THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
848) Le Bain Didonc – “4 Cheveux Dans Le Vent”/”4 Hairs in the Wind”
As Alextwist sagely notes, while John Lennon once quiped that “‘French rock is like English wine'”[, w]ell he was wrong”! (https://www.topito.com/top-chansons-rock-francais-60s) Here is one of Twist’s “10 essential French rock songs.” A wild garage/freakbeat concoction, it is “[o]ne of the best records to come out of France. Wonderful. Turn it up loud and groove!” (David Schiff, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6kJ7RKA6k) Vive la révolution! Shindig Magazine says:
Le Bain Didonc dropped their sole EP featuring this dazzling rave up for the ages. Feedback? Oui. Toggling between pick-ups? Oui. Interstellar vibrations? Clattering drums? Oui, oui. Simultaneously looking back to the Gloria days of ’65 while looking ahead to the full-blown psych of ’67, this is up there with the best of a very good year.
https://www.shindig-magazine.com/?p=2600
Indeed! Who was Le Bain Didonc? Regaloeb tells us (courtesy of Google Translate):
Previously, they were called Les Piteuls, a group specializing in Beatles covers, as their name derisively suggests . . . . The[y went] from concert to concert all over France and in the first part of the Kinks, the Who and the Rolling Stones in Paris. Unable to use the name Piteuls, considered too mocking and potentially attackable by the powerful Beatles, they released a few cakes under different names. Only one under the rather lame pun name Le Bain Didonc.* This breathtaking 4 Hairs In The Wind was released in 1965 or 1966, here the sources diverge . . . . The rhythm, organ and guitar feedback prefigure psychedelia and as such, this piece is today classified under the catchall label Freak Beat. The group accompanied Charles Trenet (yes!) throughout 1966. He even wrote a song for them, Renaud La Guerre, released under the name of Pierre, Paul Ou Jacques. Les Papyvores, with Le Papyvore, a little piece released in May 1967 and completely psychedelic this time, it’s them too! They then joined Michel Polnareff with whom they made long world tours: South America, Europe and Japan. In 1970, when Polnareff left France for the United States, the friends found themselves in forced unemployment. It was in 1971 that Serge decided to set up a trio, à la Mamas And Papas, with his wife Joëlle and Richard: Thus was born Il Etait Une Fois . . . .
http://garagerock.regaloeb.com/2019/11/19/le-bain-didonc/
Fou du Rock gives us more (courtesy of Google Translate):
It was at the Olympia in 1963, where the Beatles performed for the first time in France, that Serge Koolen and his band present in the room saw the light. On their return to Colombes, they created Les Peatles, a group under the influence of the little guys from Liverpool. And it didn’t go too badly: in 1964, they won “Le Concours de Rock de Radio Luxembourg” (future RTL) then the prize for the “Best French Rock and Roll Group from the Maisons de Jeunes” in Courbevoie in 1965. . . . During a gala while accompanying Charles Trenet, they were introduced to Richard Bennett who invited them to join the Riviera team. They thus released under the name of Bain Didonc an excellent EP from which is extracted “4 hairs in the wind”. Under the influence of Richard Bennett’s “sick” brain, Les Piteuls then multiplied more or less eccentric and wacky projects. They thus record under various pseudonyms – Les Papyvores and Buddy Badge Montezuma – completely hallucinated discs (“I am LSDic and paranoic, it’s psychedelic” extract from Papyvore); but also an EP under the name Pierre Paul et Jacques with the cult piece and Dada “I am Turkish”. In 1970, Serge Koolen and Richard Dewitte left to found with Joëlle, the group Once upon a time, with the success that we know of them thanks to the hit “J’ai encore rêvé d’elle”… .
http://www.fouderock.com/rock_fr/freakbeat-francais2.html
* Can someone explain this French pun to me? Merci!
Here they perform the Beach Boy’s “Barbra-Ann” — it’s a hoot:
And here, “Sticks and Stones”:
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