goldfinger

Great song by Mike Leander....( I assume he wrote the melody ) Vanity Fair had a big hit with it, (Ray Conif did a cover version ) EARLY IN THE MORNING (Leander-Seago) Evening is the time of day I find nothing much to say Don’t know what to do, but I come to When it’s early in the morning Over by the window day is dawning When I feel the air I feel that life is very good to me, you know In the Sun, there’s so much yellow Something in the early morning meadow Tells me that today You’re on your way And you’ll be coming home, home to me Night time isn’t clear to me I find nothing near to me Don’t know what to do but I come to When it’s early in the morning Very, very early without warning I can feel a newly born vibration Sneaking up on me again There’s a songbird on my pillow I can see the funny weeping willow I can see the Sun You’re on your way And you’ll be coming home, home with me

Born 1924 in France, he has worked ..... often with female singers like Juliet Greco, Francois Hardy. This guy also wrote ......... Blue blue, My World is Blue..... (lyrics by Pierre Cour ) one classic song that came 4th in the 1967 Eurovision.

Mike was a great songwriter, though it was probably a bad career move to get so closely associated with the infamous Gary Glitter who he co wrote many songs with. The classic song ......... "Bad Bad Boy.".. gives you an idea of what a talent Mike was .... (sadly he died many years ago). go here .

Famous for writing "Apache" and "Wonderful Land" in the pre Beatles era.... Did nt someone say that Jerry played Wonderful land to them on a tour bus ( was it Bruce Welsh ? ) And Jerry played it to him on a Ukelele ! Wonder why... when he got these fab melodies.. that he never thought of putting words to them !

Looks like you are fluent in Spanish, French and English then Edna .... ! quite a talent ! Can you speak any other languages ?

Gainsbourg was a genius... Brel was just an amazing poet. end quote a genius ? come on, hes candy floss compared to the brilliant Brel J t'aime is all I can think of and that is hardly a song anyway ! wow.. France Gall.... ! she looks like France's answer to Marianne Faithful ! .

If you go away.... another Jacques Brel song.. wow his songs hit you emotionally every time he was one hell of a song writer. Born in Belgium but he seems to have spent a lot of his professional life in Paris . He died at the early age of 49 in 1978 I suspect it was the fags that did it .... as also in the case of Serge Gainsbourg (though Serge made it to age 62 !) (they were almost exact contemporaries.. Jacques born 1928 Serge born 1929 )

Just the French scene generally Come to think of it, a biog or autobiog of Sacha would make interesting reading, ditto Bardot ditto Deneuve !

Looking at it, I dont think you can credit Clau Clau with My Way... he probably contributed a couple of lines... there were other, more serious song writers involved on that . Clau Clau was all candy floss, he spent his life doing covers of Brit and American pop songs. Sacha Distel did that too... to some degree, whenever I think of him, I think of "Raindrops are falling on my head" ..." The song "Seasons in the Sun"... that was a big hit way back for Canadian Terry Jacks in 1974 ... it was so out of the ordinary .. a song about death. Did n't realise at the time but its a Jaques Brel song ! "Song of a dying man" ! ( what a depressing theme for a song ! but it gets you emotionally every time.) ( interesting... Terry Jacks... Jaques Brel ! )

I read that Yamaha made 3 very special synths for experimental purposes called the GX-1 synth. There were only 3 in the world.. Yamaha kept 2 and Benny of Abba bought the other. That was back in 1975 and that machine became a big part of the bright .. Abba sound... The 80s were full of "Synth " bands .. Aha , Human League etc Maybe we could call Abba a "70s synth " band ?

aGAIN... that hot French scene never got over to England Ive only seen a few clips of Clau Clau .. blonde hair... dancing on stage with some very hot women. He must have been a massive star in France .. to think he wrote the melody for My Way too ! I dont think he ever tried to get onto English TV in the way that Sacha did. Why did n't he translate Comme D'Habitude and have a massive hit in England and the USA ? Just that one song shows what a talent he was. (Did nt he die by standing in the bath and trying to change a light bulb ? He must have been drunk that night.. wot a way to go )

thanks for that link... Ill have to check out some of those French songs, If "Mr Sun" is anything to go by, there should be some pearls in there ! At last Ive got his full name too... Gerard Bourgeois think Ive found his web site too http://www.gerardbourgeois.fr/

WASNT the 1970s also the big DISCO decade ? and wild, over the top costume. Lots of acts on German TV from America Barry White, the Jacksons, Sister Sledge, Boney M (It was almost as if Motown had morphed into Discotown....) Claude Francois.. the King of French disco ( come to think of it was n't Disco invented in France ? ) And in the middle of all this the falsetto voices of the Bee Gees singing Night Fever ! There were some big hits back then, you never know, 70s disco might ... like Abba music, come back into fashion !

thanks the melody was written by G. Bourgeois but have nt been able to find anything about him on the web.

BIG UP TO BRIGITTE... she was a movie star but she also did a lot of singing too Love this song could it be written by Serge Gainsbourg ?

Didnt Sacha have a big affair with Brigitte Bardot too in the 1970s ? I mean... how good can it get ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liX20LLqW1A Sacha was probably the best looking guy in all of France back then ! In Germany there is a big Slager scene... which I suppose could translate as traditional type music folk type music but its very big and very popular . Singers like Gaby Gabinsky... Gitti und Erika.... Fernando Express....Lena Valaitis... Ireen Sheer... Kristina Bach.... Cindy und Bert and a host of others. (forgive my female bias ! ) I suppose even many of the Germans call it cheesy and kitch but it puts a bit of glam and music into the TV schedules and I'm all in favour of that. go check out Bluesilver http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueSilverstar Bluesilver posts a ton of these singers up on U tube every week. Over in UK we just dont seem to have a similar traditional background.... pop and rock music dominate... they get rich like Bowie and Jagger and immediately emigrate to a tax haven. We are left with Simon Cowell and X factor for a bit of music and glam......... pathetic is nt it ? Maybe the Chanson is France's equivalent to the German slager ?

No I mean acts going to the TV studios... German TV have lots of acts from the 70s who went there to perform... Suzie Quatro, George Harrison.. some fab TV of Abba and tons more. there was a tv show called Disco where they all appeared and old reruns of the show are still shown weekly on for eg ZDF THEATRE CANAL GO HER http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/8/0,1872,1501000_date:20110110-page:2-seg:0530,00.html i THINK in the 70s German TV were way ahead technologically and very rich too. They have a regional TV set up ... much like the UK and ( I think ) ZDF is Germanys equivalent to our BBC ( Gott help them ! ) But what do I know about French TV ...? being secam I never got to see any of it There's probably a great scene going on .. based in Paris that I'm not aware of. Sacha Distel .. wot a charming guy.. very popular here in England .. and one hell of a jazz guitarist . Sadly he died much too young. Charles Aznavour... another French charmer and a great chanson song writer... very popular here in England too.

QUOTE what music did Germans accomplish in the 80s? end quote In a way Germany, like France , did nt contribute a lot to pop music but by the 70 s Germany was a very rich country and a big market for pop music. All the big acts seemed to go over there to try and pocket some of those lovely Deutchmarks and of course Disco was the big thing. Also I have a feeling that even today... German TV is bigger and richer than even UK TV .. probably technologically more advanced too ? Ive been watching german TV by satellite since the 80s.... I missed out on French tv prob because they were on secam whereas Germany were on PAL like the UK. Did the big acts make it to Paris in those years ... as much as they made it to Berlin ? and Hamburg ? I doubt it !

You never mentioned Jaques Brelle.... pure genius and Jean Michel Jarre .... (France's Vangellis)

It was all G and G was nt it ? Glam and Glitter.... Bowie, Bolan and Gary ! Accross the North Sea, those cool Swedes meanwhile .... whilst wearing all the glam and glitter costumes...(inspired by Gary Glitter ) were putting down some classic pop songs and really it became their decade like the 60s decade belonged to the Beatles. But it was Bowie's hottest decade too... maybe Bowie was the real spirit of the time with his cross dressing and his ac/dc lifestyle.

Yes but give the Germans some credit Kraftwork.. formed in 1970 is the kind of big daddy to the synth bands of the late 70s and 80s they influenced a heck of a lot of bands back then But what did the French contribute to pop music ? ( Plastic Bertrand ! )

yes but the Seagulls posted one fabulous, classic song in "I ran" I used it in my Posh video http://www.mediafire.com/?v1kv1o5ap5xu5oz funny thing about that song... the intro is 1 min 30 sec plus ..... ! thats got to be a record ! at the heart of so many of these 80s groups seems to be the synth.. Maybe Gary Numan really blew everyone away with the synth in "Cars " He kind of showed everyone what was possible.

In the 90s everything went to crap with groups like take that and then spice girls they decided, stuff those efin instruments and all that gear... all we need is 4 mikes and a good backing track.... and some hot lighting effects at least in the 80s things were real with people up on stage doin it.... in the 90s it all came to an end and became eye candy for the masses.

WASNT the secret weapon of the 80s .. the synth ? Human League Depeche Mode Aha Howard Jones Flock of Seagulls Gary Numan The synths were getting more powerful ( and cheaper ) in the 80s I think even a lot of secret of the Abba sound in the 70s was due to one powerful synth Benny got from Japan .

Funny you should say that because the big number... Jesus Christ Superstar is a big rip off from that song... Cast my fate to the wind. But then, they re all at it Justin's... Nights in white satin is a rip off from the song... "I....I who have nothing...."