The Very Strange World of VINCE TAYLOR

Vince Taylor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia





Vince Taylor (born Brian Maurice Holden on July 14, 1939 in London, England; died August 28, 1991) was a British rock and roll singer.
As the frontman for The Playboys, Taylor was successful primarily in the UK and Europe during the late 1950s and early 1960s, afterwards falling into obscurity amidst personal problems and drug abuse.

Taylor's early life was in Isleworth, Middlesex. When he was seven years old, the Holdens emigrated to America and settled in New Jersey where his father took work in a coal mine. Around 1955, his sister married Joe Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera productions, a successful animated cartoon company. As a result of the marriage, the family moved to California where Brian attended Hollywood High.

At age 18, impressed by the music of Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley, Taylor began to sing, mostly at amateur gigs. Joe Barbera, his brother-in-law, became his manager. When Barbera went to London on business he asked Taylor to join him to check out the music scene. At that time, rock was experiencing phenomenal international growth amongst teenagers, and American rockers were high in demand in the UK. Concerts starring Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley & His Comets (referred to collectively as the "American Invasion"), played to crowds of UK teenagers in sold out halls.
In London, Taylor went to a coffee bar on Old Compton Street in Soho, called “The 2 I’s” where rocker Tommy Steele was playing. There he met drummer Tony Meehan (later of The Shadows) and bass player Tex Makins (born Anthony Paul Makins, 3.7.1940, in Wembley, Middlesex). They formed a band called The Playboys. Whilst looking at a packet of Pall Mall cigarettes he noticed the phrase, “In hoc Vince’s”, thus giving rise to his new stage name of Vince Taylor.

His first singles for Parlophone, “I Like Love” and “Right Behind You Baby”, were released in 1958, followed several months later by “Pledgin' My Love” b/w “Brand New Cadillac”. Parlophone wasn’t satisfied with the immediate results and broke the contract. Vince moved to Palette Records and recorded “I’ll Be Your Hero” b/w “Jet Black Machine”, which was released on August 19, 1960.

However, his unpredictable personality, although dynamic on stage, caused several arguments within the band, and The Playboys fired Vince Taylor and changed their name to "The Bobbie Clarke Noise". "The "Noise" was contracted to play at the prestigious Olympia in Paris in July, 1961. The top of the bill was Wee Willie Harris.
Despite his sacking Taylor remained friendly with the band and he asked if he could come to Paris too. Here he dressed up for the occasion in his black leather gear and added a chain around his neck with a Joan of Arc medallion which he had bought on arrival at Calais. He gave such an extraordinary performance at the sound check that even the band was amazed, and the organizers decided to put Vince at the top of the bill for both shows. As a result of his performance at those two shows, Eddie Barclay signed him to a six-year record deal on the Barclay label.

During 1961 and 1962, Vince Taylor toured Europe including The French Riviera, Brussels, Belgium, Spain, and The Netherlands, with Bobbie Clarke's band, once again called Vince Taylor and his Playboys (in French this was translated as "Vince Taylor et ses Play-Boys").


By the end of 1962, Vince Taylor and The Playboys were the top of the bill at the prestigious Olympia, in Paris.
Despite an on-stage rapport with The Playboys, the off-stage relationship faltered: as a result, the band once more broke up. Taylor left for La Côte d'Azur with his new love, top model Helene April and Bobbie Clarke became the drummer for Johnny Hallyday and the Golden Stars backed up by Joey and the Showmen, resulting in three EPs released in 1963. Meanwhile, Taylor played engagements backed by the English band "The Dragons" (who backed Gene Vincent whenever he played the UK), but he still presented the band as The Playboys.

Shortly thereafter, the band grew in size for an upcoming gig, by adding two new musicians, Ivan Jullien (trumpet) and Bob Garcia (saxophone). However, several days before the concert Vince and Stash went back to London for a gig where they met Bob Dylan, Nico and a few other people from the Acid Rock scene. A mixture of acid, amphetamines and alcohol proved fatal to his mind and in front of a full house, on the brink of becoming a huge international star, he had a break down - coming on stage and trying to evangelize the audience, he claimed to be the prophet Matthew, and he preached until the band agreed with everything he was saying. The audience pretended not to understand, thinking that it was part of the show. But after 15 minutes and a few poorly executed songs, he began to wreck the whole stage like The Who, but this was before the set was even played.

The band disbanded and Taylor joined a religious movement. Danks left to play guitar with Three Dog Night, and later Tom Jones, Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. Stash, a close friend of The Rolling Stones, would later produce The Dirty Strangers album featuring Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Bobbie Clark went on to replace drummer Don Conka for several studio sessions with the original line up of the band Love. He also played with Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, and the first incarnation of Deep Purple before forming a group, Bodast, with Steve Howe and Dave Curtis. In 1968, Bodast recorded an LP for MGM Records, opened for The Who, and were the backing band for Chuck Berry at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Meanwhile, Clarke was involved in one last comeback for his friend Taylor, a small one-month tour across France, billed as "Vince Taylor and Bobbie Clarke backed by Les Rockers". After the first show, Vince stopped singing and moving; the band started a song and he sang the first verse of another. However, occasionally Taylor came out of his state, suddenly singing 5 or 6 songs correctly, and then without any apparent reason left the stage without a word. The finish of the tour was at Le Cadran at Colombes, a large bar with a room, seating 500 people. That year they booked The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, and Jimi Hendrix & the Experience, before they played The Olympia as the opening act for Johnny Hallyday.
Just before going on stage, Taylor is reported to have said, “I can't sing. There is a bad spell here. If I start to sing, everything will blow up. I feel it.” “Don’t be stupid,” said the band, “We've got to go on stage.” “I can't. I can't. It's all gonna explode… everything...”.

The crowd started to get impatient and shout, and the owner came into the dressing room and forced the band on stage. They played the instrumental version of Memphis Tennessee, and then began the intro of 'Trouble' from the film King Creole. As soon as Vince began to sing, the sound system and the amplifiers went down, and all the lights in the club blew out. There was no sound apart from Taylor who shouted uselessly into the microphone, “ I said so. I said so, and now look. I said so..."

In autumn 1969, the magazines 'Bonjour les Amis' and 'Disco-Revue' started a support campaign for Taylor asking its readers to write in to Barclay's Record Company saying how much they would love to see the rock star make another record. Eddie Barclay, finally convinced, gave a new chance to Vince who recorded again and performed intermittently throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, until his death in 1991.

During his career, Taylor wrote and recorded many songs, among them his hit in Europe, "Brand New Cadillac" which has been covered by many other artists, such as The Clash. According to David Bowie, Taylor was the main inspiration for Bowie’s song Ziggy Stardust.

During his last years, Vince Taylor lived in Switzerland where he took work as an airplane mechanic. He said it was the happiest time of his life.

Here are some examples of Vince's remarkable work:





"There's a Lotta Twistin' Goin' On"



"Twenty Flight Rock"



"Twenty Flight Rock" (Live 1961)



"Too Much"



"Shakin' All Over"



"What'd I Say"



"Peppermint Twist (1962)



"Long Tall Sally (1961)



"Brand New Cadillac" (Live 1979)

Tribute to the great JACQUES DUTRONC

From the Wikipedia:

Between 1963 and 1964, Dutronc played guitar for the group "El Toro et les Cyclones" with Hadi Kalafate. During this time he also appeared at Le Golf Drouot in Paris as backing guitarist for stars including Eddy Mitchell. After performing his obligatory military service, he landed a job as assistant at Vogue Records to Artistic Director Jacques Wolfsohn. In this capacity, he arranged songs for several lesser known artists such as Zou Zou and Cleo. At Vogue Records, he teamed with writer Jacques Lanzmann, then director at Lui magazine, to create songs for up-and-coming artists. One of their first commissions was for the pop singer Benjamin, however, after his first EP failed to perform, Vogue Records unceremoniously booted him from their roster. After hearing one of the demos that Dutronc had produced, Wolfsohn declared that Jacques should perform the record for release. This single, "Et moi, et moi, et moi" was released in 1966, and its popularity turned Dutronc into a star.
With Lanzmann writing lyrics and Dutronc producing the music, the two created several significant songs. Songs such as "Et moi, et moi, et moi", "Les Playboys", and "Le cactus", are still frequently played. Other songs include "Mini, mini, mini", "Le responsable", "J'ai un tigre dans ma guitare", and "L'opportuniste".
Dutronc's songs combine American and British musical influences with French lyrical themes. Many of his early songs feature a British garage sound comparable to that of Ray Davies of The Kinks. Dutronc's "La fille du père Noël" and David Bowie's "Jean Genie" share a riff likely derived from the Yardbirds' accelerated version of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" (the Belgian singer Arno recorded a medley of the Dutronc and Bowie songs ("Jean Baltazaarr") with the American singer Beverly Jo Scott that highlight these similarities). However, Dutronc is distinctive for his mocking attitude toward late 1960s French youth culture. Dutronc's biggest hit was "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'eveille", with the classical flute player Roger Bourdin performing an essential part. In this song, Dutronc paints an evocative portrait of the French capital in the early morning hours.
In 1973, "Et moi, et moi, et moi" was adapted with English lyrics by Ray Dorset, leader of Mungo Jerry. "Alright Alright Alright" became a UK No. 3 hit for the group.
Also in 1973, Dutronc began a second career as an actor in the film Antoine et Sébastien, directed by Jean-Marie Périer. In the following years, Dutronc devoted most of his energies toward his acting career. He has appeared in films directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Lelouch and Maurice Pialat.
Dutronc returned to music in recent years, and also has enjoyed a resurgence of popular interest in his music. Since the early Dutronc songs had a classic late-sixties freakbeat backing (provided by session musicians), his songs were played in the hip retro clubs of the UK and USA in the late 1990s, a practice which continues to this day. (Ironically, most of the people who will be dancing to the likes of "Le cactus" will have no idea what the words actually mean). He is celebrated in the 1997 Cornershop song "Brimful of Asha" with the line: "Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogie/The Heavy Hitters and the Chichi music."
He currently lives in the town of Monticello on the island of Corsica.






le plus difficile





Les Playboys



Mini Mini Mini



Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi (Live)



Les Cactus





Jacques Dutronc, Serge Gainsbourg and Jame Birkin



Les Playboys, 1967



Paris s' éveille

Bande à part by Jean Luc Godard

A Short Film by Branka Bogdanov regarding The Situationist International

Branka Bogdanov, Director and producer. NTSC-VHS 22 min. 1989

Good documentary in English regarding The Situationist International.



Part One



Part Two



Part Three

Why Serge Gainsbourg is Great

And more reasons to come...

Andy Warhol's TARZAN AND JANE REGAINED, SORT OF...

The Musuem of Moving Image in New York City are showing an Andy Warhol retrospective, and one of the (many) gems they are showing is a film with my father, Wallace Berman and his son (yours truly) Tosh Berman called "Tarzan and Jane Regained, Sort Of..." Made in 1964.



The film also stars Taylor Mead (as Tarzan) and Dennis Hopper



And Naomi Levine as Jane


My Dad plays the heavy, and fights with Tarzan (Mead). And I am Tarzan's son "Boy." And like all child actors, my life is now in ruins! Nevertheless a part of the film was shot at our house in Beverly Glenn.

The film is playing with the legendary "Blow Job," a classic of big portions.

Saturday, October 20, 6:30 P.M.

A Very Little Flm Tribute to Boris Vian

TamTam Books' Salutes Les Rita Mitsouko

For over 15 years I have been a huge fan of Les Rita Mitsouko. It's kind of lonely being a fan of this band here in Los Angeles, but nevertheless locations don't exist anymore thanks to the Internet.



"Marcia Baila"
This is the first Les Rita Mitsouko song I have ever heard. My friend Eric invited me to his studio and he was playing this song as I walked in. I was instantly hooked. Oh by the way, clothing by Jean Paul Gaultier.



"Le Petit Train"

Perhaps the greatest music video of all time. Les Rita Mitsouko Bollywood style. I love the dancing and what a fantastic tune.



"Y'a d'la haine"

Catherine Ringer gets attacked and Fred dances. It's beautiful.



"C'est Comme ça"

Nothing on TV as good as this.



"Singing in the Shower"

Sparks are truly one of the greats, and this is footage I have never seen before. Some European TV show?



"Hip Kit"

Like an old French film clip, Sparks and Les Rita Mitsouko do another classic.



"A Conversation between Catherine Ringer and Serge Gainsbourg"

The Greatest Hits of Lun*na Menoh

For those in the know, Lun*na Menoh is very much part of my life. To say that I am a huge fan is an understatement from me. Also when you have the chance check out her band "Jean Paul Yamamoto" on MySpace:

ttp://www.myspace.com/jeanpaulyamamoto

My Favorite Albums for September 2007

This is a fantastic collection of music from Jean-Luc Godard's films. Where else can you get on one disk music by Martial Solal, Michel Legrand, Georges Delerue, Paul Misraki, Antoine Duhamel, Gabriel Yared, plus the great pop (and very rare) song from La Chinoise "Mao Mao" by Claude Channes? It's fascinating to hear this album all the way through. Godard hooked himself up with the great film composers of his era - and also included is a little booklet with interviews with the above composers commenting on what it was like working with Godard.


Billy Nicholls is a complete mystery to me, and somehow he made one of the best British albums in 1967. Signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's record label Immediate, Nicholls wrote some uber-fantastic psych-pop songs with the great Small Faces serving as his backup band with the additional help from John Paul Jones. Oldham produced this masterpiece in what I think maybe one of his great recordings. For sure it meets up with his Stones recordings. With respect to Nicholls, I have heard that he's a buddy of The Who, and to this day he still works for the band.


Roy Wood is a lunatic. For those who don't know, Wood was a member and main songwriter for the great British 60's band The Move, and then went on to form (and made only one album with them) Electric Light Orchestra. He left them and put together Wizzard (Phil Spector on speed), and then "Roy Wood Wizzo Band." This album reminds me of later-day Prince, if that's possible. Wood plays a zillion instruments and when you think it's going to be a regular groove thing, he throws in a sitar in the mix.

THE BENSHI TRADITION: CINEMA = PERFORMANCE by Tosh Berman

I wrote this little essay some years ago, and to this day it means a lot to me. I want to encourage everyone reading this blog to check out the Matsuda Productions home page which is full of information (both in English and Japanese) as well as tons of fantastic images with respect to silent films and its performers. The website address is:
http://www.matsudafilm.com/matsuda/b_pages/be.html



My refusal to go to a boring useless contemporary "western" film had led yours truly to a screening of Lon Chaney's “Phantom of the Opera” in Tokyo. As I was heading toward the theater I saw a flyer with Chaney's characterization of the Phantom on it. I couldn't read the Japanese characters, so I was contemplating if this would be the showing of the horrific 1925 classic film. The one image on the flyer that had puzzled me (beside the lettering) was a drawing of a Japanese woman with a top hat and tails on. I knew there was no such character in the film, so I was perplexed with this curious image on an advertisement with Lon Chaney.



I went to that performance with great curiosity, sensing there would be a surprise waiting for my high notion of culture. That surprise evolved into the remarkable Midori Sawato. Why is she remarkable? Because she represents the link between theater, poetry, and film.



First a little bit of history. When cinema evolved into a presentation in the late 1890's, there was a narrator that traveled with the films. The narrator usually gave a lecture about the film and described the incidents on the big screen. Audiences at first needed the narrator to tell them what was being projected. As cinema developed into a more customary art, the narrator became irrelevant, as music and title cards replaced the live performer by the movie screen. Except in Japan, where the narrator was called a benshi.



The benshi system came to life during the turn of the century, when the Lumiere and Edison films first came to Japan. The benshi existed throughout the silent era in Japan - which unlike the West lasted to the mid-thirties even though sound was easily obtainable. The benshi performer had a strong presence in the Japanese film industry.

The benshi performer was more celebrated than the movie stars themselves on the projected screen. Audiences during that period were certainly not that interested in film for itself, but seeing the benshi's presentation was the main attraction. Generally, the Japanese audience are not taken with cinema.





Class-wise films were always third on the list - behind such general public activity as Kabuki and drinking. Legitimate artistic or entertainment events were live performances -and the Japanese needed a live presence on stage if they wanted to participate in any variety of theater. Audiences would have felt cheated if there was simply a film being shown. Japanese theater has this built-in Brechtian affectation where one is always reminded that you are watching something on stage. It is amazing even now when one observes a film on Japanese TV and there is an immediate acknowledgment of the actors' role, as they first appear in the production. The benshi reconstructs this practice when they discuss the actor's background during the actual performance.

In Japanese theater there is perpetually a live narrator clarifying the action on the stage. The stark Noh theater attributes a chorus chanting the minimal story line, and the Kabuki has a similar structure. What is astonishing to the westerner is not the act of retaining a live performer with the film, but that the benshi would often add their own interpretation to what is happening on the screen.



The benshi would incorporate their own unique dialogue to the film, even changing the storyline to enhance their own definition of what is occurring on the screen. The remarkable component of this practice is that the benshi is utilizing a finished film and operating with that material as a springboard for their own story. If there is a scene in the film of a beautiful moon, the benshi may use that image to recite a poem about the lunar landscape, or some other classification to describe their center of attention besides the actual narration of the film.



Compatible to assemblage art, the benshi treats the completed film as found footage to attach their own cultural terminology to the images. The benshi is known to focus their attention on the background scenery, such as the weather, location, architecture, and clothes. In essence, they are reediting the film for the audience as they sit there. Not by cutting the actual movie, but by having their audience's watchfulness drawn away from the actual events in the film.

Being a poet and always feeling close to the cinema, this to me was the utopian meeting ground - poetry to inspire film, not the other way round! To the general public, film is usually treated on a higher ground than poetry. More people go to films than readings or buying poetry. Great poets have used cinema as a source for poetry, but never has poetry been demonstrated in such a translucent flow from screen to benshi's mouth.



This presentation of a story-teller - which in itself is an ancient Asian tradition - merging with a 20th Century art form, is intriguing in its cross-cultural interpretation; which poetically causes another translation of what is, or how we, the audience, see cinema.

The artistry of the benshi makes the emotions transparent. This spectacle is similar to an Italian opera and not knowing Italian. One wonders if it is actually crucial to comprehend the language of the opera or benshi, and to be moved by the tradition and beauty of the native speaking voice: a voice that cannot be restricted in dissimilar cultures.

Watching Phantom of the Opera with a benshi had a pronounced aftereffect on me. For the first time I had witnessed an organic relationship between live theater and film. In the past, I had seen performance artists performing live with video or film, but the results were always forced and seemed to be insincere in their undertaking. The benshi however, with its long tradition of Japanese narration, seems as simple as breathing.

The Japanese language in itself for the benshi is furthermore crucial. I was wondering if it would be as effective if it was in English. This I decided was not the principle of the performance. The issue is that the benshi, whether it is a foreign or Japanese film, is putting their own culture into the performance. They comply with the presentation on the screen, which they unmistakably bring to their own revelation and culture when interpreting of the film. The Japanese language has built-in cultural aspects that are not translatable into English.

Midori Sawato is the last professional benshi. She shares her great revolution in not only loving films, but working with them. She is like Charlie Parker, in that she abducts a melody (film) and expands the medium onto another sphere. Benshi is not officially an art form: the presentation is looked upon as outright entertainment. When I do go to a benshi performance, the surroundings reminds me of the circus. There is a side-show aesthetic connected with the medium. The subject matter is not the circus itself but the classic nature of the entertainment seems turn of the century and small-townish.

After her pre-World War Two introduction music, Midori Sawato leaps onto the stage and makes a traditional speech about the film and nature of the show. She then sits herself down by a small table with a low light on the stage left of the screen. The audience consistently sees the performer even when the film is on.



In a voice that is comparable to "exotica" singer Yma Sumac, she portrays each character with a different pronunciation. Though not understanding Japanese, the music in her voice expresses more than the feelings and humor of whatever is happening on the screen. A great benshi performer never takes away from whatever the big screen offers, but enhances the viewing of the film and fills it with textures and layers of interpretation. Though ironically enough, the benshi performance is dying, the craft itself gives film a "a living" presentation and to one who was new to this beautiful process, there was a feeling of fresh air being pumped into the hot sticky cinema house that warm spring night in Tokyo.



Many thanks for ALT X for publishing a slightly different version of this essay.

My Favorite Band: JEAN PAUL YAMAMOTO

Jean Paul Yamamoto will be doing a show at The Echo.

Check out the band's music at : http://www.myspace.com/jeanpaulyamamoto

For visuals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfKMxu4gvU

Fantomas, My Love

I wrote this little essay on one of my favorite films: Louis Feuillade's "Fantomas." The DVD came out in France as well as in the U.K. I strongly recommend that you, the dear reader, pick up a copy. It's an amazing film in so many ways. Anyway I want to thank Alt X for first publishing this essay on their website. I got a lot of feedback and coverage due to them publishing it. Thank you.


Fantomas, My Love

by Tosh Berman
(c) 1995



The Surrealist Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel had transmitted that he to a great extent, preferred Louis Feuillade's Fantomas serial to any of the so-called avant-garde films made at the same interval during the early Twentieth Century. Bunuel perceived the serial as an art form without the useless baggage of art attached to it.

French filmmaker Alain Resnais was quoted as saying "Feuillade is my god. I had always been a fan of the Fantomas dime thriller novels, but when I finally saw the films at the Cinematheque in 1944, I learned from him how the fantastic could be more easily and effectively created in a natural exterior than in a studio. Feuillade's cinema is very close to dreams and is therefore perhaps the most realistic kind of all, paradoxical as this may sound."



This infatuation for the physical with an additional mixture of dreams illuminates the Surrealists love for Louis Feuillade and his cinematic version of Fantomas (1913-1914). Feuillade's blend of natural exteriors and interiors with the dreamlike conspiracies comprise an inner--world, where anything can happen at any place. What seems to be the axiom is usually just an illusion. Images which seem so natural are truthfully revelations that are disturbing to the subconscious.

Ever since my father's unexpected death in a car accident, non-reality and what I feel is fundamental has become an overheated tango dance. Persons who were close friends become strangers in a matter of hours. The world has changed positions by just one incident. When I saw one segment of the five-part serial, "Juve Contre Fantomas," the film had expressed my horror and fascination with images and people, and how they can mutate mysteriously into another disguise.

The fictional character of Fantomas represents the sleeping evil which rests in our subconscious, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Obviously whenever there is a misdeed somewhere on this world, Fantomas is behind the hideous crime. A majority of the public is not aware of this fact, except for the brilliant detective from the Paris police, Juve. Only he alone can stop evil, better known in his human form as Fantomas! As a master detective, Juve recognizes that Fantomas attacks from within: meaning he detects that Fantomas exists inside the subconscious -- particularly Juve's.

Here we find the eternal theme of two brilliant (and in most cases, indifferent from the rest of society) individuals fighting for the control of...actually control itself. Good and Evil sleeping together in a bed made for sexual passion and when it manifests itself into politics - the World explodes!





In the film series and books by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, Fantomas' victims are usually people in high society. There is an undercurrent cast of political terrorism in Fantomas' methods - kidnapping, pillaging, and killing members of the upper-class. The subject of control is very strong in the series, and the question that repeatedly comes up is: who is in supremacy, Juve (good) or Fantomas (evil)?



One wonders if Feuillade's version of Fantomas is not a politically motivated. One furthermore imagines why Fantomas and his gang only rob and murder victims placed in high society. Fantomas does not seem to be a man (spirit?) involved with politics of thought, but politics of consciousness. Fantomas steals and kills - therefore he exists!

For all we know his victims may be the living dead; perhaps only the brilliance of police inspector Juve and Fantomas can endure and the flesh (which Fantomas and Juve discard like old clothes, when in disguise) is an illusion when placed in a "real" ambiance.

Feuillade played with the real and unreal in natural settings in all of his serials. The Surrealists were the first ones to notice this quality in his work, and afterward, an even stronger influence appeared in the French new-wave films by Godard, Franju, and Resnais. There is a joy of illogical happenings in his films, which only a handful of filmmakers play with. Bunuel and Godard also show us that logic becomes boring after a while.



In writing about the Fantomas texts, the magnificent poet and critic of the nineteen-teens, Guillaume Apollinaire has been quoted as saying "that extraordinary novel, full of life and imagination...from the imaginative standpoint, Fantomas is one of the richest works that exist." The wild and characteristic vision of Surrealism which is in the novel and films were highly appreciated by the artists of that time. Besides Apollinaire, there were the poets Robert Desnos, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Blaise Cendrars; the painters Picasso, Juan Gris, and Magritte. All of them were fans who used the resource that is Fantomas, for their own work.


Juan Gris; "Fantomas (Pipe and Newspaper) 1915. Oil on Canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

All of these artists realized the dreamlike, irrational qualities of the Fantomas (film and book) series. Not the paint-by-numbers school of art that is currently being produced in a laboratory known as a classroom, but in that mysterious interval when the conscious becomes the subconscious. As art works are being hatched in this phantom transition, so are in a sense - the crimes of Fantomas.


Magritte with his "Fantomas" painting

There is a dauntless wild abandon when entangled with crime and art. The mad impulse to move from the so-called norm into another realm - is of course, an intoxicating act of creation. In this atmosphere, Fantomas is just as creative and mad as Antonin Artaud and Marquis de Sade. Both of these artists investigated their imagination and sanity to compose a weapon with words so as to antagonize society. Fantomas is a liteary creation used for the same purpose. Intentionally, the Fantomas film and books were produced only for amusement sake, but there are unmistakably undercurrents of dread, fear, anxiety, and perverse sexuality.



In Juve Contre Fantomas there are scenes which allude to bondage and S&M. In one particular scene Juve establishes a trap for Fantomas in his apartment. To protect himself from the assassin, Juve wears a truly bizarre garment consisting of spikes around his waist and arms. He then lingers for him in his own bed.

Fantomas also has a Rasputin charm over women. In one scene he is entertaining a pair of women at a posh restaurant. He also "dominates" a young lady, who is totally devoted to him and his cause. Another female is a love slave, awaiting at a large house for her master (usually in disguise) to appear. On the other hand, Juve seems to have no time for pleasure. His only passion is to catch Fantomas...And as I mentioned earlier, perhaps Juve wants to restrain Fantomas in his own bed!

The nature or lack of character is interesting, in that the "sexual" quality of Fantomas becomes stronger owing to the scarcity of a concrete identity. He is a master of disguises because of his line of work, but one wonder if this is not tied to his sexual identity. Each character he portrays is draped in fetishism. Juve is also a master of disguises, and likewise savors the changes his body makes.

Watching the film one sees a duel to make and relinquish as many identities as possible. In the beginning montage of Juve Contre Fantomas, each character (Juve & Fantomas) displays all the disguises that they will wear in the film. By the end of the film one sees identity being adjusted as simply as changing a soiled shirt. In most modern works of art, the need of identity or conscience is a source for the "lost man or woman." One thinks of Oscar Wilde's "Portrait of Doran Gray" or Luigi Pirandello's underrated novel, "The Late Mattia Pascal" which depicts the fall of one who is seduced into the conflict of good and evil. On the other hand, Feuillade/Fantomas relishes the chance to throw conscience out the window. The film is exhilarating in its love for anarchy, bondage, perverse sexuality, political consciousness and, more importantly, aesthetic revolution. Unintentionally, (which is the main ingredient for art-making) the film and novel are an inventive terrorist attack on the fear and mores of the bourgeoisie.

During the actual filming, Feuillade never used a shooting script. Andre Bazin - the film critic and theorist - wrote that "Feuillade had no idea what would happen next, and filmed step-by-step as the morning's inspiration came." The early pioneers of cinema all worked this way; it was not till the studios insisted on ideas put on paper for financial verification that things changed. Currently, Jean Luc-Godard is perhaps the only mainstream filmmaker who does not use a script, while shooting a film.

This also suggests that early cinema-making was a Surrealist technique in making art. Along with Feuillade, one thinks of the other "native" Surrealists such as Mack Sennett and Buster Keaton. Although their works were dissimilar, they contributed a suspicion on what is real and does it matter. It was not important to them to show "logic" moving from one scene to another. The early filmmakers shared a common dream occurrence where anything was allowed.

In the conclusion of "Juve Contre Fantomas" there is the magnificent image of Fantomas, dressed fully in black with a hood over his face, raising his arms in characteristic joy as he explodes the house with what he thinks is Juve still inside the structure. This is a spectacular moment and one wonders how many in the audience are thrilled with this commitment to artistic destruction? In certainty, since this was the end of the second segment out of five in the series, it ends with a large question mark (?) on the screen. This of course may center on what will happen in the ensuing segment...or is it a straightforward question to the conscientiousness of the public out there watching the film?

My favorite Ennio Morricone Soundtrack albums (A Lot More Than This)

My Favorite Jean-Luc Godard Soundtrack Albums

FOAM OF THE DAZE Back In Print

Boris Vian's "Foam of the Daze" is now back in print. While the book was gone I saw outrageous prices for used copies of this edition. But alas it is yours again!

To purchase individual copies you may do so at:

AK Distributions and Books: http://www.akpress.org/

Small Press Distributions: http://www.spdbooks.org/

Amazon will copies shortly and any bookstore can order copies through Ak distribution, Ingram, or Baker & Taylor

The Death of Hilly Kristal

Like the late and great Tony Wilson of Factory Records fame, Hilly Kristal is important to New York City culture. He had a club in the Bowery. It was called CBGB. So super essential that it is not even funny. Tom Verlaine walked by and thought, "Hmm, this would be a great place for my band Television to play in. Patti Smith did the same. And there fore one had Television, Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Blondie, Suicide, DNA, Talking Heads, The Heartbreakers, Richard Hell and countless others. So in other (if I may use that word again) Kristal had the brilliant idea to say "yeah" to Verlaine.

In the late 70's I went to New York for my late father's show at the Whitney. There was a party afterwards and I convince everyone to go to CBGB's to see Richard Hell. So the whole party in various cabs went to the Bowery to see Hell in a club that was the Mecca for a music lover like me.

I walked in with the party and the first person I saw there was David Johansen of the New York Dolls in deep discussion with John Lydon (Johnny Rotten). Richard Hell came on and I went 'blank.' He played "Blank Generation.' It was a perfect moment because the guy, who was an art critic for Artforum, I came in with was some leather queen who wanted someone to piss on him. My Mom said to me that Johnny Rotten was cute (she was there) and I think Dean Stockwell (forgive me Dean if my memory is wrong or failed me) passed out on the floor. And I thought 'Damn this is CBGB and this is the center of the universe. This is New York City.

I went back again to see DNA at CBGB's - and to this day I can't remember if it was on the same trip or not. But for sure I know this wasn’t the New York I visited some years ago.

So Hilly thank you for the memories. In your own way, you are also a lost boy.

Jon Savages's "Lost Boys"

Jon Savage in today's Guardian wrote a nice little piece on "The Lost Boys." They are



Brian Epstein



Joe Meek



Joe Orton


All three died in 1967.

Read the article here:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/comment/story/0,,2158800,00.html