Christophe was a French singer-songwriter best known for his schmalzy broken heart love song “Aline” (1965).
Apart from that, he gained some fame for his composition “Sunny Road to Salina” (1970), which was featured in Kill Bill Vol. 2. (2004).
Tag Archives: 2020
RIP Joe Frank (1938 – 2018)
This happened two years ago but I only found out today.
Also, I had never heard of Joe Frank.
Today, I googled for Ken Nordine and ASMR (one of my guilty pleasures) and I found Joe Frank.
I listened and liked immediately and immensely. Frank is an absolute genius.
Up there in absurdity with the likes of Roland Topor.
Joe Frank was a French-born American writer radio performer known for his philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and absurd monologues and radio dramas, says Wikipedia.
Typical radio dramas include “Bad Karma” (2000) and “That Night” (1994).
“Bad Karma” opens with:
“I’m sitting at a dinner party attended by Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Seated at another smaller table are Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milošević, Pinochet and some others I don’t recognize. And then there’s a third table, sort of a children’s table, it has shorter legs and smaller children’s chairs. And sitting there are Richard Speck, Gary Gilmore, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.”
Synopsis from “That Night”:
“Joe’s uncle drowns while fishing a week after retiring, urban animal criminals, voyeur complains about a nude woman, sex with nuns in a limo, an elderly marching band and homecoming parade has been lost for 40 years and is being chased by homecoming queen’s fiance, creating life-size maps, to Jesus: why is there so much suffering, we’re on the edge of chaos, it’s great to feel a part of nature monologue with traffic background, monologue on sleep (repeated in other programs).” [3]
“That Night” also mentions maps on a 1:1 scale, just as Borges did in his one-paragraph story “On Exactitude in Science”.
RIP Ryo Kawasaki (1947 – 2020)
Ryo Kawasaki was a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer and band leader of international acclaim.
His best known compositions are “Bamboo Child” (1976), “Trinkets and Things” (1978) and “Hawaiian Caravan” (1982).
Stanislaw Fernandes did the artwork for the album Juice (1976).
RIP Shusei Nagaoka (1936 – 2015)
This happened five years ago.
Shusei Nagaoka was a Japanese illustrator. He was known for his music album cover art in the 1970s and 1980s.
He designed album covers for Electric Light Orchestra, Earth, Wind & Fire, Deep Purple, Space, Maze, George Clinton, Kitaro and Rose Royce.
Wikipedia fails to mention the computer-like torso of Giorgio Moroder on E=MC2 and the dancing robots on the Munich Machine albums.
His style was similar to that of sexy robot designer Hajime Sorayama (born 1947) and his work reminiscent somehow of Luigi Colani.
RIP Andy González (1951 – 2020)
Andy González was an American musician and bassist.
In my book he is noted for his contribution to the oddball Latin jazz album Concepts in Unity (1975) by Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino which I discovered in the 1990s when I was collecting releases by Salsoul Records.
RIP André Stordeur (1941 – 2020)
André Stordeur was a Belgian musician.
To be honest, I’d never heard of Stordeur.
He did the soundtrack to Office Baroque (1977) but that’s not on YouTube.
There is, however, a fine selection of his recordings by Sub Rosa Records on YouTube.
Once again it is clear that electronic popular music (Telex) and electronic art music (Stordeur) are miles apart. That there is no overlap in audience nor in historiography between the likes of art music electronic music practitioners such as Stordeur and counterparts such as Telex who work in the popular idiom.
RIP Onaje Allan Gumbs (1949 – 2020)
Onaje Allan Gumbs was an American pianist, best-known for having played with the fine fleur of American jazz.
As I prefer all roads to lead to Rome, and Rome is my book, the death of Onaje Allan Gumbs must inevitably lead to Strata-East Records, more specifically to Charles Sullivan’s album Genesis (1974) on which mister Gumbs played piano.
RIP Hal Willner (1956 – 2020)
Hal Willner was an American music producer and facilitator.
In my book Willner is primarily noted for his album Dead City Radio (1990), a spoken word album of William S. Burroughs recitations.
I cannot remember if it was Gus Van Sant’s video “A Thanksgiving Prayer” (1991) or his film Drugstore Cowboy (1989) which visually introduced me to Burroughs.
Today, I learn that “A Thanksgiving Prayer” was a promotional video to Dead City Radio.
In the documentary Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road (2007) there is an interview with Willner on the making of Dead City Radio at 1:07:40 and the recording of of a “Thanksgiving Prayer” is at 1:11:23, sadly without the Gus Van Sant footage.
RIP Allen Garfield (1939 – 2020)
Allen Garfield was an American actor.
In my book he is noted for playing a smut peddler in no less than two early Brian De Palma films: Greetings (1968) and Hi Mom! (1968).
In Greetings Garfield praises the imaginary book The Horney Headmaster by Richard P. Long (“beautiful book, tremendous insights!”) to Robert de Niro.
In The Conversation, that masterpiece of paranoia, he is the one to describe Hackman as “the best bugger on the West Coast.”
The true jewel of the three films I mention here, is the film Hi Mom! for its ‘black experience’ episode (but to be honest, Garfield is not in that segment).
While researching this death, I stumble upon Cry Uncle! (1971), judging from the trailer, I gather this is an amusing film.
Au revoir John. I suspect you were lots of fun.
RIP Honor Blackman (1925 – 2020)
Honor Blackman was an English actress, known for her sex symbol-ish parts in popular pulp of the sixties (The Avengers, Goldfinger and Jason and the Argonauts).
Radley Metzger cast her as Susan Sills (“the big game hunter, one of the world’s most efficient killers”) in The Cat and the Canary (1978).
She recorded the surprise hit “Kinky Boots” (1964) and the album Everything I’ve Got (1964) which featured an interpretation of Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise”.