Hello, my French Polynesian Friend
Marcy from the rather wonderful Lost in Your Inbox has inspired me to write a post I’ve been intending to scribble out for a wee while now; one about an exotic visitor I used to have, and hope I still do. Back when this site was on Blogger I used to have an almost daily visit from someone in French Polynesia. Now that Song, by Toad has moved to WordPress I don’t get anything like the quality of stats I used to, so I have no idea if my Polynesian friend is still a regular visitor here. If you are: hello there, delighted to have you with us, and do say hi in the comments section.
Anyhow, as Mrs. Toad observed, this is a small example of one of my favourite things about the information age. Only very recently, it would have been unimaginable for someone living on an island that is part of a remote Pacific archipelago to maintain any sort of an active, everyday interest in obscure indie music, but now it is not just possible, but really rather easy. I sort of like that. Why someone living in a tropical island paradise would want to waste part of his day reading my dithering cynicism is rather beyond me, but it’s a nice thought.
So in honour of my visitor from French Polynesia I am going to post some French songs. Or some with bits of French in them. The poor bastard may be utterly sick of the sound of the French language by now, so this might be irritating as hell, but it seemed sort of appropriate.
Blur w. Francoise Hardy – To the End One of the best b-sides of all time by anyone, ever.
The Wedding Present – Pourquoi Est-tu Devenue Si Raisonnable? Splendidly shit French accent from Mr. Gedge.
Francoiz Breut – Si Tu Disais Excellent, sultry French girl indie.
Calexico – Si Tu Disais An English version of the same song. Brilliant.
Calexico – The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Marianne Dissard – Merci de Rien du Tout Marianne’s lovely voice sang the French part in The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Her solo stuff is truly lovely stuff.
Ah, French songs without Carla Bruni or Yann Tiersen. The French, though wonderful at such noble pastimes as making cheese, being existential and insulting Americans, have such little good music. Why do you deprive them of what little top tune-ages they have?
Marianne Dissard and Francoiz Breut are French, as is half of Francoise Hardy (I think). The Weddoes are in there exclusively because David Gedge comes out with some of the most English-sounding French I have heard in ages. I very, very nearly included Tiersen, but thought I’d save it for a post that included Neil Hannon. Carla Bruni I don’t know at all. Send me some songs and I’ll post ‘em.
My stats say I have a visitor from French Polynesia too! Come and say hello whoever you are!
That Blur/Hardy track’s FAB.
aw, despite your crusty exterior, you’re really a very nice toadster after all, aren’t you? : )
phoenix is french, although they sing in english. i love how their accents come across, even though the music is kind of middle of the road.
Crusty? Warty, green and slippery I think you’ll find.
yeah, that’s what i meant. : )
So much for my plan to post said Blur b-side by the niddle of next week……………
Well JC you might as well post it. I worried about that for a bit, but then you’d never post anything because someone somewhere will almost certainly have done it first. My decision was to write this blog like it was the only one someone read. I know that’s nonsense, but it stops me having to worry too much about posting anything other than what I’m thinking about at the time.
There’s a copy of Calexico doing the ballad of cable hogue entirely in French. It suits the song. I don’t know where I got the 128kbs mp3, or if it is rare, but you are welcome to a copy if you like.
Titus