What is it with the
French? You know they actually think Jerry Lewis is funny, right. So I guess
they just have that Gallic humor that I don’t always get. Now Rockets, that’s
some humor I do get…
France-1972.
Music producer Claude
Lemoine came up with an idea for a single called “Future Woman” for a band
called Crystal.
The single shot up the Euro-charts, so the band decided to see what fame might
have in store for them. They changed their name & became The Rocket Men (or
Rocketters in France).
They shaved their heads, wore matching "space age" outfits &
painted themselves with silver make-up. This wasn’t quite the ticket though, so
in 1976 they changed their name to Rockets. They did a dancier, spacier remake
of their hit “Future Woman” once again brought them popularity throughout Europe. Their live shows added to their appeal, featuring
lasers, lotsa smoke, exploding cannons of fire & a tripped out light show.
That year they released
their debut self-titled album. That album brought them to the attention of America's
premier disco label, Salsoul. Salsoul signed them onto their offshoot label Tom
'n' Jerry Records for Rockets only American album, On The Road Again.
Rockets consisted of:
Christian le Bartz – vocals; Alain Maratrat - guitars & synths;
"Little" G. l'Her – bass; Fabrice Quagliotti – syths; Zeus B. Held -
vocoder & Alain Groetzinger - drums.
Rockets - On the Road Again, IPG 170.008, 1978.
Face 1 –
On The Road Again
Cosmic Race
Venus Rapsody
Face 2 –
Space Rock
Astrolights
Electro-Voice
Sci Fi Boogie
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Here’s the soundtrack from one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all, La Planète Sauvage or as it was known in the US, Fantastic Planet. Released in France in 1973.
I’m not going to go into detail about the movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. If you have, watch it again, it’s always great. The film takes place in the future in which human beings, known as "Oms" (from the French word hommes, meaning men), have been brought to the Draags' home planet, where they are kept as pets with special collars. The Draags are an alien race, humanoid in appearance but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes & protruding red eyes.
The music is by Alain Goraguer, who created music for other French films, including several other animated ones including The Dead Times (Les Temps Morts)[1964] & The Snails (Les Escargots) [1965], both by René Laloux & Roland Topor, who are also responsible for La Planète Sauvage. The music features synthesizers, flute, Hohner clavinet, guitar (with lots of wah-wah effects), bass, & drums. The music to La Planète Sauvage is a progressive funky score, like Pink Floyd meets Shaft.
Alain Goraguer - La Planète Sauvage, Pathé Marconi EMI 2C 066-12698, 1973.
decryption code in comments
Side 1 –
Déshominisation II
Déshominisation I
Générique
Le Bracelet
Ten et Tiwa
Maquillage de Tiwa
Course de Ten
Ten et Médor
Ten et Tiwa Dorment
Ten Est Assomé
Abite
Conseil des Draags
Les Hommes - La Grande Co-Existence
Side 2 –
La Femme
Mira et Ten
Mort de Draag
L' Oiseau
La Cité des Hommes Libres
Attaque des Robots
La Longue Marche
Les Fusées
Générique
Strip Tease
Méditation des Enfants
La Vieille Meurt
NØ
La Planète Sauvage
ReplyDeleteLerE6mYrh-VXcINDxF51MFsZA7B4-rmGCus9q_WpUnI
Wow! Thank you very much for this amazing soundtrack!
ReplyDeleteMCP (from France)
La Planète Sauvage is in my top 25 movies of all times. The soundtrack is an inseperable part of that greatness. Thanks for commenting.
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