THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,262) Erick Saint-Laurent – “Le Temps D’y Penser”/”Time to Think About It”
Talk about a genre-bender, here from a ‘67 EP is “rare, perfect beat-pop-jerk-psychedelic-folk-garage French” (gerardo9633, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnd-zbIK_94) “with its beatnik air, its fuzz guitar, the soulful winds and its rhythm section in steamroller mode, covering a lyric portrait of the times: the desire for emancipation, to be different, the new codes of youth, generational incommunicability and America as the promised land”. (estudiodelsonidoesnob, https://estudiodelsonidoesnob.wordpress.com/category/erick-saint-laurent/)
The lyrics*, still relevant (here in English): How long, tell me, will I have to stay with my parents? As long as I can’t make enough money Yes, but how long will it take me to earn some? And That’s what my dad keeps asking himself
As to Erick Saint-Laurent, estudiodelsonidoesnob (“study of snob sound” 🙂 ) says:
Between July 1966 and December 1967 Patrice Raison (aka Erick Saint Laurent ) would release five EPs on the Barclay label. . . . [He] made his music debut in 1963 with Les Little Boys, who the following year became Les Hornets. They finished first in the Twistorama music competition and performed in various Parisian venues such as the Weekend Club and the Locomotive, located on the ground floor of the famous Moulin Rouge. In 1965 . . . they met Pierre [“Saka” Sakalakis], a writer/radio journalist/entertainer with an extensive career behind him . . . . Saka saw in him, a boy with a formidable voice and image, the opportunity to mould someone to his liking from the beginning. Erick/Patrice impeccably embodies the prototype of late Mod-Baroque in its French version: Blazer, skinny trousers, fitted shirt, ankle boots and the measured haircut of his messy mid-length hair sculpted with a razor. He signs for the Barclay label and takes with him his friend Jean-Louis Desumeur, the guitarist of Les Hornets. With Barclay he will release five Super 45 tours . . . between 1966 and 1967. No expense is spared: the best arrangers and musical directors . . . and the best studio musicians. [They] are the living portrait of an era. Covers of all kinds, from the most obvious: The Beatles («Eleanor Rigby», «C’est devenu un homme/She’s leaving home»), Tommy Roe («Un Canard»/»Sweet pea» , Neil Diamond («Je devine la vérité»/»I got the Feelin «) or the Monkees («J’ai cru a mon rêve»/»I’m a believer» ) to less obvious ones: The Nice (« Aprés la batalle»/»The night of Emerlist Davjack «), Procol Harum («Lila Mary»/»She wandered through the garden fence»). It doesn’t forget the French classics either, it seems to play on percentages: «Les fueilles mortes» by Jacques Prévert, «L’amour est mort» by Jean Michel Rivat and Franck Thomas … in short, what appears to be a careful photograph of two unforgettable years in which everything seemed to fit, in which everything could happen. But, despite everything, perhaps it is the songs that Saka contributes (with music by [Jacques Bulostin “Monty”] and Jean Pierre Bourtayre and also by Erick Saint Laurent himself) that best show what could have been and was not. . . . Unfortunately, at the beginning of 1968, when everything seemed ready for the ignition, Erick Saint Laurent had to leave for military service. When he returned, a year and a half later, times had changed. In fact, it was as if a decade had passed. Hippies were rife, psychedelia had swept away the Beat and the time of soloists had been wiped off the map. The casualties were considerable . . . and even the untouchables had to reinvent themselves . . . . Erick Saint Laurent joined Eddy Mitchell’s band as a backing vocalist and even tried, with the group Présence, to make his mark in the new order. All in vain. [I]n 1972 he released a new single and [then] disappeared forever.
https://estudiodelsonidoesnob.wordpress.com/category/erick-saint-laurent/
Wikipedia adds:
[Erick Saint-Laurent] was part of the French pop wave of the late 1960s . . . . [He] joined Les Little Boys d’Orly . . . . in 1962. . . . Patrice renamed his group the Hornets . . . in homage to the Beatles . . . . The Hornets band performed at a competition, Twistorama in Orly, which they ended up winning. This gave the group some visibility on the local Parisian scene. The group covered Beatles songs, which pleased Kiki Chauvière, who invited the group to play on stage at la Locomotive. The group then spent their weekends on stage. In 1965, the[y] met Mike Pasternack, with whom they signed a contract. Pasternack had them open for the Kinks, when the latter performed at the Olympia in February 1965. . . . The Beatles’ influence was increasingly felt in the band, who performed live covers of the Fab Four’s classics, as well as other hits from the English-speaking scene. . . . They tried to sign with Barclay in 1965, but the record company refused. The band spent the rest of 1965 playing on stage at La Locomotive. At the beginning of the summer of 1966, under the leadership of Mike Pasternack, the group auditioned at Barclay, who signed Patrice, who would be renamed “Erick Saint-Laurent”. The rest of the group would end up accompanying their singer in the rest of his career, Barclay not wanting to produce a group. . . . He collaborated with the lyricist Pierre Saka from 1966. In his book “Tout finit par des chansons” Saka describes Erick as “a young singer who is not like the others (…) He stands out from the rockers whose uniform is the black leather jacket. He plays the elegance card, a bit like Dutronc before his time”. It was under the impetus of Pierre Saka that Erick Saint-Laurent would sing songs in French, he who at the time mainly covered Anglo-Saxon songs .A first album was released in June 1966. . . . In September 1966, Erick Saint-Laurent [went] to a London studio. Accompanied by Eddy Mitchell’s musicians , he recorded a few songs, including a French adaptation of “Eleanor Rigby” . . . . [which] earned the singer his first success. . . . rank[ing] 36th in the tops between October 23 and November 6, 1966. . . .
* Combien de temps, dis-moi, il va me falloir rester chez mes parents? Aussi longtemps que je ne pourrai pas gagner assez d’argent Oui mais voilà combien de temps il me faudra pour en gagner? C’est ce que mon père n’arrête pas de se demander
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