Musikpresse i Belgien og Frankrig nær oprør. Viser sig noveltypunk-hittet ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ ikke blev sunget af ham, hele verden i over 30 år har troet det blev sunget af – altså situationistpunkeren Plastic Bertrand – men istedet af hans helt almindeligt udseende producer, en noget ældre fyr, angiveligt med overskæg og nordfransk dialekt. Mais quelle crime horrible!
Situationen er ikke ulig halvfemserne, da tyske Milli Vanilli – husker dem? – blev fordømt og frataget Grammy-priser for ikke at lægge egne stemmer til deres plader. Jo, teenagefans var blevet snydt og ærlighedskriteriet var blevet pisset på. Men ærligthed, hey!? Handler pop ikke netop om illusion? Og lød pladerne dog ikke ens – uanset hvem sang på dem – efter skandalen? Det beskæftigede ingen sig med. Man var blevet holdt for nar.
Forestil den dag det kommer frem, at Thom Yorke i virkelighed kun er gallionsfigur i Radiohead – naturligvis via sit indiekorrekte suicidale udseende – og at den egentlige sanger er en lettere overvægtig ølentusiast ved navn Phil. Vil Radiohead’s bedste øjeblikke da ikke længere kunne noget helt specielt? Jo, de vil. For sandhedsoplevelsen i musik går gennem øret. Resten er hype/make believe og efterrationalisering.
Og derfor vil ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’ stadig, uanset sangerens egentlige identitet, stå som et gyldent vrøvlende og forførende dumt popøjeblik, lige dele Ramones- og Beach Boys-pastiche. Det vil ingen popverdenspresses afsløringer nogensinde kunne ændre ved. Tjek selv…
PS – ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ var et af de første og meget få numre der under betegnelse ‘punk’ nåede bredt ud her i landet via radio og TV. To andre var ‘Airport’ med The Motors og Blondie’s ligeså lidt prototype-punkede, men til gengæld meget, meget fine ‘Picture This’. Bizart at det musikalske oprør, berygtet for anarki, hurtig larm og beskidthed, skulle præsenteres gennem så konventionelt rendyrkede popsange.
Lou Deprijck… fantastisk punknavn i den engelsksprogede verden.
Men who cares så afgjort hvem der sang for 33 år siden på et one hit wonder. Eller spillede Sid Vicious’ bas…
Men havde det været en gruppe man fulgte religiøst, naivt som det er men en naivitet jeg nødig ville undvære, så er følelsen vel trods alt en anden?
Og for oplysningens skyld, siger Wikipedia videre (om Elton Motello’s udgave):
“Jet Boy, Jet Girl” is a risqué song by Elton Motello about a 15-year-old boy’s sexual relationship with an older man, who then rejects him for a girl. With its chorus of “ooh ooh ooh ooh, he gives me head,” it has been embraced as something of a gay punk anthem.
On this recording, Elton Motello are:
Alan Ward (real name Alan Timms, aka Alan Warst as sound engineer), vocals
Mike Butcher (aka Jet Staxx), guitar
Yves Kengen (aka Yke N. Raxola), bass
Nobby Goff, drums.
“Jet Boy, Jet Girl” has the same backing track as Plastic Bertrand’s “Ça Plane Pour Moi”; after “Jet Boy Jet Girl” was recorded, Bertrand used Motello’s musicians to record his track. The producer and lyricist at RKM Publishing at the time deemed the original song’s lyrics too controversial to be adapted, so Yvan Lacomblez wrote new gibberish lyrics in French.
Alan Ward, the singer/songwriter behind Elton Motello, was circumspect about the song’s adaptation by Plastic Bertrand. “We have all been ripped off at some point in our lives,” he said in a magazine interview, “but judging by the emails I receive, my lyric has touched many more people and seems to ring a chord in many more hearts than the French one will ever do. That’s why I wrote it. If I was meant to be rich it would have happened. But I am rich in the knowledge that my thoughts will never disappear.”
In 1989, the FCC, acting on a complaint from activist Jack Thompson fined radio station WIOD $10,000 for allowing talk host Neil Rogers to play the song. Thompson considered the song obscene and the FCC agreed with him.
The song has been covered by numerous bands, including The Damned, Captain Sensible and The Softies and Chron Gen. There is also a German version entitled “Bin Wieder Frei” performed by Benny. The original version received renewed attention when it was included on John Waters’ 2007 compilation CD A Date With John Waters.
Kursiv er desværre forbeholdt blogindehavere. 😀
Overvægtige Phil er vist ham, der foregiver at spille trommer i Radiohead.
Hvordan skal man kunne tro på nogensomhelst original ophavsret hos en mand, der kalder sig…..Elton Motello!? 😉
Wikipedia siger:
“Ça plane pour moi” is a song by Plastic Bertrand issued as a single in December 1977. The song has the same melody as “Jet Boy, Jet Girl”, recorded previously in November 1977 by Elton Motello with the same musicians. They also recorded a version as Two Man Sound, titled “Bad Boy Bad Girl (Yo soy el rei)” featuring yet a third set of lyrics. It appeared on Plastic Bertrand’s 1978 album An 1. The single peaked at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100[1] and #8 on the UK Singles Chart.
Three re-issues were released, backed with “Pogo Pogo” on the B-side (1977-78). The song was covered by many artists, including Pigloo in 2007 (#18 in France).
It was claimed in 2010 that the singer was not Plastic Bertrand but Lou Deprijck.[2] On July 28th, 2010, Plastic Bertrand admitted that he was not the singer nor the writer of the song. Actually none of the songs in the first four albums were sung by Plastic Bertrand. It was Lou Deprijck who was both singer and writer of the songs. The engineers of the studio confirmed this.
Grunden til at netop ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ blev præsenteret som punk var, at det var baseret på punkklassikeren ‘Jet Boy, Jet Girl’ af Elton Motello. Så hvadenten det var Plastic Bertand eller Lou Deprijck der sang den franske udgave, var ingen af dem ophavsmænd. 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KAXvTvO0TI
Naturligvis interessant debat, men hvis man kan acceptere en kunstner, der får skrevet sine sange men bare synger dem, kan man så ikke også få andre til at synge for sig, men blot lægge navn til?
Det kunne være et interessant pladeprojekt. bare få en til at være Ansigtet og Navnet på pladen, og så skriver, producere og synger andre folk.