February 20, 2004

• I've only heard French Pop. Zazie, Mylene Farmer, Khaled are some of the names that pop to mind.
• This might not be what you're looking for, but Leo Delibes' Lakme is a fine opera.
• Maurice Chevalier!
• "The Voice of the Sparrow"-The Very Best Of Edith Piaf is $7.69 on half.com right now--Chanteuse Incroyable will make you laugh and cry. (Go to Amazon.com, enter info, scroll down to "used") I promise you-- she is an original and will make you feel so glad to be alive!
• I don't know where you're at, Baby, but here in Oz we get the French news on TV 6 days a week. If you can pick that up, record it, and watch the segment two or three times, it's a far better investment time-wise than trying to understand sung French, which, like most sung stuff, is atypical. But by all means watch all the Godard you can, and, while we're out there, Resnais. Hey, if you want French music and film at the same time, try Resnais' *On conna
• Sorry, watch a *given* segment.
• Jacques Brel maybe? or for pop, Vanessa Paradis? there are also some excellent french rappers, but that might be hard to follow.
• I really like a song called "Respire" by Mickey 3D. It's great for practicing that "clearing the throat" kind of r that they do in French. Some of my other French favorites are Saez, Stereolab (some of their songs are sung in French), Zebda and Noir Desir. As for movies...there's a really good out there right now called "Les Invasions barbares". Highly recommended. Tu vas pas mourir de rire!
• Coralie Clément. MC Solaar's *Prose Combat* – the only rap album I like. And of course Tahiti 80 (just kidding: while they are French, they sing in English).
• Oh, for learning spoken French, check out books of this course from your nearest library (not sure if a Turkish prison will have them), and watch these videos online (for free) in sync.
• Edith Piaf is, of course, great; sadly, I long since got sick of her from hearing her played in every damn cafe, bistro, and art movie house in NYC. If you have also suffered this fate, or wish to avoid it, may I suggest the magnificent Charles Trenet? Essential Masters is a great collection, but I doubt you'll be disappointed by anything you get. Boum!
• julie doiron's desormais is lightweight when it comes to french exposure; the lyrics are simple but it's a beautiful record just In General. "ce charmant coeur," "la jeune amoureuse," and "le piano" are all beautiful. also, forgive me if it's too obvious, but there's always serge gainsbourg and francois hardy. there's a french rock band called magma that perfect sound forever seemed keen on in their french rock piece from way back.
• France Gall is kind of fun. Her 60's stuff anyway. [squats /] Shouldn't this post have been prefixed with Curious George or some kind of monkey-business like that? [flings /]
• I like Air and Daft Punk, that's about it for me.
• Kate and Anna McGarrigle have a new French record called, "La Vache Qui Pleure." Sweetly folky, it includes a translation of Malvina Reynolds "Little Boxes" which is catchy.
• mm, the tracks from the epitonic link aren't really representative of desormais. here's a way better taste; look under "julie doiron" they have a bunch. download "faites de beaux rêves" in particular if you want an idea of the record. and just for sheer pleasure, though sadly nonfrench "will you still love me in december?" from the original epitonic link is a fantastic song. (sorry, i'm done now)
• I really like a song called "Respire" by Mickey 3D. Il faut que tu respires Et ça c'est rien de le dire Tu vas pas mourir de rire Et c'est pas rien de le dire
• oh, Les Negresses Verte too! (Voila l'ete was a favorite years ago)
• Mexican, the post was prefixed with curious george...just in French. Le singe est curieux = The monkey is curious. Vive la differece!
• Fling! このモンキーはこんなに国際的と知らんかった！ I can't seem to get enough poo flinging today. Time to go nitpick in some other threads...
• Monkeyfilter: C'est un gentil petit singe tres curieux.
• For modern-age French music, David Byrne's Luaka Bop released a great compilation called "Cuisine Non-Stop" that's well worth checking out.
• I'm just glad nobody's mentioned Johnny Halliday. Er, until now, anyway.
• Live Parc des Princes Pour tous ceux qui y ont assist
• Edith Piaf! -- one of the most unusual and high-energy performers of the 20th century, even her inimitable recordings ensure she remains in a class by herself. She had a wonderfully throaty vibratto, a tremendous passion behind her work, and to this day I can't hear of or read the name of Paris without remembering her voice. A marvellous, one of a kind entertainer, inimitable singer, with much the same head-on impact Joel Gray's superb performance in Cabaret can have on the movie-goer. [Although languagehat may have been subjected to over-exposure, I shall never tire of her singing, any more than I shall of Lotte Lenya's or of Hoagy Carmichael's or Cab Calloway's or Louis Armstrong's. In case you can't tell, I don't so much <3 Piaf as worship her, she was head and shoulders above the common run.]
• You could also try: Patrick Bruel "Juste avant" Vall
• Some of Stereolab's songs are in french. Le Flow 1 and 2 are excellent (french hip-hop).
• A few names, in no particular order... Arthur H: poetic, surreal, good music. Barbara : fantastic voice, a lots of very good songs Carla Bruni: light and pleasant. (I don't mean it in a negative way.) Brigitte Fontaine: Great ! Compl
• Thanks, everyone! Sounds like a lot of good stuff! Oh, and I'm in New York (where Edith Piaf is, in fact, everywhere - I haven't gotten sick of her yet, languagehat, but I can see that happening). I give the turkish prison address online to keep my real mailbox from getting flooded with ads. I do get the French news a few times a day, but newscasters generally make a point of enunciating, and ordinary people don't. Plus, most memorization is a huge effort for me (if you ever see me quoting from a film, know that it's one I've seen at least fifteen times). Songs get stuck in my head ridiculously easily, though. I've spent miserable days unable to stop repeating horrible, horrible lyrics I picked up in shoe stores. I hope I can turn this to my advantage, for once.
• Well, this thread just got my butt over to Amazon to pick up one from Charles Trenet, one from Charles Aznavour, and one from Jacques Brel. Now all I need is the beret, the Gaulois dangling from my lip, and the deathless sense of ennui mondiale. Merci beaucoup, mes amis!
• Stereo Total are a half-French, half-German duo from Berlin who sing in French, German and English, and they're utterly fabulous. And very French. Although also quite German. They do a great cover of Salt'N'Pepa's Push It.
• Briank: You'll want to watch French Kiss to get the impersonation down pat. Not a great movie (though a great date movie), but Kevin Kline does the definitive American Frog. And la musique... oh la la! C'est merveilleux! It was worth seeing the movie just to be introduced to Beautiful South's "Les Yeux Ouverts" (a French version of "Dream a Little Dream of Me"). In fact, you might as well get the soundtrack.
• If nobody mentions Boris Vian in this thread, a kitten dies.
• What? No Céline Dion!? (half of her recent albums and all her early stuff is in french) Well, Québécois pride is taking control of me. Some will have strange accents and slang, but these people are mostly free from that: Ariane Moffat electro-ish pop. Daniel Bélanger Songwriter extraordinaire. Jean Leloup, our resident algerian-raised rebel. (notice that all these artists are on the label Audiogram, our quality mainstream powerhouse. Alas, québécois rock is usually filled with slang and often sung with huge accents. One exception seem to be stone-rockers and local indie scene icons Grim Skunk when they sing in french.
• A similar thread on Ask Metafilter today, if anyone is interested. (And maybe one of our metafilter monkeys might like to point it out over there)
• I'll jump on the bandwagon for MC Solaar, Serge Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Stereo Total, all really superb. I also like Renaud, who's recently had a comeback after a prolonged depression, as I hear. And I like Aliz
• Oops. Bad no preview peff.