Bonjour mes Dearlings,

in honor of TODAY, which is obviously BASTILLE DAY, which is the greatest of all the holidays, as I am sure you well know, I have made for you a petite 4-song mix which you can download by clicking upon this link, and unzipping it: bastille day mix.

within you shall find the following:

1. edith piaf - non je ne regrette rien (in my measly unlearned opinion, THIS is the quintessential edith piaf song - it is epic and tragic and painful and powerful…she regrets NOTHING.)

2. jacques dutronc - les cactus (60’s french pop dude. Since i have amassed quite the collection of french pop, it was a challenge to choose just a few - dutronc is comparable to ray davies perhaps.)

3. plastic bertrand - ca plane pour moi (I love this song not only because it completely rocks out in a beach boys meet REM’s “End of the World” sort of way, but also because of its prominent placement in the National Lampoon’s European Vacation soundtrack).

4. marie laforet - toi mon amour, mon ami (more 60’s french pop - this song however transcends the genre.)

If you are not hosting (or attending) your very own bastille day celebration (as I do every year), here are your instructions for the remainder of today:

As you listen to the four songs above, do one (or all!) of the following:

• Buy butter, flour, eggs, salt, sugar and milk, make crepes and eat them.
• Get a tattoo of Gerard Depardieu… on your face.
• Replace your current clothing with a striped shirt, beret and a short neck scarf tied at the side. If possible, grow a thin mustache.
• Embroider the names of your enemies onto a blanket.
• Speak like zee french, be sure to pepper your phrasing with plenty of pauses and say “ehhh, how do you say..?”
• Form a bourgeoisie insurgency against the tyranny of the aristocracy.

AND anyway

HAPPY BASTILLE DAY TO ALL!

*Full credit to Bethany S. the artist.

This morning, the iPod Shuffle Gods chose to play back-to-back two songs that are not only Pure Genius(tm), but also happen to both be about Sad Clowns:

• Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Tears of a Clown
• The BeeGees - I Started a Joke*

And because sharing-is-caring, I would like to make sure that everyone I know has both of them: here you go.

Truth-be-told, I had hoped to offer a wistful myriad of sad-clown music in this post, but my internet quest (interquest?) ran dry….

• “Send in the Clowns” though both sad and about clowns, isn’t technically about Sad-Clowns…
• There are songs by both Jars-of-Clay and Sarah McLachlin, respectively, called “Sad Clown”, but I refuse to include either because, well, I’ve never heard them, and i mean, jars of clay and sarah mclachlin? no thank you.
• “Behind Blue Eyes” by the Who would TOTALLY work if Pete Townsend wore a red-nose and white-face-paint, but no. and I almost gave up…

But! hope springs eternal… A little more digging and I struck sad-clown-gold** on wikipedia when I found an entire sad-clown opera!

Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (”clowns”), including the original sad-clown aria - Vesti la giubba (”put on the costume”)

“Put on your costume,
powder your face.
The people pay to be here, and they want to laugh.
And if Harlequin shall steal your Colombina,
laugh, Pagliaccio, so the crowd will cheer!
Turn your distress and tears into jest,
your pain and sobbing into a funny face.”

listen here.

amazing.

* folks who attended vassar college circa 2000/1 might recall that my friend erica’s and my short-lived hair-rock/pop-metal band (Cousin Larry Appleton) did an acoustic cover of this beegees classic.
** this post is a fertile landscape of metaphors-that-overstay-their-welcome, and I am a pioneer.

fellow fans of 60’s garage rock will be delighted to learn that after watching the ‘agency‘ movie, my dearling friend edwina, aka mme. awesomepants dds, found an ? and the Mysterians ‘best of’ album on the interwebs, that I am ever-so-very-thrilled to be able to share with you here.

From wikipedia about the front man, Question Mark:

“The band’s frontman and primary songwriter was Question Mark... He claimed (and still claims) to be a Martian who lived with dinosaurs in a past life, and he never appears in public without sunglasses. He has also claimed that voices told him he would still be performing “96 Tears” in the year 10,000.”

yay.

Apparently, they named themselves after a 1950’s japanese sci-fi movie (”The Mysterians“) that, judging by the cover alone, I must own immediately:

UPDATE: thank you to will (betheboy) for bringing it to my attention that mr. question mark’s home burned down last year, to donate to his help-fund click here.

A dear friend asked me for a copy of The Minx (1969) soundtrack (as performed by one of my favorite 60s pop groups The Cyrkle) recently and I thought, because sharing is caring, and because it is pure genius, I will give you kids the download link too.

from the imdb plot summary: “A businessman hosts a hunting party at a remote lodge, and hires three prostitutes to take care of his clients. However, the girls have their own plans and secretly install cameras in the bedrooms to record the activities for future use..”

So, ok, it’s basically pseudo-porn; but it is very, almost disappointingly, mild given today’s standards.

But! this pornish film doesn’t have the typical techno-ish, melodyless-yet-immediately-recognizable-as-porn-music soundtrack! no sir!

It has jingly pop gems like “Murray the Why” and “Squeeze Play” all performed by The Cyrkle, a two-hit-wonder band with a brief cameo in the movie who are mildly famous for “Red Rubber Ball” (which was actually co-written by paul simon, and contains the lyrics ‘now i know you’re not the only starfish in the sea’ and ‘the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball’, which is simile-icious, and it is above and beyond my favorite break-up-themed song ever, also, sweet-baby-moses!, this might win the Longest Parenthetical Thought Ever award.)

Ok, so I recommend this soundtrack if you dig 60’s pop music or if you consider yourself a porn historian.

Download it HERE.