Marie Laforêt "Vol. 3" LP France 1967

This album was purchased a few weeks back at the same record fair where I picked up this stunning Czech record.  I bought this from a Quebecois guy who came down to sell some records, and I'm glad he was there.  Because I have the first couple of Pop à Paris CD compilations, I recognized the name, and more important the first track on the album, an awesome cover (with an unrelated rewritten French lyric) of the Stones' "Paint It Black."  If you haven't heard this yet do yourself a favor and give it a listen.  It might well be better than the original.  She certainly has a better voice than Mr. Jagger.

That song plus the "Sounds of Silence" cover make the LP worth having by themselves.  As a bonus you get 10 more songs by Ms. Laforêt, mostly orchestral pop-folk of the sort the yé-yé ladies were cranking out by the boatload in the '60s.

You can read about her career in music and movies - both of which she tossed aside for the visual arts - here or if you parlez the French here.  She's also left France and is now a Swiss citizen.  Apparently this is one of 7 roughly annual consecutive albums up through 1970 titled by number, putting her in the same league as Chicago and The Soft Machine in the competition for World's Most Imaginitive Album Titles.  The nice Canadian fellow had a few of the others, and despite him giving me a bit of a price break for actually knowing what I was buying, and trying out my college French, I had only so much cash to spend that day, and this album will have to do for the time being.

Incidentally Marie- douceur, Marie-colère translates as "Sweet Mary/Pissed Off Mary" or something to that effect. Also of interest: she had a euro-hit in 1977 with Il a neigé sur Yesterday ("It Snowed [on] Yesterday"), an homage to The Beatles which is...um... yeah, I won't be posting that.

Face 1

Marie- douceur, Marie-colère
Je voudrais tant que tu comprennes
La voix du silence
Siffle, siffle ma fille
Ma chanson faite pour toi
La plage

Face 2

Toi qui dors
La moisson
Je t'attends
Après toi qui sait
La tendresse
L'arbre qui pleure

Oui!