Jacques Dutronc - S/T (Vogue, 1968)

(A.K.A. "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille")

(This is not the cover, it features a trademark shot of Jacques with a fat cigar, but I like this silly image better, it seems his label was always dressing him up in costumes for promo shots)

Jacques Dutronc is many things - spouse of Françoise Hardy (maybe the coolest thing about him), singer, movie star later in his career (after the music career fizzled)... I'd like to know who was listening to this record in France in 1968, a time of manifest conflict between classes and social groups in the country (and elsewhere, of course). Dutronc (and his assisting songwriters) certainty take a Ray Davies-style approach, satirizing the wage-slave hierarchy of the office workplace ("L'augmentation"), the empty "philosophy" of the hippies, etc. As with the Kinks, the listener is left wondering what positions aren't condemned by the singer/songwriter. But maybe the context I'm trying to place this in wasn't really there at all. It's more likely that this was an album made to appeal to a younger, "liberal" audience (stylistic shades of garage rock, Dylan, etc.) and that Dutronc was the pretty face/voice that fit with the product. Color me cynical, people, this isn't to take away from the album as eminently enjoyable to this day, removed from its milieu...

"Si vous ne m'aimez pas, ça n'a aucune d'importance /

C'est moi qui vous aime et vive la France"

Get it here (Heads up: these are .m4a files)