Here is an introduction of my own about 60-70’s French Pop, humble because I am neither journalist-musicologist nor a specialist of every LP-single produced here, but this is what I think can interest pop lovers, only songs sung in French.

I like some yé-yé recordings of this era but it was not very creative music: French singers did a lot of covers, copying Anglo-Saxon music to make money and innovation is scarce. But the level got higher around 1965-66.

Since the beginning, in France, rock and pop music is not considered a serious thing because we take too much care of lyrics. As a symbol, the first French rock’n’roll song ever is supposed to be ‘Rock’n’roll mops’, a parody written by the author Boris Vian under pseudonym, with wordplay in the title and sung by a comic singer.

Years ago, I did some comps of French pop for people of this forum (track listing are here: http://pub4.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=313820429&frmid=6809&msgid=1371189&cmd=show). At the moment, I am listening to obscurities (mostly singles) psych-freakbeat-popsike to do a comp of really unknown French artists and I already found some very good ones (“mystic males”, sunshine pop and deranged folk…). So new discoveries to come.

Let’s go surfin’ now…

THE UNAVOIDABLES

Michel Polnareff: for me the best of all, retired since many years in California, crazy but always popular in France (his “tour de France” in 2007, 35 years after his last concerts in the country, were sold out in a few days, 100 000 people only for the Paris concerts). Excellent orchestrated pop, great melodies and arrangements, English musicians but his own pop touch. I recommend the 3 CD box “Premières années” (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premieres-Annees-Michel-Polnareff/dp/B00004S6GM/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409053035&sr=1-9&keywords=michel+polnareff) but it is grossly expensive. The 1966-72 period is the best in all cases.

Serge Gainsbourg: the only one known outside France. “Melody Nelson” (1971) is a must of orchestrated pop of course but it becomes trivial to say that. Gainsbourg had a long carrier, from 1958 to 1991, and was an opportunist and a very provocative artist with a great talent of musician and lyricist. His pop period (1968-69) is very good and I recommend this compilation with fantastic tracks (‘Requiem pour un con’ has a crazy rhythm courtesy of producer and arranger Michel Colombier): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comic-Strip-Serge-Gainsbourg/dp/B000001EIC/ref=sr_1_7?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409053637&sr=1-7&keywords=serge+gainsbourg. I do like too “Gainsbourg percussions”, a strange album from 1964 with voice and… percussions, not really psych pop but original.

Jacques Dutronc: strange character, actor and Françoise Hardy’s husband. He has great garage tunes (‘Et moi, et moi’, ‘La fille du Père Noël’, etc.) from 1966-1967; the rest is not interesting at all for non French speaking people: too MOR (after 1967) or big rock with… Gainsbourg (“Guerre et pets”, lyrics are excellent but the music is of no interest). His first album is very good, catchy even if you can’t understand lyrics’ irony: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Et-Moi/dp/B0000084RA/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1 .

Arranger and songwriter, Gérard Manset is a strange man: years after the recordings, he destroyed all masters of his songs he didn’t like anymore! So his discography is a mess, the first albums at least. For me, his first album (1968) is a masterpiece of pop music but is not available from master tapes and has several versions (plus this title, minus that one…). Same for his 1972 album, just called “Manset”. In between, there is “La mort d’Orion” (1970), a symphonic pop album sometimes pompous but original. If you can find a link to download the 1968 and 1972 LP, don’t hesitate: we will never have better sources than ripped LP. GM is always recording (last album this year) but his voice is broken and it’s a little bit pathetic.

Christophe (real name: Daniel Bevilacqua): he is still recording today but like Manset his voice has gone. Little guy always uncomfortable, collector of vinyl, jukebox and Italian sport cars, he had a huge success in 1965 with ‘Aline’, then a slump in his career until 1972 (some singles with less success than ‘Aline’ and the film score “La route de Salina”, plus this acid craziness of ‘Da da song’ produced in Spain in 1969, not representative of his work) when he recorded sophisticated and romantic pop, with great arrangements and delicate melodies. This artist is my favourite French pop singer of the 70’s but his albums are not perfect. Nobody will do that but there is this cheap (on Amazon.fr) 5 CD set with some of the greatest pop songs made in France: http://www.amazon.fr/Original-Album-Classics-Paradis-Samoura%C3%AF/dp/B002K9C12O/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409058046&sr=1-2&keywords=christophe+mots+bleus. His masterpiece is supposed to be “Le beau bizarre” (1978): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beau-Bizarre-Christophe/dp/B00BAY8YOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409152848&sr=1-1&keywords=christophe+beau+bizarre. After that, he made experimental records with less interest for pop fans.

Nino Ferrer had a great talent: his rythm’n’blues with silly lyrics has big success at the end of the 60’s; he was a kind of comic singer opposite of the artist he wanted to be. His 70’s albums are more complex and introspective and he has huge hits in 1971 (‘La maison près de la fontaine’) and 1975 (‘Le sud’), two lovely ballads. But a comp is enough in my opinion.

Sorry for women, but I am not a real fan of for example Françoise Hardy (as a singer…) even her “Vogue Years” (and she recorded two entire albums in English: “FH in English”, 1966, and “One nine seven zero”, 1969). But her book of memories (written by herself, like Dylan) is great: “Le désespoir des singes” (Monkeys’ despair, bad review on Amazon.uk but I am not sure the reviewer understood the book well).

THE 60’S CREAM

Ronnie Bird did very good freakbeat music (cover of Pretty Things and originals), he is on some comps like “Fading Yellow” 1 for a more pop song. This one is good to have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tendres-Annees-60-Ronnie-Bird/dp/B002A32HRE/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409153966&sr=1-1&keywords=ronnie+bird

Antoine was very good too, the first artist with long hair and shirts with flowers in France. His freakbeat and beatnik music has caustic lyrics (in 1966, he wanted to put Johnny Hallyday in a circus cage…), he played electric protest songs with cannabis flavour and some lovely popsike tunes like ‘Juste quelques flacons qui tombent’. This comp is worth listening, even if the last songs are farces. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucubrations-Dantoine-Antoine/dp/B000BUCVU6/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409238865&sr=1-3&keywords=antoine

5 Gentlemen: one of the best French 60’s groups! Original tracks, great pop, they played ‘LSD 25’ (in 1966 in France!) and ‘Dis-nous Dylan’ covered by some Anglo-Saxon bands (‘Tell us Dylan’ by the Sandals on one volume of “High in the mid sixties”). I recommend: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tendres-Annees-60-Five-Gentlemen/dp/B0038AJ4HE/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409154920&sr=1-1&keywords=5+gentlemen. They recorded in England and Italy under the name of Darwin’s Theory.

Eric Charden did a lot of good songs with fuzz guitar in 1965-1966. Then he had his pop period in 1967-68, a hit with “Le monde est gris, le monde est bleu” and other excellent songs of English influenced pop music like “Viva Mona” or “Ballon rouge”. Unfortunately no compilation of this 60’s period is available. After that, he felt into the worst MOR music ever, in a silly duo with his wife named Stone et Charden.

Les Boots were very good too. Freakbeat and pop but no comp available (just one track on “Psychegaelic”).

Les Lionceaux: a lot of Beatles covers, nice happy pop, pleasant to hear if not revolutionary (1964-1966).

And at last a girl, Pussy Cat for who I reproduce the RpM presentation of her last comp, which is what I think but in a better English than mine: Pussy Cat was the most tough sounding of France’s ‘60s yé-yé girls. She looked to Britain for her inspirations, not home-grown, upbeat Gallic pop. She covered Small Faces, The Moody Blues, The Hollies and The Zombies. Her original songs – she was a rarity and wrote her own – were energised, hard edged, melodic and stomping. She put a French twist on the mod era. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boof-Complete-Pussy-Cat-1966-1969/dp/B00JAD10AC/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409239666&sr=1-1&keywords=pussy+cat+boof

To end this chapter, I have to report these interesting ones too:
- Eddy Mitchell (real name Claude Moine, first group Les Chaussettes Noires, big star in France during 50 years…) whose albums recorded between 1965 to 1969 are excellent quality rock and rhythm’n’blues (recorded in London or at Muscle Shoals).
- Sullivan who did some very good EPs of English pop with sitar around 1966-67.
- Système Crapoutchik: great pop à la Beatles, with good melodies. No success here because lyrics were naively idiots.
- Gam’s and Sheila: old fashioned girl groups from 1963 to 1967, yé-yé tracks (lot of covers) but good pop pleasant to hear.
- “Psychegaelic”: excellent comp of French freakbeat
- “Pop à Paris”, “Femmes de Paris”, “Gentlemen de Paris” are decent comps of French Pop, like the two volumes of “Wizzz!” (more crazy). I do not recommend comps called “Sixties girls” (4 volumes), “Génération perdue” or “Rock en France” of minor interest.

But Octopus 4 (1969), Omega Plus (1969), Bernard Estardy (1967), Popera Cosmic (1969), Yper Sound (1967) and Dickens (1969) have to be named too, even if they are not strictly in the pop move.

And I can’t finish without speaking of our national rock’n’roll superstar: Johnny Hallyday (real name: Jean-Philippe Smet... from Belgium) who began in 1960 and is still there. During his career, he played all styles: r’n’r, yé-yé, rhythm’n’blues, protest songs, hippie music, MOR, hard rock, everything. Here he is a living legend! As Stuart writes, the compilation “Le roi de France (1966-69)” is very good despite ugly cover. All his 60’s comps are enjoyable because he had good songs and decent covers (this one, a Johnny “Guitar” Watson tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_pOHov2oY ). Finally, I have tenderness for his 1969 album with no title (Brown, Jones, Small Faces composers and players of three songs, etc.) perhaps because it was the first LP I bought (I listened again to it since my post in the “1st listening” topic): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Johnny-Hallyday/dp/B0029LJA04/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409313338&sr=1-4&keywords=johnny+hallyday . But I can’t advice it because it’s not pop, more psych-rock. And there is a document which attests the craziness of his shows in 1969: poor quality sound and image, but high energy music (see the last song of the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eko1I9nw3nk ). You like him or not but this guy is a monument and I can’t imagine the trauma in the country the day he passes away…


THE 70’s CREAM

Unfortunately, a lot of the following artists are still unknown in France, so their albums are not available except by downloading.

François Wertheimer produced a great album in 1970 called “Wertheimer” (not reissued): psych-pop, scorching and haunted songs, deranged folk, one of my favourite. And he had a crazy single in 1971 (one song on “Mr Towtown presents” vol. 2) with two long hair guys naked on the cover, Wertheimer on the left and the man on the right with Hitler’s mask. FW wrote songs for Barbara, the big priestess of the “chanson française”, then almost disappear from the showbiz.

René Joly did a very good album of prog music in the early 70’s, arranged by Gérard Manset. Lush music with his soft and female-style voice, with beautiful original songs and covers of Procol Harum and King Crimson. But his masterpiece remains the single ‘Chimène’ in 1969 (with a lot of rhymes on “em”), written by Manset. Unfortunately nothing easily available on CD.

Duo Ilous & Decuyper made out an LP in 1971 of well crafted music, musically rich and with great harmonies, in the style of the BB post-surf and the soft side of the Beatles. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ilous-Decuyper/dp/B00HEVROS4/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409317718&sr=1-1&keywords=ilous+%26+decuyper . Then Bernard Ilous had an excellent solo album in 1973, in a similar style but with synth. arrangements. Never reissued.

I cannot really recommend Guy Skornik as a pop artist: this man is mad, I do like his albums but they are sometimes out of control. He made EPs at the end of the 60’s, pop and hippie style. Then he realized his first LP “Pour Pauwels” in 1971: surrealistic pop, mystical for the lyrics, crazy by moments, I do like this kind of concept album, even if it is not easy pop: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pour-Pauwells-Guy-Skornik/dp/B00EVCGZ3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409318603&sr=1-1&keywords=guy+skornik . The four Skornik albums which follow during the 70’s are insane and unavailable as a result of the poor selling.

First known by his playing in “Hair”, Gérard Palaprat had two big hit singles in France in 1971. And his album is very good, mystical and haunted, mostly orchestrated folk-rock. Once again, no CD to advice.

Jean-Michel Caradec had a big hit too (‘Ma petite fille de rêve’) in 1972 and this comp http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tendres-Anees-Jean-Michel-Caradec/dp/B00008LPC8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409319343&sr=1-1&keywords=jean+michel+caradec is very good: folk-rock with pop touch and the gorgeous ‘Ile’, a very touching song.

Just at the limit of the 80’s (1979), I want to speak about a marvelous album by Darras & Desumeur, a kind of French CSN&Y with Beatles touch, a rapture. Before this duo, they were in a very good band called Presence and their album is worth having too. No reissue for none of these LP so I wrote to Desumeur’s daughter years ago and she gave me for free the two digitized albums (thanks again Caroline). High flying vocals, great arrangements, a weightless album with a lot of melodies.

Then a list of some interesting ones, mostly prog but listenable by pop amateurs:
- Martin Circus: first double album (“Acte II”, 1972) in the Zappa & Mothers style and catchy singles until 1973. After, they fell in the worst music possible (MOR cover of ‘Barbara Ann’ in French) becoming a poor farce band.
- Dashiell Hédayat with “Obsolète” (1971), talking-rock with Gong as support band. Not pop, but still a landmark in French music.
- Emmanuel Booz does prog albums of ultra craziness which are curiosities (1969-1979). No reissues except Japanese bootlegs 10 years ago.
- Richard Gilly did a good album of folk-pop in 1971, and another one in 1975. I wrote him: impossible to retrieve masters of his albums and music company refuse to reissue them… no comment.
- Joan-Pau Verdier, a boring folk singer (singing mostly in Ocitan…), made out a fantastic pop-rock album in 1977: “Tabou le chat”. A masterpiece reissued confidentially (with a cheap sleeve instead of the beautiful original one) two or three years ago. In my Top 5 of all time albums sung in French.

I have to mention Magma as a monster prog band but I would like to finish this topic by a cute but excellent pop song from 1972, with fuzz guitar and all, sung… by juvenile vocal band who has several big hits at this time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acQgh0Ti9aI

Hope my English is clear enough and all questions, informations, suggestions, etc. are welcome.

Excellent write-up. I think we have similar opinions on most of the music of the time, though you have much more experience than I do. I agree with all the 'unavoidables' - do you mean to call them 'essentials'? The word 'unavoidable' can be both positive and negative. I haven't tried Christophe as yet.

With Serge Gainsbourg, I first got into him through Melody Nelson and Comic Strip. For his 60s stuff I would personally though get the 20 track Initials BB of Gainsbourg on cd (if it's available) over Comic Strip because it has slightly better sound. Melody Nelson is one of my favourite albums from the 1970s.


The debut from Manset is one of my favourite albums from the 1960s because it just sounds so experimental and cool. I just wish it sounded slightly better.

I'll spend a lot more time reading your wirte-up, for now I'll just say Thanks!

Yeh i agree with Skip here,great post Philippe,i do have a few odds and ends of some of the music you have described,i find Polnareff very good actually,its taken me a long time to appreciate Gainsbourgs music though i did splash out on Light in the Attics cds of Melody Nelson and Jane Birkin...originally i just couldnt get used to his voice,but i do appreciate those albums more now....i need to investigate some more of his stuff....Pussycat i need to investigate as it got a great write up in Shindig mag and your description makes it sound a must have....i do have a series of cds of French music titled "Pop a Paris"which contains some very good music through all volumes.As for Dutronc,i have the RPM cd comp "Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi"which i think is terrific...can i add one album from 1977 by Emmanuelle Parrenin titled "Maison Rose",this is a very good folk album which got a cd reissue by Lion Productions a few year back.2 other albums worthy of a mention are the albums by Eden Rose"On the way to Eden"and the self titled album by Sandrose,the former a heavy organ psych delight and the latter a fab album of proggish sounds.Both reissued by Lion Productions",also the cd comp by Les Goths titled"Reve De Silence"released Shadoks Records,which is pretty freaky psych and worth hearing.Im glad you mentioned the RPM collection of Johnny Hallydays more freaked out moments,you're correct about it being housed in a real ghastly sleeve,but the music is well good.Those are just bits and pieces of French music i have,but i really appreciate you taking the time to write such a helpful and informative post Philippe!!!Particularly when English is not your native language,i understood it very well,so congrats on your English!!!!

Great write up Philippe, I really like going off the same old anglo-centric route and getting some different input from elswhere in the world.

Additionally, I would add a few others (60s anyway) like Everiste (see him on Youtube looking like a 60s version of Human League's Phil Oakey!) who was soemwhat in a Jacques Dutronc mode but without the suit. The No Smoke label put out a vinyl anthology of his 45s and EP a few years back called 'Do You Know The Beast' which is well worth hearing.

Also, some of the artists on the excellent French psych-pop comps Wizzz Vols 1 & 2. I guess people like Daniel Beretta and Richard de Bordeaux, like Everiste, made only a few records, but they are great. I think I have an album by Le Fleur de Pavot on CD which is pretty good as well. And Stephen Varegues 'Pape du Pop' is a great bendy number.

I think the 'Groove Club Vol.1: La Confiserie Magigique' compilation has some great tunes on it as well. Lots of stuff really but scatter-gun and I agree Polnareff is at the top!


PM

See Evariste (with an 'a' not an 'e' as I wrote in the previous post)here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfdJ8ZcLJc

Also, for the 70s, I have a very enjoyable 2 x LP compilation of the French Cuckoo label on Finders Keepers called 'Cloud Cuckooland' that has some interesting things on it as well.

PM

great post thanks :)

I have not much Frencj releases but this will help fix that!

I have the Wizz ones and very good and also cloud cuckooland which very interesting

best, eggy

Yes, essentials is the right word. I would like to say artists with a career, not with a discography of only one LP or a couple of EP.

Happy this subject interests some of you.

A question about Cloud Cuckooland: this is German music, no ?

I don't have the same enthusiasm as Paul about Evariste, but it is interesting to listen. And yes I forgot Les Fleurs de pavot whose album reissued on Underground Masters label is very good and supposed to be the first French "psychedelic" LP (produced by Jean-Claude Vannier, the man behind "Melody Nelson"). I too forgot to mention "1968" by France Gall, light and happy pop pleasant to listen if not unforgettable.

I don't mention Les Goths because they sang mostly in English as did the Variations, a hard-rock band whose first album (1969) is really excellent. And I could have mentioned Gilles Marchal, Alice, Triangle (and the solo album of their bass player Papillon) or Dynastie Crisis but they are not really in the pop domain.

Perhaps I should have write some words about Yves Simon, whose 70's albums are excellent folk-rock but I really don't know how a non French speaking audience can receive his songs.

Very good "resume", thanks Philippe. I should add that Nino Ferrer actually was Italian and enjoyed large success in both countries. The Johnny Halliday comp. is just excellent! I have to say I quite love some Francoise Hardy albums, one for all "la Question", and staying with (terrific) female vocals, you MUST listen at least once to Catherine Ribeiro's early albums. Also like MOR, Ange and William Sheller's Lux Aeterna

You're right Philippe - 'Cloud Cukooland' is a German comp / label, I must be getting mixed up with something else.
Paul

...and that something else I was thinking of was this compilation:

The BYG Deal: Aer-Rock-Revolution' [BYG Records 1968-74]


http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/the-byg-deal/

Also on Finders Keepers. A very interesting and varied selection inc a couple of sides from Gong. It was bugging me that I couldn't remember what the comp was, but got it out of my system now, and this one's definitely French!

PM

I tried to stay in the "pop music" field. But you are right: there were other kind of musics here.

During the 70's, there was a "folk" movement which means traditional music of French provinces, like Bretagne, Pays Basque or Alsace, with (or without) rock influences. It began with Alan Stivell, then Tri Yann, Malicorne, etc. Emmanuelle Parrenin was in this movement, but not pop, the reason I don't mention any of them. There was an annual Folk Festival in the town I lived around 1978-79 and it was fun to go there, even if this kind of music has never been my favorite.

Sandrose is not pop either: I put it in my comp "Frog Prog 2" years ago and this band was only instrumental if I remember well. Same for Eden Rose.

If you want to discover some French music beyond pop, there is a box called "30 Ans D'Agitation Musicale En France (30 Years Of Musical Insurrection In France), about the French musical underground: http://www.discogs.com/Various-30-Ans-DAgitation-Musicale-En-France-30-Years-Of-Musical-Insurrection-In-France/release/3074205

As said above, Catherine Ribeiro (with or without her band Alpes) made incredibly intense music... but a little bit austere for pop lovers. I have and appreciate her first 5 albums, I put one track in "Frog Prog 1" but I am not sure this is strictly French pop. I have seen Catherine Ribeiro in concert in 1978: disturbing and a little bit scary, she was so IN her music...

I have been to several Ange concerts during the 70's. Prog music à la Genesis with medieval touch, big shows, the first "rock" band with the same success in France as Yes, Genesis, Supertramp, Tangerine Dream or Jethro Tull, much more popular than VDGG or Magma for example.

If you want to know more about French prog, there was two very good bands: Atoll and Mona Lisa.

William Sheller did a lot of excellent pop records during his long career but I am not fan of his 70's production. He was the composer of Les Irrésistibles' "My year is a day".

Thanks Paul, I missed this one and I order it this afternoon.

About comps, I get out some, not fully French (Belgium and Canada too):
- Psychédélice
- Ils sont fous ces gaulois ! (3 volumes)
- Swinging Mademoiselle (3 volumes)
- A bas les yéyés !
- Têtes lourdes (heavy rock)
- Freak out total vol. 3
Some courtesy of Paul. I have to listen to them again.

And there is two good comps about the 70's called "Pop made in France" from Magic Records, but more rock than pop.

Sandrose was no only instrumental, but I don't like too much their singer, her vocals are struggled... must check the BYG comp!

As I am preparing compilations, I just realize that I was wrong about the Darras & Desumeur LP: it is from 1975, not 1979...

More music to come.

Great work Phillipe.

A little up for memories about French "psych".

EDIT - oops, just found them from your links above. Sorry!

Yes, great write up Philippe. A lot to dig in to. I was wondering, would you mind posting the track lists for your Frog Prog comps? I'd love to see what tracks you selected for those. Thanks Philippe!

i listened to the Catherine Ribeiro lp called Paix as you say very intense but a great listen is all her albums of this style Phillipe?

i enjoyed her albums with Alpes really great music lots of drama and organ swirling round
THIS WAS WRITTEN ABOUT THERE 4 CD BOXSET ON AMAZON
This box set consists of four albums recorded by Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes between 1970 and 1974. The overall sound across all four albums is a heady mix of avant-psych-prog-folk with elements of jazz and even medieval music. There's plenty of note repetition and some subtle synthesizer vibes, with solid percussion and good use of the organ and guitar. Much of the music sounds improvised but, nonetheless, it's never less than interesting.

Ribero's voice, which is sometimes absent for extended periods, is a thing of wonder - at times it's similar to Nico (singing in French) but Ribero's voice covers the whole vocal spectrum, and she uses is it to perfectly express her emotions - screaming, shrieking, shouting, laughing, orgasmic moans, hushed singing, etc. During 'Poeme Non Epique' she doesn't just sound like a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but appears to have a full-blown one. Listening to these albums back to back is the closest you'll get to experiencing an exorcism. Not recommended for listeners of a nervous disposition, although there are moments of out-and-out beauty. Anyone with an interest in music that will challenge, astonish, confound, terrify and delight in equal measure will find much to enjoy here.
this is not my writing but explains her music better than i

I've been a fan of Darras & Desumeur and Présence ever since I found a copy of Présence's eponymous album in 1978. However, the only pressing of the album I've ever encountered is the Canadian version. I understand that there's a French edition out there that has a gatefold sleeve with the lyrics to the songs, but the only image I've found of it is too small for the words to be legible. Can anyone help me out with this? The lyrics to the songs on "Temps" are printed on the back of the album cover, and I'd love to have the lyrics from "Présence" to go with them!