7 I wasn't sure about 'Quand Je T'aime' at first, and had to get accustomed to Demis' voice, but after a few listens I really appreciated its melody, which is lovely.
The 80s-90s Lost Classics Rate - Goodbye Wes! :'-(
- Thread starter berserkboi
- Start date
D
Deleted member 26234
Ok, the last few days were very nice, no more Austrian / German / Italian losses. Today I'm sadly back.
If you don’t count Helen Schneider, as – although being US American - she has lived in Germany throughout and after her musical career, this is the first non-continental European act who leaves.
It's a British act. Do you guess who?
#49
Supertramp – It’s Raining Again
Picked By: @Filippa
Credentials: #1 in France, #3 in Germany, #2 in Switzerland, #4 in the Netherlands, #7 in Austria; #1 in Canada, #11 US and #26 UK
Average Score: 6.8727
Highest Score: 9.1 @Untouchable Ace
Lowest Score: 3 @daninternational, @Ezz
"It's Raining Again" is the first single from the last album (“… Famous Last Words …”) with Roger Hodgson, the end of the collaboration between Hodgson and Rick Davies as composers. The end of Supertramp in some ways because without Hodgson’s song-writing contribution and his distinctive voice Supertramp wasn’t the same anymore.
“… Famous Last Words …” wasn’t received too well by the critics. One reason was because it wasn’t its critically acclaimed predecessor “Breakfast In America”. Commercially it was quite successful, peaking at #1 in most of the European states. (Fun fact: not even the critically acclaimed and most successful Supertramp album “Breakfast In America” managed to reach #1 in the British charts. Poor Supertramp seemingly having a hard time in their homeland …).
“It’s Raining Again” could even be about Hodgson’s musical (and maybe personal) fall-out with Davies, as he later said the song captured his sadness after losing a friend. Hodgson wanted to stay in a similar musical vein as “Breakfast In America”, but Davies wanted to return to their more rocky and progressive beginnings. The song wasn’t well received by the hard-core Supertramp fans as well, dismissed as being bland or uninspired. But continental Europe embraced it maybe because of their chanson / schlager roots. It’s really an infectious pop song, which stood the test of time for me.
Rodger Hodgson said about this song in 2018:
I wrote It’s Raining Again on a day when I was feeling sad because I’d lost a friend. I was in England looking outside the window and it was pouring rain and literally, the song came to me. I started playing these chords on this pump organ and I just started singing It’s Raining Again.
The first version of it was much slower and more melancholy and then when I recorded it with Supertramp I decided to increase the tempo and it was more upbeat. So it’s another of my songs with a sad lyric set to up upbeat melody.
What did PopJustice think?
@jtm (7.4) I know this, and it‘s quite okay. The video is serving an overdose of 80‘s nostalgia
@pop3blow2 (8.8) Not a fave song by them, but still a good one.
@Ezz (3) Again, probably my warped tastes coming through!
@daninternational (3) very twee, not for me
@DominoDancing (8.5) I really am a sucker for this kind of artpop. Very breezy and effortless, but perhaps a bit repetitive to be really great.
@WowWowWowWow (6) So get an umbrella and leave me alone.
@Filippa (7) Come on you little piger, no need to get a tiger – that’s what I understood.
@MilesAngel (6.5) Never been a fan of the lead singer's voice. This is a bit repetitive but the tune is catchy.
@berserkboi (8.1) Very cute song!
It's Raining Again
Breakfast In America
Bloody Well Right
Hide In Your Shell
Dreamer
If you don’t count Helen Schneider, as – although being US American - she has lived in Germany throughout and after her musical career, this is the first non-continental European act who leaves.
It's a British act. Do you guess who?
#49
Supertramp – It’s Raining Again
Picked By: @Filippa
Credentials: #1 in France, #3 in Germany, #2 in Switzerland, #4 in the Netherlands, #7 in Austria; #1 in Canada, #11 US and #26 UK
Average Score: 6.8727
Highest Score: 9.1 @Untouchable Ace
Lowest Score: 3 @daninternational, @Ezz
"It's Raining Again" is the first single from the last album (“… Famous Last Words …”) with Roger Hodgson, the end of the collaboration between Hodgson and Rick Davies as composers. The end of Supertramp in some ways because without Hodgson’s song-writing contribution and his distinctive voice Supertramp wasn’t the same anymore.
“… Famous Last Words …” wasn’t received too well by the critics. One reason was because it wasn’t its critically acclaimed predecessor “Breakfast In America”. Commercially it was quite successful, peaking at #1 in most of the European states. (Fun fact: not even the critically acclaimed and most successful Supertramp album “Breakfast In America” managed to reach #1 in the British charts. Poor Supertramp seemingly having a hard time in their homeland …).
“It’s Raining Again” could even be about Hodgson’s musical (and maybe personal) fall-out with Davies, as he later said the song captured his sadness after losing a friend. Hodgson wanted to stay in a similar musical vein as “Breakfast In America”, but Davies wanted to return to their more rocky and progressive beginnings. The song wasn’t well received by the hard-core Supertramp fans as well, dismissed as being bland or uninspired. But continental Europe embraced it maybe because of their chanson / schlager roots. It’s really an infectious pop song, which stood the test of time for me.
Rodger Hodgson said about this song in 2018:
I wrote It’s Raining Again on a day when I was feeling sad because I’d lost a friend. I was in England looking outside the window and it was pouring rain and literally, the song came to me. I started playing these chords on this pump organ and I just started singing It’s Raining Again.
The first version of it was much slower and more melancholy and then when I recorded it with Supertramp I decided to increase the tempo and it was more upbeat. So it’s another of my songs with a sad lyric set to up upbeat melody.
What did PopJustice think?
@jtm (7.4) I know this, and it‘s quite okay. The video is serving an overdose of 80‘s nostalgia
@pop3blow2 (8.8) Not a fave song by them, but still a good one.
@Ezz (3) Again, probably my warped tastes coming through!
@daninternational (3) very twee, not for me
@DominoDancing (8.5) I really am a sucker for this kind of artpop. Very breezy and effortless, but perhaps a bit repetitive to be really great.
@WowWowWowWow (6) So get an umbrella and leave me alone.
@Filippa (7) Come on you little piger, no need to get a tiger – that’s what I understood.
@MilesAngel (6.5) Never been a fan of the lead singer's voice. This is a bit repetitive but the tune is catchy.
@berserkboi (8.1) Very cute song!
It's Raining Again
Breakfast In America
Bloody Well Right
Hide In Your Shell
Dreamer
Last edited by a moderator:
He/Him
I initially thought it was these guys myself and was "WTF??" about them having a giant hit outside the UK but not in the UK! Ddddd
Yes and no. I am surprised when I read for example that they only managed to get two songs to chart in the Top 10 in the UK. On the other hand their 1974 album Crime of the Century spent 123 weeks on the German album charts, and that's not a market to sneeze at, so it's all a question of perspective.
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Oh, I knew they were a brit band, but had no idea they were massive in Germany. Are they the Hurts of their generation?
he/him
Without Supertramp, we wouldn't have
Whether or not that is a good thing, is in the eye of the beholder.
Whether or not that is a good thing, is in the eye of the beholder.
Supertramp was one of the artists in the rate I was most familiar with. At least in in my area of the U.S., I aways thought them a moderately big deal. They had like 9 top 40 hits in the US. Our local classic rock stations played several seemingly quite a bit. They do kind of exist is this weird region of popularity, I guess though. We had some of their records when I was kid (I loved 'The Logical Song')
Of course, The Goo Goo Dolls also scored pretty big with a Supertramp song, too in the 00s.
Of course, The Goo Goo Dolls also scored pretty big with a Supertramp song, too in the 00s.
I know Supertramp a little but didn't know they produced so many albums (there's 11 studio albums as well as live and compilation albums). As I said I'm not a fan of the singer's voice, but it sounds alright on 'Breakfast In America' and 'Give A Little Bit.' I do know that Princess Diana was a big fan.
I always thought that Supertramp were American. Probably because of the cover for Breakfast In America, which is the best thing about them for me. (And I mean the cover art, NOT the music!).
I never got Supertramp. Older brothers of class-mates were usually fans of their 70s albums, their Paris live album was fucking everywhere and they would fill the local football stadium when they toured Famous Last Words.
I find them incedibly whiny and they totally personify what I don´t like about Prog Rock.
I never got Supertramp. Older brothers of class-mates were usually fans of their 70s albums, their Paris live album was fucking everywhere and they would fill the local football stadium when they toured Famous Last Words.
I find them incedibly whiny and they totally personify what I don´t like about Prog Rock.
He/Him
Filippa’s watery return also leaves Berserkboi soaking wet!
You know what that means!
A song featuring water goes!
We also lose our last song with an average score below a 7!
3 of us gave this one a 10!
#48
Michel Sardou - Les Lacs Du Connemara
Picked By: Berserkboi
Credentials: #1 France (3 Weeks), 83 Weeks On The Chart (Top 100), #7 Best Selling Single of 1981 in France, #35 Best Selling Single of the 80s in France, 1 Million Copies Sold, Certified PLATINUM by InfoDisc, #6 Belgium, #9 Netherlands
Average Score: 6.9045
Highest Score: 10 @berserkboi @Sprockrooster @WowWowWowWow
Lowest Score: 2.3 @jtm
Holy moly - I hadn’t realised what a Sales Mammoth we were losing until doing that Credentials update a few moment ago - but here we are! One thing this rate has done that I am incredibly thankful for is lead me to revisit the Back Catalog of Michel Sardou. My mum has always been a massive fan of Michel growing up and would play his music very regularly. I hadn’t realised just how much of it I knew until I gave a heap of songs a listen and despite song titles not being familiar at all, the melody of many hit a sweet spot or memory straight away!
Surprisingly Les Lacs Du Connemara is not the song I felt the most emotional connection with during this, but it was still very interesting to read up on it. A collaborator of Michel’s (Jacques Revaux) synthesiser made a sound that reminded him of a bagpipe - so Michel decided he would create a song around that sound effect. Initially the idea was to write a song about Scotland but when the two could not find much documentation about the country (soz Scotland!!) - they turned to Ireland, which they found easier to source some touristic pamphlets for; specifically the Connemara region which Sardou had never visited (I love how random this process was, the stuff artists had to do before the Internet! Dddd).
A love letter to Ireland, and its history in French song (what a concept!!) - Les Lacs Du Connemara namely references wild forestation around the lakes, a very cloudy and windy climate, some towns from the region (Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Ballyconneely), the Gaels, Oliver Cromwell (an English conqueror who massacred the inhabitants of the region between 1649 and 1653), the ongoing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. The song clocking in at over 6 minutes made Sardou very reluctant to release it but Revaux was on to something when the latter convinced Sardou he was sitting on a gold nugget! Imagine if this little song had actually been lost! Really makes you wonder what greatness may still be hidden in the Sardou Vault!
Now seen as a French Classic - Les Lacs Du Connemara was even recently voted one of 50 Favourite Songs by The French, and is credited for driving a very high turnout of French tourists to the Connemara region (a reported increase of 350,000 visitors from France when the song was on the charts). In 2011, for the 30 Year Anniversary of the song, Michel Sardou was even given the Keys To Connemara by the Irish Ambassador in Paris! Such a classic of French Music is Les Lacs Du Connemara that it is frequently referenced or covered by musicians even today.
Sidelining a little - I don’t know how many of you are familiar with a movie called La Famille Bélier, but Sardou’s music features pretty heavily in it. The music teacher in the movie highlights that Michel Sardou did for French Music what Mozart did for Classical Music - and those words have stayed with me since hearing them. As I mulled over them while listening and reading about Michel - how political his music could get, often talking about subjects that artists shun away from - it gives a good context as to why he was divisive at many different stages of his career and what an important figure of French Culture he really is.
With modern lenses, it is perfectly normal for us to question a man approaching themes like homosexuality, suicide, religion, politics etc during his lengthy career when he isn’t part of the communities in question - but thinking back at how society operated in the 70s/80s/90s with these topics, I am just glad someone actually started a conversation about them at all. Growing up - one of the only songs that represented my homosexuality was a song by Michel, and for that I will be forever grateful! I shall post more of his masterpieces after the write-up, for now - we celebrate Les Lacs Du Connemara.
@jtm (2.3) will not be visiting the region on a French Guided Tour, that’s for sure! - dddd ok I get some perverse fun out of listening to him pronounce these names but other than that this is terrible. @TéléDex (9.75) continues to be my soul sister with his commentary - It seems so happy and cheesy, but if it's orchestral, I feel like it's what I need right now. @DominoDancing (4) can rest assured he did not offend me as much as the scores below a 3 did Ddddd - Running the risk of ripping into a berserkboi favourite, an overblown French Schlager about Irish lakes really doesn't tickle my fancy in the slightest.
@Ezz (8) gives us a bit of a preview of someone else’s experience with this one - I really like the way this builds to be really catchy - I love the fact it had a resurgence at student nights according to Wikipedia - I can really see this. @Filippa (7) will be joining me in lashing out at Cromwell! - I like this song. Sounds more like a 70s song but still!
@Epic Chocolat (8) comments on something we do not give Michel enough credit for (and yes he is probably my favourite Michel!) - Michel got pipes! Allegedly a song to close bars or end parties. @berserkboi is he your favorite Michel in French Chanson? There are so many, I'm curious. @berserkboi (10) was left wigless as per most of his picks! - The build! WOW!!! Can you say EPIC???!!
@WowWowWowWow (10) gives me one of the comments that gave me the most pleasure to read, what a European experience!!! - Under normal circumstances, I'm not sure this song would be 10 points for me. However, I have a personal story of sorts! When I was lucky enough to visit Belgium for the first time in 2009 (hi @Charley!), one of the highlights of the trip was Vlaanderen Zingt. This was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my life. We don't often get together with 10,000 other people and sing songs in the town square for hours on end. It was amazing. And I learned that one of the traditions of Vlaanderen Zingt is that they always do "Les Lacs du Connemara" and everyone waves the newspaper with the lyrics to the songs. So anytime I hear this song it will always bring me back to that magical week. And look, there's video proof of it!
@daninternational (6.5) is not hating something very French, finally!!! - The chorus is very French lol. I can imagine it has nostalgia for those who know it. Otherwise it's just a bit strange. @MilesAngel (5.5) surprisingly isn’t here for this too much, let me introduce you to Afrique Adieu instead! - I can appreciate the vocals and orchestral backing but it's not really my thing. @Sprockrooster (10) may have been part of that crowd WowWowWowWow was at afterall! - The changes in pace make this the perfect party anthem!
Here's a version I was expecting to hate on principle at the Artist Name but it is actually an amazing update of the song. I definitely sobbed towards the end where a message from Michel appears - a love letter that translates to:
"My dear children, I am leaving - I love you but I must go! (A reference to his masterpiece Je Vole)
In this year I have decided to retire from my singing career
A group of talented children have decided to cover my songs, and breathe new life into them
I am honoured, humbled and touched
Thanks to them what would have been an adieu is only a goodbye.
Michel Sardou"
2 Rate Alumni + Tina Arena do a version - can you say ICONIC?
A Eurodance version for @Ezz!
You know what that means!
A song featuring water goes!
We also lose our last song with an average score below a 7!
3 of us gave this one a 10!
#48
Michel Sardou - Les Lacs Du Connemara
Picked By: Berserkboi
Credentials: #1 France (3 Weeks), 83 Weeks On The Chart (Top 100), #7 Best Selling Single of 1981 in France, #35 Best Selling Single of the 80s in France, 1 Million Copies Sold, Certified PLATINUM by InfoDisc, #6 Belgium, #9 Netherlands
Average Score: 6.9045
Highest Score: 10 @berserkboi @Sprockrooster @WowWowWowWow
Lowest Score: 2.3 @jtm
Holy moly - I hadn’t realised what a Sales Mammoth we were losing until doing that Credentials update a few moment ago - but here we are! One thing this rate has done that I am incredibly thankful for is lead me to revisit the Back Catalog of Michel Sardou. My mum has always been a massive fan of Michel growing up and would play his music very regularly. I hadn’t realised just how much of it I knew until I gave a heap of songs a listen and despite song titles not being familiar at all, the melody of many hit a sweet spot or memory straight away!
Surprisingly Les Lacs Du Connemara is not the song I felt the most emotional connection with during this, but it was still very interesting to read up on it. A collaborator of Michel’s (Jacques Revaux) synthesiser made a sound that reminded him of a bagpipe - so Michel decided he would create a song around that sound effect. Initially the idea was to write a song about Scotland but when the two could not find much documentation about the country (soz Scotland!!) - they turned to Ireland, which they found easier to source some touristic pamphlets for; specifically the Connemara region which Sardou had never visited (I love how random this process was, the stuff artists had to do before the Internet! Dddd).
A love letter to Ireland, and its history in French song (what a concept!!) - Les Lacs Du Connemara namely references wild forestation around the lakes, a very cloudy and windy climate, some towns from the region (Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Ballyconneely), the Gaels, Oliver Cromwell (an English conqueror who massacred the inhabitants of the region between 1649 and 1653), the ongoing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. The song clocking in at over 6 minutes made Sardou very reluctant to release it but Revaux was on to something when the latter convinced Sardou he was sitting on a gold nugget! Imagine if this little song had actually been lost! Really makes you wonder what greatness may still be hidden in the Sardou Vault!
Now seen as a French Classic - Les Lacs Du Connemara was even recently voted one of 50 Favourite Songs by The French, and is credited for driving a very high turnout of French tourists to the Connemara region (a reported increase of 350,000 visitors from France when the song was on the charts). In 2011, for the 30 Year Anniversary of the song, Michel Sardou was even given the Keys To Connemara by the Irish Ambassador in Paris! Such a classic of French Music is Les Lacs Du Connemara that it is frequently referenced or covered by musicians even today.
Sidelining a little - I don’t know how many of you are familiar with a movie called La Famille Bélier, but Sardou’s music features pretty heavily in it. The music teacher in the movie highlights that Michel Sardou did for French Music what Mozart did for Classical Music - and those words have stayed with me since hearing them. As I mulled over them while listening and reading about Michel - how political his music could get, often talking about subjects that artists shun away from - it gives a good context as to why he was divisive at many different stages of his career and what an important figure of French Culture he really is.
With modern lenses, it is perfectly normal for us to question a man approaching themes like homosexuality, suicide, religion, politics etc during his lengthy career when he isn’t part of the communities in question - but thinking back at how society operated in the 70s/80s/90s with these topics, I am just glad someone actually started a conversation about them at all. Growing up - one of the only songs that represented my homosexuality was a song by Michel, and for that I will be forever grateful! I shall post more of his masterpieces after the write-up, for now - we celebrate Les Lacs Du Connemara.
@jtm (2.3) will not be visiting the region on a French Guided Tour, that’s for sure! - dddd ok I get some perverse fun out of listening to him pronounce these names but other than that this is terrible. @TéléDex (9.75) continues to be my soul sister with his commentary - It seems so happy and cheesy, but if it's orchestral, I feel like it's what I need right now. @DominoDancing (4) can rest assured he did not offend me as much as the scores below a 3 did Ddddd - Running the risk of ripping into a berserkboi favourite, an overblown French Schlager about Irish lakes really doesn't tickle my fancy in the slightest.
@Ezz (8) gives us a bit of a preview of someone else’s experience with this one - I really like the way this builds to be really catchy - I love the fact it had a resurgence at student nights according to Wikipedia - I can really see this. @Filippa (7) will be joining me in lashing out at Cromwell! - I like this song. Sounds more like a 70s song but still!
@Epic Chocolat (8) comments on something we do not give Michel enough credit for (and yes he is probably my favourite Michel!) - Michel got pipes! Allegedly a song to close bars or end parties. @berserkboi is he your favorite Michel in French Chanson? There are so many, I'm curious. @berserkboi (10) was left wigless as per most of his picks! - The build! WOW!!! Can you say EPIC???!!
@WowWowWowWow (10) gives me one of the comments that gave me the most pleasure to read, what a European experience!!! - Under normal circumstances, I'm not sure this song would be 10 points for me. However, I have a personal story of sorts! When I was lucky enough to visit Belgium for the first time in 2009 (hi @Charley!), one of the highlights of the trip was Vlaanderen Zingt. This was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my life. We don't often get together with 10,000 other people and sing songs in the town square for hours on end. It was amazing. And I learned that one of the traditions of Vlaanderen Zingt is that they always do "Les Lacs du Connemara" and everyone waves the newspaper with the lyrics to the songs. So anytime I hear this song it will always bring me back to that magical week. And look, there's video proof of it!
@daninternational (6.5) is not hating something very French, finally!!! - The chorus is very French lol. I can imagine it has nostalgia for those who know it. Otherwise it's just a bit strange. @MilesAngel (5.5) surprisingly isn’t here for this too much, let me introduce you to Afrique Adieu instead! - I can appreciate the vocals and orchestral backing but it's not really my thing. @Sprockrooster (10) may have been part of that crowd WowWowWowWow was at afterall! - The changes in pace make this the perfect party anthem!
Here's a version I was expecting to hate on principle at the Artist Name but it is actually an amazing update of the song. I definitely sobbed towards the end where a message from Michel appears - a love letter that translates to:
"My dear children, I am leaving - I love you but I must go! (A reference to his masterpiece Je Vole)
In this year I have decided to retire from my singing career
A group of talented children have decided to cover my songs, and breathe new life into them
I am honoured, humbled and touched
Thanks to them what would have been an adieu is only a goodbye.
Michel Sardou"
2 Rate Alumni + Tina Arena do a version - can you say ICONIC?
A Eurodance version for @Ezz!
He/Him
Obviously I am not letting you all go without more greatness from Monsieur Sardou!
Maybe it's my heritage, my memories or the spectacular lyrics and music but my favourite Michel Sardou song is this PJOPS/Retro Flop:
Here is Je Vole, a song that can be interpreted as either about an emancipation or a suicide note - either way the words are vulnerable and so powerful they make me cry each time:
Louane's version, used in La Famille Belier - where her character lets her family know she must go and live her own life:
This is one that is close to my heart, where Michel takes on the persona of a gay man who comes out to his parents:
This one won a Victoire De La Musique:
Maybe it's my heritage, my memories or the spectacular lyrics and music but my favourite Michel Sardou song is this PJOPS/Retro Flop:
Here is Je Vole, a song that can be interpreted as either about an emancipation or a suicide note - either way the words are vulnerable and so powerful they make me cry each time:
Louane's version, used in La Famille Belier - where her character lets her family know she must go and live her own life:
This is one that is close to my heart, where Michel takes on the persona of a gay man who comes out to his parents:
This one won a Victoire De La Musique:
He/Him
A couple of his more accessible hits:
So many 70s songs to send to RETRO! Ddddd
So many 70s songs to send to RETRO! Ddddd
OH FUCK OFF YOU GODDAMN HEATHENS
5.5. I can appreciate 'Connemara' but it's not as enjoyable as other songs in the rate, and because of this it was a victim of my scale. Also I'm not a fan of bagpipes, or bagpipe sounding instruments, in any song.
He/Him
Are you petitioning for a Sardou Spotlight Rate from me? Dddd
What a beautiful and heartfelt spotlight on Michel Sardou @berserkboi - the essence of why rates are so amazing. Also love the Eurodance version, which I would totally do the leg kick dance too. I so want to experience the Vlaanderen Zingt now - oh for the days of getting on the Eurostar for exciting adventures, thanks so much for sharing this @WowWowWowWow! I wish I'd scored this a little higher now...