Polnapop: Love Me, Please Love Me in English

Some time ago I wrote my article about Michel Polnareff’s Love Me, Please Love Me EP (if you’ve not yet read it, you can find it here) and I put out a call to see if anyone had a copy of a Guy Béart TV show on which Polnareff sang (live) a version of Love Me, Please Love Me in English.  Of course no one got in touch with me (you miserable lot!), but I have managed to track down a copy myself anyway.  So here are some lovely screen grabs and a description of the show, which is called Bienvenue (originally screened on 18 November 1966):

The show itself looks promising – it was a Guy Béart show with Jean Claude Vannier’s Orchestra and it has amazing credits – but in reality it is disappointingly boring.  The other acts on the show are very sedate and, considering what else was going on in the music world in 1966, are very old fashioned.  The only thing saving the show is, of course, Michel Polnareff’s appearance and performance.

Michel starts out with his English language rendition of Love Me, Please Love Me, follows it up with a jazz improvisation on the piano and then picks up his twelve string to perform La poupée qui fait non with some audience participation on the chorus. (Again, if you haven’t yet read my article about La poupée you can find that here).

In case anyone wants the English language lyrics to Love Me, Please Love Me – here you go:

Love Me, Please Love Me / As I do love you / My heart is so lonely without you / So lonely and blue (Repeat)

You tell me I’m your little brother / You’ll die without me / Yes, tonight, really / You tell me I’m your little brother / You will die without me / Yes, tonight, o really, o really

(Repeat verse again x 1) / (Repeat You tell me… etc again) / (Repeat verse again x 1)

They’re not particularly good lyrics but I can’t tell you how great it is to hear Polnareff singing another version of such a great song.  It’s just a shame that it wasn’t released.

Anyway, I have acquired a few other TV shows featuring Polnareff performances so expect to see some more Polna-Télé reviews on here at some point soon.

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Jane Birkin will not share her chocolate with John Junkin

In the 1960s Jane Birkin made a TV advert for Cadbury’s Bar Six chocolate with the great British actor and TV presenter John Junkin.  John Junkin plays a traffic warden who catches Jane parked up buying a bar of chocolate from a vending machine without paying to park in a parking zone.  Jane uses her feminine wiles and her Bar Six to distract John Junkin – “Do you want a bit?”  Of course he does, but she tells him that he can buy a Bar Six from the machine behind him and promptly drives off leaving him stunned.  As much as I liked John Junkin I probably wouldn’t share my Bar Six with him either – too yummy.

Here are some images from the advert, kind of spoilt by the BBC Four logo (it’s taken from the Jane Birkin: Je t’aime documentary) and the French subtitling, but beggars can’t be choosers:

Why Did Aphrodite’s Child Cross The Road?

Growing up in the 1970s I was terrified to cross the road in case a glam rock star accosted me to tell me I was out of my “tiny mind” for not crossing sensibly or for crossing without using the traffic lights – see these road safety films from 1976 with Les Gray of Mud in his ankle skimmers and Alvin Stardust berating some young girls for being “crackers”.

So spare a thought for poor Aphrodite’s Child (a favourite band of mine) who were trying to cross the road in Paris in 1970 when filming their promo video for Spring, Summer, Winter & Fall.  These three big, hairy guys might look like they should be able to look after themselves but somehow they seem to be having problems getting across the road:

Here they are, they look to be heading off in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe.  But, no, just a few seconds later they change their minds and head back to the traffic lights.

Vangelis must be in charge because he gets to press the button, look.

Loukas is the naughty one; he stands around smoking.

The lights seem to be taking a long time to change.

Vangelis is getting impatient and starts to walk into the road but thinks better of it and heads back to the pavement.  Wait until it’s safe to cross, Vangelis!  Then, bloomin’ typical, the lights change the next second and they can cross anyway:

Loukas is not paying attention – he should be looking both ways – but he’s just looking directly at the camera instead.  Naughty Loukas!

Still, they’ve all arrived at the other side safely – phew!  What now?  Um…

They immediately decide to cross the road back over to the other side again.

Vangelis decides to pull his trousers up – well, you wouldn’t want them to fall down when you were half way across the road, would you?  And Demis has gone all Fotherington-Thomas on us: “Hallo clouds, hallo sky.”  That won’t get them back across the road safely and quickly.

And what’s this?  A truck is pulling off the road and up the pavement.  That’s a hazard.

And what’s more, the guy sitting in the front there looks either dead drunk or just dead.

Demis remembers they are filming a promo video and starts singing.

He probably hasn’t even noticed this sign, telling him that crossing against the lights is not allowed.

Maybe he did after all – here he is studying the lights.

Vangelis has got bored and wandered off.

But the lights have changed so they can all cross back over again now.

They’ve crossed over now.  Either those folk at the traffic lights have recognised them as the Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite’s Child, or they’re admiring their road crossing abilities – or they’re just wondering why someone’s filming three big, hairy guys crossing the road.  All I know is they need to pay attention if they are planning to cross the road themselves.

Demis starts singing again.

Then they all head off down the road again.

Loukas gets his ciggies out – it’s a very stressful business crossing the road.

Then it looks like Demis has gone all Fotherington-Thomas on us on again, but no, it seems someone has edited the same shot in again because Vangelis is pulling at his tie-dyed shirt like he was in the previous Fotherington-Thomas moment.  Maybe I haven’t just seen Aphrodite’s Child crossing the same road twice after all… Maybe this is road safety groundhog day.

They’re heading off down the road again anyway.

Oh, look! A smartly dressed old man with a cane!

And those kids from the traffic lights have asked Vangelis for an autograph.

The video’s just staring to get interesting when the song ends. Not exactly action packed, uh?

So why did Aphrodite’s Child cross the road?  It certainly wasn’t to make an interesting promo video.