THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
503) Serge Franklin — “Exister”
This ultra-cool ‘68 A-side by Alain Patrice Amaraggi (AKA Serge Franklin) is the kind of freaky French freakbeat of which we were blissfully unaware. As Mark Deming says of the comp from which I plucked it:
Conventional wisdom has it that the French are not all that great at rock & roll — pop music, yes indeed, but not rock & roll . . . . But apparently there was a glorious window of time in the mid-’60s when France had a pretty lively rock scene . . . . [M]ost of the cuts could stand proudly beside the cream of American and U.K. garage and freakbeat sides from the era. . . . suggest[ing] there was a lot more going on in France during the garage era than most American fans ever knew.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/psychegaelic-french-freakbeat-mw0002603305
Of course, not all agree. Darryl Bullock played the song on his show of the worst records ever made! —
Author Darryl W. Bullock presents an hour of terrible records. From the dawn of recorded music right up to some of today’s most hateful aural atrocities, spend 60 minutes with some of the worst, and most hysterically funny, records ever made.
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/98911
Who was Serge Franklin? Wikipedia explains (courtesy of Google Translate):
Serge Franklin’s artistic journey began in the 1960s as a singer-songwriter. He publishes several super 45 rpm under his name. He quickly became a studio musician as a sitarist . . . . His journey continued to India in 1971, which led him to take the pseudonym Adjenar Sidhar Khan. In love with primitive string instruments, he immerses himself in oriental, African and Brazilian music. Some of his albums are then signed with the pseudonym Black Sun. At the same time, for eight years, he composed stage music . . . . [He] then turned to film music by collaborating on Arcady’s first five films (The Blow of Sirocco, The Great Forgiveness, The Great Carnival, Hold-Up and Last Summer in Tangier). Subsequently, he worked mainly for television . . . .
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Franklin
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