DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 1

JACQUES BREL: "Ces Gens-là"

Original released on LP Barclay 80 323 S

(FRANCE 1965, Novembre 10 / 1966, June 23)

10 de Novembro 1965. De regresso de uma digressão de cinco semanas pela União Sovitética onde, pela primeira e última vez no decorrer dos seus concertos, Brel acedeu aos pedidos do público e bisou uma canção em Leningrad ("Amsterdam"), e antes de viajar para o Canadá e Estados Unidos, onde subiria ao palco do Carnegie Hall em 4 de Dezembro, diante de cerca de quatro mil espectadores, Brel vê ser editado um novo 25cm (10 polegadas), com direcção musical de François Rauber e acompanhamento de Gérard Jouannest ao piano e Jean Corti no acordeão. A capa deste “Ces Gens-Là”, da autoria de Alain Marouani, mostra o cantor sentado à mesa de um bistrot, envolto por uma cortina espessa de fumo (o cantor fumava na altura 4 maços de cigarros por dia). Mais tarde, Brel diria que era a capa que ele preferia de todos os seus discos. Com o tempo a fotografia ganhou um peso icónico e hoje podemos vê-la, em grandes dimensões, numa montra do edifício que alberga a Fondation Jacques Brel, na Place de la Vieille Halle aux Blés, no centro de Bruxelas. São seis os temas que compunham este vinil: “Ces Gens-là”, “Jacky” e “L’Âge Idiot” no lado 1, e “Fernand”, “Grand-Mère” e “Les Désespérés” no lado 2. A primeira, que dá o nome ao álbum, é uma das canções mais violentas escritas pelo compositor belga:

D'abord...
D'abord, y'a l'aîné
Lui qu'est comme un melon
Lui qui a un gros nez
Lui qui sait plus son nom, Monsieur, tellement qu'il boit
Ou tellement qu'il a bu
Qui fait rien d'ses dix doigts
Mais lui qui n'en peut plus
Lui qui est complètement cuit
Et qui s'prend pour le roi

Qui se soule toutes les nuits
Avec du mauvais vin
Mais qu'on retrouve au matin
Dans l'église, qui roupille
Raide comme une saillie
Blanc comme un cierge de Pâques
Et puis qui bal-bu-tie
Et qui a l'œil qui divague...

Faut vous dire, Monsieur
Que chez ces gens-là
On n'pense pas, Monsieur
On n'pense pas
On prie

Et puis, y'a l'autre
Des carottes dans les cheveux
Qu'a jamais vu un peigne
Qu'est méchant comme une teigne
Même qu'il donnerait sa chemise
À des pauvres gens heureux
Qui a marié la Denise
Une fille de la ville, enfin, d'une autre ville
Et que c'est pas fini
Qui fait ses p'tites affaires
Avec son p'tit chapeau
Avec son p'tit manteau
Avec sa p'tite auto
Qu'aimerait bien avoir l'air
Mais qu'a pas l'air du tout
Faut pas jouer les riches
Quand on n'a pas le sou

Faut vous dire, Monsieur
Que chez ces gens-là
On n'vit pas, Monsieur
On n'vit pas
On triche

Et puis, y'a les autres
La mère qui n'dit rien
Ou bien n'importe quoi
Et du soir au matin
Sous sa belle gueule d'apôtre
Et dans son cadre en bois
Y'a la moustache du père
Qui est mort d'une glissade
Et qui regarde son troupeau
Bouffer la soupe froide
Et ça fait des grands flchss
Et ça fait des grands flchss

Et puis y'a la toute vieille
Qu'en finit pas de vibrer
Et qu'on attend qu'elle crève
Vu que c'est elle qui a l'oseille
Et qu'on écoute même pas
C'que ses pauv' mains racontent

Faut vous dire, Monsieur
Que chez ces gens-là
On n'cause pas, Monsieur
On n'cause pas
On compte

Et puis
Et puis
Et puis y'a Frida!
Qu'est belle comme un soleil!
Et qui m'aime pareil
Que moi j'aime Frida!

Même qu'on se dit souvent
Qu'on aura une maison
Avec des tas d'fenêtres
Avec presque pas d'murs
Et qu'on vivra dedans
Et qu'il f'ra bon y être
Et que si c'est pas sûr
C'est quand même peut-être
Parce que les autres veulent pas
Parce que les autres veulent pas

Les autres ils disent comme ça
Qu'elle est trop belle pour moi
Que je suis tout juste bon
À égorger les chats
J'ai jamais tué d'chats
Ou alors y'a longtemps
Ou bien j'ai oublié
Ou ils sentaient pas bon
Enfin ils veulent pas
Enfin ils veulent pas

Parfois, quand on se voit
Semblant qu'c'est pas exprès
Avec ses yeux mouillants
Elle dit qu'elle partira
Elle dit qu'elle me suivra
Alors pour un instant
Pour un instant seulement
Alors moi je la crois, Monsieur
Pour un instant
Pour un instant seulement
Parce que chez ces gens-là, Monsieur
On n's'en va pas
On s'en va pas, Monsieur
On s'en va pas

Mais il est tard, Monsieur
Il faut que je rentre
Chez moi 

A 18 de Março de 1966, Brel interpreta “Ces Gens-là” no programa televisivo Discorama e em entrevista a Denise Glaser refere: «C’est pas de la violence, c’est de la colère. Il y a des gents qui vivent plus au moins dans l’indignation, dans la colère, c’est mon cas, et ça ne s’arrange pas. J’aime pas l’humilité qui consiste à refuser de voir des choses laides en se disant: ‘Moi, je les vois et ça ne me touche pas!’ Et accepter que les autres subissent les conséquences de ces choses laides. Si on est relativement généreux de quelque part, à tort oui à raison, on passe obligatoirement par des moments de colère. Ça me paraît inévitable. Et quand on n’est pas en colère, c’est qu’on est tout seul!» “Ces Gens-là” foi editada em single, tendo atingido o 3º lugar do hit-parade francês em Janeiro de 1966, atrás de “Michelle”, dos Beatles.

Dado o êxito estrondoso do pequeno vinil, seriam anexados mais 4 temas (“Jef”, “Les Bergers”, “Tango Funèbre” e “Mathilde”), gravados entre 8 de Janeiro e 7 de Março de 1964, para a edição do correspondente LP. Em 23 de Setembro de 2003, para a edição da caixa-aniversário “Boite à Bonbons” (Barclay 980 817 – 2) , são ainda acrescentados outros 4 temas (gravados todos em 8 de Janeiro de 1963), cantados em flamengo e editados anteriormente no EP Barclay 70907: "Mijn Vlakke Land (Le Plat Pays)”, “Rosa”, “De Burgerij (Les Bourgeois)” e “De Nuttelozen Van de Nacht (Les Paumés du Petit Matin)”.

BOB DYLAN: The 5th Album

Original released on LP Columbia CL 2328 (mono)

(US 1965, March 22)

With "Another Side of Bob Dylan", Dylan had begun pushing past folk, and with "Bringing It All Back Home", he exploded the boundaries, producing an album of boundless imagination and skill. And it's not just that he went electric, either, rocking hard on "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Maggie's Farm," and "Outlaw Blues"; it's that he's exploding with imagination throughout the record. After all, the music on its second side - the nominal folk songs - derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal. And this isn't just introspection, either, since the surreal paranoia on "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and the whimsical poetry of "Mr. Tambourine Man" are individual, yet not personal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, really, as he writes uncommonly beautiful love songs ("She Belongs to Me," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit") that sit alongside uncommonly funny fantasias ("On the Road Again," "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"). This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words. A truly remarkable album. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

THE VENTURES ~ KNOCK ME OUT!

Original released on LP Dolton BLP 2033 (US, February 1965)

MARIANNE's "My Songs of the Sixties"

Once upon a time there was a sweet loving girl called Marianne... No woman from the 1960s lost her youth as thoroughly as Marianne Faithfull. And by youth, I mean her innocence, not her looks. Long after that decade ended, she wrote in a song, "Where did it go to ... my youth?" She answered herself only last year with lyrics that begin, «I drink and I take drugs/I love sex and move around a lot». And no citizen of the '60s drank, took drugs and had sex with Faithfull's public abandon. This Rato Records's collection (shared once more 'cause of many requests), in three parts, reunites 75 great songs that Marianne recorded during the sixties, before her personal life went into decline, and her career went into a tailspin.

THE DRIFTERS'S "GOOD LIFE"

THE DRIFTERS

"THE GOOD LIFE"
Original released as LP Atlantic, SD 8103, US 1965-01

MANFRED MANN EP "Come Tomorrow" (1965-01)

O 2º Álbum Britânico dos Rolling Stones

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP DECCA LK 4661
(UK 1965, JANUARY 15)

O segundo álbum britânico dos Stones foi apenas editado após o aparecimento do 2º álbum americano, devido ao facto de nessa altura as audiências britânicas não se encontrarem focadas nos LPs, aos quais preferiam os singles e EPs, que controlavam o comércio em Inglaterra. A fotografia na capa, de David Bailey, é a mesma usada no álbum americano "12X5" dois meses e meio antes (editado a 17 de Outubro de 1964 pela London) mas apenas 4 temas - "Under the Boardwalk", "Suzie Q", "Grown Up Wrong" e "Time Is On My Side" aparecem nos dois LPs. Depois, neste 2º álbum aparecem 7 novas canções que só 4 meses depois seriam editadas nos EUA, no álbum "The Rolling Stones Now!" e, pasme-se, a versão de Muddy Waters, "I Can't Be Satisfied" só apareceria em 1973 em solo ianque. Este LP tem ainda a vantagerm de apenas ter sido editado em mono, pelo que não existem cópias em "rechanneled stereo" com que nos devamos preocupar. Ou seja, este 2º álbum dos Stones mostra que a discografia oficial que deve ser levada em conta é a inglesa e não a americana. Como aliás acontece com a discografia dos Beatles.

THE ZOMBIES: 1º ALBUM nos EUA

THE ZOMBIES

"THE ZOMBIES"
Original released as LP Parrot, PA 61001, US 1965-01

 Side one

A1. She’s Not There

A2. Summertime

A3. It’s Alright With Me

A4. You Really Got a Hold On Me / Bring It On Home to Me

A5. Sometimes

A6. Woman

Side two 

B1. Tell Her No

B2. I Don’t Want to Know

B3. Work ‘n’ Play

B4. Can’t Nobody Love You

B5. What More Can I Do

B6. I Got My Mojo Working

CREDITS:

Rod Argent: piano, keyboards, backing vocals, lead vocals

Chris White: bass guitar, bass, backing vocals

Hugh Grundy: drums

Paul Atkinson: lead guitar, guitar

Colin Blunstone: vocals, guitar, lead vocals, tambourine

Produced by Ken Jones

Photography by Dezo Hoffmann

O grupo britânico The Zombies edita o seu 1º álbum de originais nos EUA e Canadá depois da saída em Inglaterra do 1º single, “She’s Not There / You Make Me Feel Good”, em Dezembro de 1964. Só em 30 de Abril de 1965 é que seria editado o 1º LP na Grã-Bretanha, “Begin Here”, com um alinhamento diferente e alguns temas a serem substituídos por outros.

TRINI LOPEZ: "THE FOLK ALBUM"

Original Released on LP Reprise RS 6147 (US, January 1965)

Produced by Don Costa

TRACKS:

A1 - Lemon Tree (Will Holt) 2:50
A2 - Pretty Eyes (Randazzo - Weinstein) 2:45
A3 - Greenback Dollar (Axton - Ramsey) 2:22
A4 - Puff (The Magic Dragon) (Yarrow - Lipton) :30
A5 - I Love Your Beautiful Brown Eyes (Lopez - Zeller) 2:45
A6 - Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan) 3:11

B1 - We’ll Sing In The Sunshine (Gale Garnett) :40
B2 - Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair) (Segal - Danzig) 3:30
B3 - Crooked Little Man (Ersel Hickey - Ed. E. Miller) :27
B4 - Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan) 3:35
B5 - Michael (Dave Fisher) 2:52
B6 - This Train (Yarrow - Stookey) 2:32

MAURICE JARRE: "Doctor Zhivago" OST (The Deluxe Thirtieth Anniversary Edition)

Original released on CD 

TCM Turner Classic Movies Music 8122 71957-2

Rhino Movie Music ‎– R2 71957

(US 1995, April 25 - recorded 1965)

The M-G-M Studio Orchestra, compositor y director - Morris Zharr

"Doctor Zhivago" is a lively and vibrant work from the brilliant young French composer Maurice Jarre. Already heralded for his acclaimed scores in the films "The Longest Day", "The Collector", and "Lawrence of Arabia", Jarre put together a bold and expressive score in spirited fashion. The music for "Doctor Zhivago" includes Russian folk tunes, bits from Soviet marches, songs, ballads, and dances. Featured in this work is the lovely and haunting "Lara's Theme," as well as themes noting the violence and terror of the revolution. With a chilling sense of detail, scope, and experimentation, Jarre proves to be successful at capturing the essence of the film's main character, Doctor Zhivago, featured earlier in the book by Boris Pasternak, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The album was put together using an orchestra unprecedented in its size and scope at the time. Jarre conducted the orchestra himself for ten days, using the full 110-piece group assembled in Hollywood for the occasion. Also featured was a unique group of 24 balalaika musicians and Japanese instrumentalists; koto, gong, organ, Novachord, electric sonovox, harpsichord, electric and tack pianos, and zither were included in the ensemble. The music was accompanied by 40 voices. Leo Arnaud, Lou Raderman, and Monique Rollin each worked closely with Jarre during the recording of this film masterpiece. The music itself is fresh, unique, and daring, performed by the orchestra with enthusiasm and a remarkable sense of energy and flair. (Shawn Haney in AllMusic)

Maurice Jarre wrote the central musical motif of his score for "Doctor Zhivago", "Lara's Theme," in a few minutes in a hotel, amid a frantic five-week rush to score the 197-minute movie. That theme made the "Doctor Zhivago" soundtrack album one of the biggest selling soundtrack of the 1960s, a considerable feat when one reckons in the competition from "A Hard Day's Night", "Never on Sunday", "A Man and a Woman", "Exodus", and "2001: A Space Odyssey". The rest of Jarre's score is more in the realm of lushly textured Russian-themed mood music, filled with dark male choruses, folk and folk-like themes, and dense orchestrations, sort of faux-Tchaikovsky. The stereo separation is used to good effect, and the music as a whole forms a kind of romantic/exotic travelogue as much as a dramatic sketch of the movie's action. The only drawback is that, given the length of the movie and the relatively short time that Jarre had to compose and record the score, there is a fair amount of repetition (one wishes that Jarre had been as lucky as Miklos Rozsa on "Ben-Hur", with nearly a year to work on the music for that epic). The Sony CD was a considerable upgrade over the MGM LP and the mid-'80s MCA CD in both sound and content, adding a large body of incidental and intermission music built on the main themes from the film as well as several variants on "Lara's Theme." It, in turn, was supplanted by this Rhino Records' 1995 re-release, which offered somewhat better sound quality and more than a half-dozen outtakes from the score. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

"WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS"

Original released as A&M SP 4110 (stereo); LP 110 (mono)

(US, April 1965)

“Whipped Cream & Other Delights” é muito provavelmente o clássico dos clássicos de Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. E isso muito por causa da célebre capa do disco: uma jovem coberta de chantilly. O seu nome era Dolores Erickson e na altura encontrava-se grávida de três meses. A cobertura não era na realidade chantilly mas sim um vestido coberto com creme de barbear. Mas esse pequeno truque resultou em cheio! Quando se fala da capa do “chantilly” todos os amantes de música sabem de imediato a que disco se está a referir. Como se escreveu na revista Esquire, em 1989, «aqui está como era a luxúria em 1966». Na continuação do grande sucesso comercial dos três primeiros álbuns do grupo instrumental mais na moda naqueles meados dos anos 60, “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” passou um total de 141 semanas no Top 40 e ainda mais 61 semanas no Top 10 das tabelas de venda americanas, tendo atingido a posição cimeira em 8 semanas seguidas. A capa, claro, foi apenas uma parte da história do disco. Porque a grande qualidade dos temas incluídos mostravam claramente que Herb Alpert e a sua Tijuana Brass tinham vindo para ficar.

TOM JONES: "The First Years" (1965-1967)

Sir Thomas Jones Woodward is a Welsh singer known by his stage name Tom Jones. He was born in 1940, June 7, at 57 Kingsland Terrace, Treforest, Pontypridd, in Glamorgan, South Wales and became one of the most popular vocalists to emerge from the mid-1960s. Since then, he has sung many forms of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, soul music and gospel – and sold over 100 million records. Jones has had thirty-six Top 40 hits in the United Kingdom and nineteen in the United States. He began singing at an early age, at family gatherings, weddings and in his school choir. Jones did not like school or sports, but gained confidence through his singing talent. At 12 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Many years later he said: «I spent two years in bed recovering. It was the worst time of my life.» During convalescence he could do little else but listen to music and draw.

Jones's bluesy singing style developed out of the sound of American soul music. His early influences included blues and R&B singers Little Richard, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson and Brook Benton, as well as Elvis Presley. In March 1957 Jones married his high school girlfriend, Linda Trenchard when they were expecting a child together, both aged 16. The couple's son, Mark, was born in the month following their wedding. To support his young family Jones took a job working in a glove factory and was later employed in construction. Jones's voice has been described as a "full-throated, robust baritone". He became the frontman in 1963 for Tommy Scott and the Senators, a Welsh beat group. They soon gained a local following and reputation in South Wales. 

The group recorded several solo tracks in 1964 with producer Joe Meek, who took them to various labels, but they had little success. Later that year, Decca producer Peter Sullivan saw Tommy Scott and the Senators performing in a club and directed them to manager Phil Solomon, but the partnership was short-lived. The group continued to play gigs at dance halls and working men's clubs in South Wales. One night at the Top Hat in Cwmtillery, Wales, Jones was spotted by Gordon Mills, a London-based manager who also originally hailed from South Wales. Mills became Jones's manager and took the young singer to London, and also renamed him Tom Jones, to exploit the popularity of the Academy Award winning 1963 film.

Eventually, Mills got Jones a recording contract with Decca. His first single, "Chills and Fever", was released in late 1964. It did not chart, but the follow-up, "It's Not Unusual", became an international hit after offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline promoted it. The following year was the most prominent of Jones's career, making him one of the most popular vocalists of the British Invasion. In early 1965, "It's Not Unusual" reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom and the top ten in the United States. During 1965, Mills secured a number of film themes for Jones to record, including the themes for the film “What's New Pussycat?” (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and for the James Bond film “Thunderball”. Jones was also awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for 1966. In Hollywood, he met Elvis Presley for the first time who he recalls singing his song as he walked towards him on set.

In 1966, Jones's popularity began to slip somewhat, causing Mills to reshape the singer's image into that of a crooner. Jones also began to sing material that appealed to a wider audience, such as the big country hit "Green, Green Grass of Home". The strategy worked, and Jones returned to the top of the charts in the UK and began hitting the Top 40 again in the US. For the remainder of the decade, he scored a string of hits on both sides of the Atlantic, including "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", "I'm Coming Home", and "Delilah" which all reached No. 2 in the UK chart.

Melody Maker Awards, 1966 - With Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield and Ringo Starr

Jones performed in Las Vegas for the first time at the Flamingo, in 1967. His performances and style of dress became part of his stage act, and increasingly featured his open, half-unbuttoned shirts and tight trousers. He soon chose to record less, instead concentrating on his lucrative club performances. His shows at Caesars Palace were a knicker-hurling frenzy of sexually charged adulation and good-time entertainment. Women started throwing hotel room keys onto the stage. Jones and his idol Elvis Presley met in 1965 at the Paramount film stage, when Elvis was filming Paradise, Hawaiian Style. They became good friends, spending more and more time together in Las Vegas and duetting until the early hours at Presley's private Las Vegas suite. The friendship endured until Presley's death in 1977.

This double CD set collects the very best of Tom Jones’s songs, released in his first years of fame and success, between 1964 and 1967.