On Chanteuses

The Girlfriend and I were playing songs for each other over the phone, which led to her playing me an earworm of a French ditty. And that reminded me - at the idiosyncratic Other Music, which I used to occasionally shop at, they sometimes filed French music under the heading "Decadence", and there's something about those alternately little-girl / breathy voices of female French singers that makes that appropriate, methinks...

There's probably a reason English felt the need to borrow the word "chanteuse" from the French. I have no idea what she's singing, for instance, but my France Gall album is still pretty compelling. (One of those things that's most appropriately played on a turntable - unfortunately, I don't have it on vinyl.) Actually, the Girlfriend's probably right on this one - knowing what the lyrics mean might pluck out the heart of the mystery.

Sheila and Black Devotion - Spacer

Anyway, on a slightly different track, here's a video of "Spacer", a song by French singer/actress Sheila together with Black Devotion - check out those seriously retro "space-age" costumes! If the disco tune sounds familiar, it later formed the bassline of that incredibly annoying song "Crying at the Discotheque"...

All right, time to go and listen to "Je t'aime moi non plus" - now that's a song that's universally understandable...

The Ye-Ye Girls website

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