sucettes" is pretty funny. From Wikipedia:

France Gall was horrified to discover the sexual double-meaning of the lyrics to "Les Sucettes". Les Sucettes tells about a little girl with a strong taste for lollipops — a perfectly innocent song suitable for small children. However, one can also interpret it as a description of fellatio.
posted by dobie at 9:55 AM on January 31, 2006

France Gall has no stage presence. She's positively soporific.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:13 AM on January 31, 2006

The vid of Jaques Brel singing Amsterdam is pretty interesting...its a much faster version than you normally hear, and he sounds to be very young in this take. All of the passion is still there tho, for a song about the sailors and whores of Amsterdam.
posted by gren at 10:27 AM on January 31, 2006

Nice.

I'm all for anything that goes beyond the mass-sheep-think of normal boring-ass US-UK pop-rock.
posted by HTuttle at 10:40 AM on January 31, 2006

Well, I certainly had no idea that April March's "Laisse Tomber les Filles" wasn't an original. Color me ignorant...
posted by deafmute at 10:40 AM on January 31, 2006

Fans of french pop should check out the Ultra Chicks comps like Filles in the Garage and Lolita Ya-Ya!
posted by shoepal at 11:05 AM on January 31, 2006

"Headstock of wax, headstock of sound."

Really? Okay.
posted by grabbingsand at 11:06 AM on January 31, 2006

Man , that Bardot could sure bring the sexy. in this vein, currently is Carla Bruni. Probably one of my favorites of the last year.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 11:22 AM on January 31, 2006

Thank you so much for this. Simply wonderful. And if you click on the tag Birkin, you can watch the (in)famous "Je t'aime, moi non plus".
posted by dov at 11:23 AM on January 31, 2006

Wow, this is awesome.
posted by fire&wings at 11:26 AM on January 31, 2006

I would like to give my deepest thanks to sourbrew for finding this and sharing...it made my father (who was born and raised in Belgium) incredibly happy seeing these things he had only heard on the radio so long ago. If anyone else knows of good archives of older french (or flemish) music, I would be most grateful.

Many thanks again sourbrew ;¬)
posted by gren at 11:31 AM on January 31, 2006

gren, no problem. I try to do my part to combat the notion that the French are (insert american stereotype here). The French have a beautiful culture, its nice to be able to share it in such an accessible way.
posted by sourbrew at 11:38 AM on January 31, 2006

Thanks for the link. Great stuff.

I'm just wondering about the copyright of these songs (and videos). How can this service be legal if p2p ain't?
posted by hoskala at 11:44 AM on January 31, 2006

[this is good]

And no, Sylvie Vartan isn't Michael Vartan's mother: she's his aunt.
posted by holgate at 12:56 PM on January 31, 2006

the brel is simply amazing. That version of amsterdam was actually the only version I was familiar with, since I only have it on a collection. I was not aware the song was usually slower. I love him abandoning the microphone at the end, though.

thanks for this. I'd never seen Jacqes Brel perform, before. really awesome.
posted by shmegegge at 1:12 PM on January 31, 2006

Oh. And here's the Johnny Hallyday site.
posted by Sk4n at 1:22 PM on January 31, 2006

Gettin hot now - Plastic Bertrand.

I mean, honestly.. Any site called Famousbelgians.net deserves a shout-out.
posted by Sk4n at 1:24 PM on January 31, 2006

I am the king of the divan.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:32 PM on January 31, 2006

For the record, it's really via Bibi's Box, considering it's her playlist and all...
posted by iamck at 1:54 PM on January 31, 2006

iamck, true that, but we make money not art is where i found it. I try to give credit to sites that let me know about cool stuff as aposed to just linking directly to the cool stuff. I run a weblog and I can track boosts in del.icio.us links based on days that i have posted stuff. I get no love though... its hard being a blogger. ;-)
posted by sourbrew at 2:03 PM on January 31, 2006

Mark my words: Michel Polnareff's Love Me, Please Love Me will be used for the closing credits of a Wes Anderson film sometime soon.

At least, it really oughta be.
posted by flaneur at 4:09 PM on January 31, 2006

First time I have ever seen video footage of Michel Polnareff in his prime. All hail this post.
posted by fire&wings at 4:45 PM on January 31, 2006

Unfortunately that site does not seem to have anything by Georges Brassens, who I think is the greatest French songwriter. This page discusses him and some of his contemporaries and gives a lot of links.

"Brassens and the other post-World War II French singers are responsible for the greatest renaissance of song in modern times" (Kenneth Rexroth).
posted by Bureau of Public Secrets at 5:15 PM on January 31, 2006

Fantastic! I really love the Bonnie and Clyde song.
posted by piratebowling at 7:34 AM on February 1, 2006

thanks! : >
posted by amberglow at 7:52 AM on February 1, 2006

i like it!
posted by dydecker at 8:59 AM on February 1, 2006