It seems like I end up posting a lot of Mireille Mathieu records on this site. She seems to be the only female French singer who sold a lot of records in the States and as a result, the only one I find on a regular basis in the used record lots. I like French female singers of the 60’s in general and am totally open to posting someone other than Mathieu but until I find some, well this is what we get. I think I got a discount on this which put it at $2.40.
Whilst in Amsterdam on vacation last month, I was dismayed to find out two of my favorite hang outs changed. The first one, Bar Regular and Jack off Vijzelstraat completely redid their inside. It looked like a European version of Bar Rescue refurnished their place.
No more smoking room and while I was there, there were no middle aged female bartenders. This used to be a big draw for me. Well, I am sure they are raking in the bug bucks now but I miss the bar maid who looked like your grandma if your grandma liked getting you drunk.
The second place, The Kandinsky on Zoutsteeg, nestled between Nieuwendijk and Damrak, was also sadly altered. I had been going there every year since I started going to Amsterdam. The same bartender from 2012 and 2014 was there. She told me the Dutch equivalent of the Fire Marshall made them change their set up. I mean it looks nice and all but I like the old red set up. The new set up is grey and it just is not the same. I can’t fault them too much for changing though.
As fas as this album goes, this was a German release from 1968. Simular albums were released in France, the US, and Canada. Mathieu is backed by orchestras led by Les Reed, Christian Gaubert, and Paul Mauriat, who also serves as the album’s musical director. I want to say this is a compilation album of various singles, soundtracks, and other releases. It contains such soundtrack work as “Les Bicyclettes de Belsize” and “Sweet Souvenirs of Stefan”. Overall, it is a pretty decent album. I seem to throw that word around a lot lately, decent, that is.
For a sample, I went with the track I liked the most. I am not sure I knew this track was on the album when I got it as my French is pretty bad, but here is Bert Kaempfert’s “Tu M’as Donne La Vie”. I did not realize what I had until I heard the haunting melody of the song. Enoch Light did a version which was sampled by The Avalanches for “Frontier Psychologist”. They also sampled Wayne and Shuster quite heavily as well.
Good album. Satisfactory. Hopefully I can get some time this weekend to get a bit more caught up on the blog posts.