France ist vollendet

Let me geek out on you: I've made you well aware of my adoration of France Gall. And while I like her late 60s/early 70s recordings very much, I particularly like the songs she recorded in German during that era.

Many have Beatles-like experimentation in them, with out-there back up vocals (such as "Love, L'amour und Liebe") or odd instrument choices (such as the xylophone in "Ich Singe Meinen Song").

The songs run the gamut from covers of 60's bossa nova Brazilian lounge ("So Einen Jungen Mann") to catchy rock-pop ("Wassermann Und Fisch") to ballades ("Miguel") to Bavarian oompa-oompa ("Ich Habe Einen Freund in München").

Other favorites include "Computer Nr. 3," "I Like Mozart," "Ich War Ein Kind," and "Unga Katunga."

About half her German DECCA catalog is easy to get from the "best of" CD collection; the other half not so much. But after much hunting, my collection is now complete!

Thankfully, my 'want of obscure things without ability to find them' is matched by Matt's 'ability and want to find obscure things without any obscure interests.' He is duly credited with finding the extremely hard to find track (complete with crazy fiddle "Ein Bißchen Mogeln in der Liebe").

The sketch is France in her jeans, purple boots, yellow sweatshirt with "STOP" screen-printed on and Bavarian pigtails get-up she wore when she performed live on the ZDF Hitparade ("Ali Baba und die 40 Räuber" which I also have a HQ track of).

France et Serge

Final entry for France Gall week!

I made this for the "Draw Serge" blog which I enjoy. It's a tribute to one of the most influencial song writers ever, Serge Gainsbourg. I like a lot of the art featured there.

Considering his collaborations with wife Jane Birkin and sexpot Brigit Bardot, I'm not wholly surprised there weren't any drawings featuring France Gall, though the two were linked together by a number of pop hits and the "Les Succettes" scandal.

Here I draw them circa 1965, a la their Eurovision Songcontest win. You can see 16 year old France's awful Eurovision perfomance at Youtube. But the song was still good enough to win—the first time a pop song won the contest.

I took the opportunity to draw them for the blog and practice using Painter as well. Aside from the suit stripes, I am pretty happy with my progress using the "chalk" feature in Painter.

France in America(n Apparel)

Taking inspriation from France Gall songs from the '60s comes my "line" of t-shirts: Love, L'amour und Liebe (top); Computer Nr. 3 (middle); and Haifischbaby (bottom). "Computer Nr. 3" was recorded in 1968 and is a song about computer dating!—"love is guaranteed with the computer." The gist of "Haifischbaby" is "I love you so much I could eat you." These designs are printed on high quality soft American Apparell t-shirts and are available for sale at www.timfishworks.com

France en Allemande

France Gall's career was waning ahome when she signed with Decca and scored some hits abroad in Germany. Some of the songs are laughably stereotypical you can imagine people bobbing along in lederhosen. But then other tracks are among my most favorite of all her work. Some of the songs are covers of foreign hits, but lucky France got to record lots of original music, unlike many of her Euro-contemporaries, and I like most of those too.

Recently someone likened her to a late 60s Britney Spears. To that I say "no!" Sure, her career was made possible by a pushy parent (songwriter father) and built on her looks, but as a singer has much more talent and skill than Brit. First, she could sing flawlessly in French, Italian and German (I'm not sure how flawless her Spanish singing was). Second, she could and did perform live—and in at least 3 of those languages. Thirdly, into her adult years, France dealt with much adversity admirably (ie, she wasn't Fd up).

The hair and dress in the drawing here is inspired by her German career. Also, she's singing "Haifischbaby" ("Baby Shark"). This panel appeared in my OGN "Love is the Reason" despite the fact that France circa 1968 appears in a modern-day story. Sure, doesn't make sense, but it's the only time I've ever featured an actual person in any of my comics.

France Gall week

In conjunction to my submission to the "Draw Serge!" blog, I am posting entries of his frequent song doll, France Gall. In the early '60s, France Gall was considered something like the Leslie Gore of France. Though her repertoire ranged from jazz to pop to children's songs. Here are a few pencil sketches I did a few years back, with her various hairdo's. Her later recordings with husband Michael Berger are considered better, but I confess I like a lot of the early work, particularly the jazz-y/lounge-y stuff.