Jessie Bluejay

I plan on profiling some other yé-yé singers in the near future, but I think we should get to know France Gall a little better with a good ol’ dance party. Let the dancing begin!

1. Cet Air-là

This video features some spectacular frenetic dancing. Watch and learn.

2. Bebe Requin

This one is all about the dancing men. They’re delicious bonbons for the eyes. Am I right, ladies?

3. Ne Sois Pas Si Bete

This is just a fantastic song. I love the horn section. It reminds me of the circus, but I’m not sure why.

4. Ca Me Fait Rire

For some reason, France is standing in a tree in this video. I love how the ladies on the park bench are so delighted to see her up there. “Oh, look! It’s that adorable little France Gall up in the tree! How charming!” I call this “the creepy laughing song” because its lyrics are punctuated with girlish giggles that reach a disturbing crescendo at the end.

5. Laisse Tomber Les Filles

France sings this song in front of a classroom. The boy in the class starts spastically kissing his three female classmates and then they all skip off together. France waves goodbye to them as they ride off in a convertible. Serge Gainsbourg wrote it so I think we can assume they’re on their way to an orgy.

**Bonus Slow Dance: Le Premier Chagrin D’amour

I may actually have to buy these Keds that I customized here:

Notice the Reese’s Pieces along the toe. I thought that was a nice touch.

I love you, E.T.!

Holy cow, customizing your Keds is really fun. At $60/pair, I’m tempted to buy some. Here are some of my designs:

Skittlewurst Shoes

Goat Girl and Cigarette Butt Shoes

Amitabh Bachchan Starring in… My Shoes

Deviled Eggs: The Shoes

This is my new favorite time-waster.

Shoko “Shokotan” Nakagawa is a Japanese entertainer and idol. (Coincidentally, the idol phenomenon in Japan apparently dates back to the popularity of a French yé-yé singer named Sylvie Vartan.) Shokotan’s many talents include acting, singing, drawing manga, and blogging. She’s into otaku culture, cosplay, and her many cats. Her blog (written in Japanese) is ridiculously popular and constantly updated (up to 70 posts a day). Most of the pictures are of herself and her cats. She seems like a strange, interesting, and funny person. Here she is wearing cicada shells:

Pink Tentacle reports that she’s “fascinated” with cicada molts. There are many more photos of her cicada looks on her blog.

Here’s another odd picture I found on her blog:

Um, is she sniffing that cat’s butt? According to the Wiki article about her, Shokotan frequently indulges in a nice whiff of cat butt and refers to it as “good smell.” She also likes to take pictures of her cats in the litterbox. This one cracks me up. I think she’d be fun to hang out with.

I’ve been listening to lots of France Gall lately. She was a popular French yé-yé singer in the early 1960s. The yé-yé style originated in France and became very popular throughout Europe (and Japan, unsurprisingly) in the 1960s. It means “young, cute, and innocent.” At least superficially that’s a perfect description of Gall’s infectious, sugary songs.

Christ, she had awesome hair!

Gall was just 16 when she started recording. Serge Gainsbourg, a French musician 20 years her senior, was hired to be her songwriter. Gainsbourg delighted in filling her songs with wordplays, innuendos, and double entendres that she apparently didn’t understand. He wrote “Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son” for Gall. It translates to “Doll of Wax, Doll of Sawdust.” In it, Gall describes herself as nothing but a “singing doll,” articulating her role as a conduit for Gainsbourg’s lyrics. Here’s a video of her performance. It’s really disturbing to see this talented gorgeous girl singing so sweetly about being this sick bastard’s puppet.

France with her horribly creepy puppetmaster, Serge Gainsbourg

In the Gainsbourg-penned, hugely successful “Les Sucettes,” Gall sings about a girl named Annie who likes lollipops. “Annie loves lollipops, aniseed lollipops. When the sweet liquid runs down Annie’s throat, she is in paradise.” Gee, I wonder what the hidden message in that could be. He certainly wasn’t a master of subtlety, now was he? According to Wikipedia:

The 18-year-old Gall was upset upon finally learning the truth about the lyrics–”mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone.” Gall said that she had sung Gainsbourg’s songs “with an innocence of which I’m proud. I was pained to then learn that he had turned the situation to his advantage, mocking me.” In a 2001 television interview, Gall said that she felt “betrayed by the adults around me.”

Which she of course was. (Where were her parents through all of it?) Here’s one of her performances of “Les Sucettes.” Gainsbourg proudly referred to the song as “the most daring of the century.” He manipulated a girl into telling the world that she loved to give head. I suspect that he mistook his banal desire to sexually exploit and control a much younger woman for some kind of artistic genius. It’s a fairly common mistake.

As sordid as the whole story is though, there’s no denying that they made wonderful music together.

“Et Des Baisers” is one of my favorite France Gall songs. I promise it will infect your brain! In a good way! Listen to it here. Gainsbourg didn’t write it so I don’t think it has any creepy double meanings, but I have no idea. If it does, I don’t think I wanna know.

While many filmmakers have been influenced by Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, George Lucas borrowed heavily from it for the final scene in Star Wars. Simply substitute Luke, Han, and Chewie for Hitler and his pals and the Rebels for the Brownshirts flanking the aisle, and you’ve got the end of Star Wars. The similarities are unmistakable. This hilarious mash-up is well worth checking out.

For some reason, this vibrator doubles as a razor. Um, why? How the hell did this get made? If you’re thinking about giving yourself a shave while you’re masturbating, you’re doing it wrong and you should stop. A vibrator has an important job to do. It doesn’t need to provide any other services. We don’t need swiss army dildos.