The French have a history of excellence in musicianship and studio production, and it's well in evidence here. The sound is always organic, clear, subtle, tasteful, and imaginative. Given the length of her career and consistency of recordings - she never made a bad album - it's obvious she has more control over these aspects than you might expect. The dame has taste in spades. She has an ear for a good tune and knows who she needs to work with to get what she wants. This double album slips down a treat, and you'll hardly notice it's sung in Frangsay.
There is no hell but France - Frank Zappa ......... Zoltan patient now.
ReplyDeleteIt could be that Frank Zappa was thrown off by the Jerry Lewis
ReplyDeleteconnection or something. Still, I do have sort of a soft spot
for the French -- all the more so since that Freedom Fries scandal
of yesteryear. If a link to this particular album were to show up,
I would certainly click.
He was thrown off a stage, yes. All my family are French, though I am a celt. There were French Celts too, though they were were not yet French. Brittany, Karnak etc. Freedumb fries made more of a splash here and were hardly noticed by the French. We're a couple weeks old in their world/
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ReplyDeleteYowsa, Vanessa
About the French - I lived in France for many years, both in the South and Paris, and have no complaints. Yes, the stereotype is largely true, but it is still a fantastic country. Mostly shit at pop and rock, but hey.
ReplyDeleteSad to report that the quality of baguettes at Total service stations on the French motorway network has declined substantially. Spent Christmas in Normandy, which involved a long drive north, and the chance to reacquaint myself with the pinnacle of order and organisation that is the Aires de Servive d'Autoroute. So devoted was my allegiance to the Total baguette, that I had been known to run out of petrol trying to make it to the next available stop. Sadly, those days are now long gone. Stopping off at a Total somewhere near Poitiers, I navigated my way through the massed ranks of concrete picnic tables to the Total shop inside, my mouth watering in anticipation. It's been a few years since my last visit, and I was shocked at the changes that have taken place. Gone were the artesanal breads and tasty, original fillings, replaced by plastic, mass market blandness. Vegetarian options - bien sûr - were conspicuously absent. Total is now a byword for watery fillings and soggy baps. No wonder the country is so ill at ease.
DeleteIt's over a decade since I was there, and at that time it was hard work finding the kind of meal you'd expect anywhere in the great stretch from Paris to Provence. More often than not it would be the bland, tasteless stuff the French consider the national food of anywhere else in the world. Tired bits of meat, hopeless veg (traditionally, vegetables have been thought of as animal feed in France) and dry fish covered in thick sauce. In Paris and Provence I got to know enough bistros to find the real cuisine they like to think is the national standard - simple, cheap, delicious. But that was then.
DeleteI know Frank was thrown off the stage in London (Rainbow Theatre 1974). France too?
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