In a similar situation to The Netherlands, it seems that around the '68-'74 period, a large proportion of heavy French bands with the sounds we like at TDATS, never made full albums, and there are many excellent singles to return to one day. I originally intended this to be a selection of album tracks only, but one single has crept in. The previous French volume was largely a thick lysergic soup of fuzz, and there's still some of that here, but this one also represents mid & late '70s hard rock, and even some of France's early metal sounds. I've decided to do another french comp later on: France really came into its own in the late '70s during the punk years, so I'm considering making a comp of that period.
TRACKS01. Alice - Le Roseau (1972)from album "Arrêtez le Monde"02. Joël Daydé - Can I Live My Life? (1971)from album "Daydé"03. Peinture Fraiche - Urbains Matins (1979)from album "125 Grammes de 33 1/3 Tours"04. Visitors - Visitors (1974)from album "Visitors"05. Hybride - Mon Pegaze (1977)from album "Ça n'a Pas d'Importance"06. Johnny Hallyday - Réclamation (1969)from album "Rivière... Ouvre Ton Lit"07. Volcania - Les Cris de la Nuit (1977)from album "l'Agression"08. Sorry - Boogie With the Law (1978)from album "Sorry"09. Jacky Chalard - Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard (1977)from album "Avec un Pied Dans le Rock 'n Roll"10. Rob Jo Star Band - Le Démon du Rythme (1975)from album "Rob Jo Star Band"11. Silvertrain - Disappointment Time (1979)from album "Which Platform Please?"12. Michel Maillard + Grandes Vacances - Le Satyre Du Métro (1979)from album "Enfla Grand Délire"13. Alan Stivell - Brezhoneg' Raok (1973)from album "Chemins de Terre"14. Trust - Prends Pas Ton Flingue (1978)single15. Zoo - Hard Times, Good Times (1972)from album "Hard Times, Good Times"
Alice - "Arrêtez le Monde" LP |
We open the set with a great guitar riff, which to me sounds like it could be from a band much more recent than 1972. The album this is from has expansive production and is mostly made up of accessible melodic progressive rock, so 'Le Roseau' isn't indicative of the whole album, but I had to use it as I really dig the juxtaposition of the intro riff, which surfaces a few more times in the song, with the other instrumentation of piano, hammond and even some horns. Alice was certainly one of the country's premiere progressive acts in 1972, which was early days for scene there.
Claude Harvey says: Thanks Rich for this amazing French compilation, Part Deux! Alice "Le Roseau" is one of the only heavy tracks on their second album Arrêtez le Monde (which have also been published in English under the name 'All Ice'). The rest of the album is more brass-rock/prog-rock oriented. For more Alice heavy tunes, please check their first album Alice (1970)
"Daydé" LP |
Here's a slice of heavy blues with Hendrixy guitar. Joël Daydé was in the early lineup of Zoo, who have appeared in the blog before and will again in this comp. He made a series of solo albums in the '70s and this track is taken from 1971's "Daydé". His albums traverse many styles of electric & acoustic blues. with progressive and hard rock touches. According to FR wikipedia (link) he had his biggest early success with a single called Mamy Blue (yt) and his singing has been compared to other gravel-voiced front men like Joe Cocker and Roger Chapman of Family.
Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything about the band 'Peinture Fraiche' {eng: 'Fresh Paint'} as this seems to be the only time they ever had any music published, so far I have been unable to find any web presence for them at all, I can't even find a good enough back cover scan to read the band member's names.
Incidentally, the Oxygène label, which existed from 1977 to '81, has a good catalogue to find some heavy French singles of the period, and certainly punk bands too.
Visitors - Visitors (1974) |
I saw this album mentioned frequently while looking up French prog, and how could you not want to hear a "heavy" 1974 space rock prog album called Visitors, with that cover?! Well, the LP didn't quite match my expectations, but don't let my opinion put you off checking it out, as many people like this record, and good condition Decca originals sell for hefty prices. It does indeed have plenty of theatrical, ominous space rock pomp, and some heavy parts, but for me it never quite manages to reach escape velocity. I still elected to include a cut from this for the fun of it, and this mainly instrumental track makes a fitting segue in a collection of '70s rock.
Hybride - "Ça n'a Pas d'Importance" LP |
Aside from a few exceptions like Les Variations and Chico's Magnetic Band (neither of which were started by French natives), it's not easy finding full albums of '70s French hard rock which had evolved beyond standard boogie RnR.
Hybride |
Volcania was a starting point for guys that would go on to be in better-known bands including Shakin' Street (a favourite of Lemmy no less), Trash, and one of France's best-known heavy bands, Trust, so they were a small but important part in the country's evolution of hard rock. l'Agression is a consistent album so if you like what you hear, it's certainly worth checking this one out.
Claude Harvey says: Volcania is a great French Hard Rock band labeled as "The Leading French Punk Group" by their label company... sure it didn't help if people were expecting a punk band on their shows! 😉
Sorry - Boogie With the Law (1978)
Sorry - back cover
Sorry's self-titled LP is a well-produced FM rock affair, the sound is at odds with the new-wave / post-punk stylings of the album cover, with at least three heavy tracks which are all worth hearing, the others being "Too Fast To Know" and "One Eyed Can". Track A3 "Moonshine" is missing from my album files, so I'd like to see if that's a rocker too, if I can find it! [EDIT 2023: I found Moonshine! It's now on my youtube channel (link)] More on Sorry can be read at rockmadeinfrance.com (link).
Claude Harvey says: Sorry "Boogie With the Law" is a fantastic song I was supposed to post on the facebook group next week haha, I really love this song which is a great well produced boogie-rock song with a really catchy chorus!
Jacky Chalard - Avec Un Pied Dans Le Rock 'N Roll |
Here we have a bass player who was at one time in Dynastie Crisis (used in previous french volume) and other bands such as Trust (the '60s prog band, not the hard rock band) and Magnum, both of which I have checked out. He was a producer and session player for a scattering of bands and singles also, but in 1977 he made a solo album, which is mostly some solid if unremarkable boogie / RnR type stuff, except for one mystifying track, which is included here.
'Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard' does not sound like anything else on the record, and it has fantastic drumming from Jean-Pierre Prévotat, who was in Triangle and Magnum. Maybe it just came out of the band during some studio down-time, when they had just sparked-up a fat one and turned on the television, as it's a groovy stoner jam which bizarrely has what sounds like TV football commentary over the top.
The clue is in the name of the track of course, so maybe Jacky and friends were celebrating the '77 European Cup 1-0 victory for Saint-Etienne over the UK's Liverpool, at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium (link), with a doobie? Probably, and who can blame them?
The track I used here wasn't even included on the original album, and was added as a bonus track when Frenchies "Born Bad Records" (link) re-issued the record in 2013, with help from the band themselves.
So, "Le Démon du Rythme" starts inauspiciously, but when it gets going, it's a wild trip which just about manages to keep itself together. Just be careful with your speakers, as this baby comes complete with some cone-shredding distortion / clipping.
Michel Maillard + Grandes Vacances |
Here's an excellent slab of hard rock from an obscure album. The production is top notch and you would never guess it's a privately-pressed LP from the sounds.
I have taken some information from the excellent French rock resource francerock70.centerblog.net (link). "Originally from the Paris region, Michel Maillard studied in Rennes where he met the future members of Grandes Vacances, and recorded this unique self-produced album in 1979: "Enfla Grand Délire". With Michel Maillard (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar), Hervé Brault and Jean Pol Colin (Electric Guitars), Robert Le Gall (Bass), Gilbert Sonna (Drums) and guest Daniel Paboeuf (Saxophone)."
I have only been able to source two tracks from the record so far but on the strength of 'Le Satyre Du Métro' i'd certainly like to hear more, although I don't know how much more hard rock is contained as the album is described as a mixture of rock, reggae and spoken-word humour.
Stivell's father built a Celtic harp, something which had not been seen or used for so long that he had to research history books to work out how to make it. Then Alan (Stivell jr) grew up learning to play it, and many other medieval instruments into the bargain. Stivell has for a long time since been a famous name in Celtic folk music.
Trust - Prends Pas Ton Flingue 45 |
To a French person, using Trust in an obscure rock compilation probably makes about as much sense as including AC/DC.
Also, Iron Maiden fans will probably be aware of them as they counted Nicko McBrain and Clive Burr briefly in their ranks, and thrash fans too, as Anthrax covered Trust's "Anti-social" on their State Of Euphoria album, but I think there's probably a lot of listeners who won't know them.
Here's a great track from their their first ever single, which also wasn't on an original studio album, so maybe even a few French people have never heard this one. The quality of this single shows that they were a fully fledged heavy band right out of the gate, and the album that came a year after this contains some tracks which are still live standards, as they reform from time to time to play live and make new records.
Rich
Further listening: