Johnny Hallyday pt II

Although he has a terrible reputation in certain musical circles, I have to say Johnny Hallyday consistently surprises me. He is a terrible poseur, and can always be counted on to jump on whatever musical bandwagon is current at the time. However, he does have very solid commercial instincts, a great nose for what the current trend is and how it applies to his sound, and the good sense and money to hire the best musicians available. And he was quite prolific in the 60’s and 70’s. Add all these factors together and you can see why he is going to have more than one or two gems floating around. I have been thinking about doing a Johnny Hallyday mix, but I realized I don’t have QUITE enough great stuff by him for that, so until then I guess I will be content with another post.

I’ve heard Johnny attempt to do American soul music covers, like “In the Midnight Hour” or “What is Soul?”, but until hearing “Le Feu”, I had never heard him play funk before. But, when in Rome… And when in 1973, make a funky rock track. The track shares some DNA with “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, with its funky clavinet-led backing track. The band sounds great and whoever did the arrangements (it’s uncredited on the record) really knows how to write horn parts. All in all, a pretty tasty record, that only has one or two cringeworthy vocal moments (like, say the first time Johnny opens his mouth about 10 seconds in. Trust me, it gets better, stick with it!). Note: This song is not to be confused with “Allumer le feu”, a much bigger hit.
Johnny Hallyday- Le Feu

Mad Dog Vachon

With all the recent news about Montreal born Chris Benoit and his murder/suicide freakout (not to mention the Dr. Mengele-type experiments he was doing on his son), I thought I would shine a light on a more positive (not to mention musical) member of Montreal's wrestling fraternity, Mad Dog Vachon.

Like fellow Canadian Bad News Brown, Vachon was a "real" wrestler who actually wrestled in the Olympics. And like Bad News, he had far more monetary success as a villain in the squared circle. Vachon achieved that rare level of success for a true heel: to have people love to hate him. With his shaved head and beard, the diminutive Vachon cut a striking figure in the ring. And, of course there was his voice. He sounded like he consumed a steady diet of rusty razor blades and washed it down with battery acid. It was voice made for spitting out the evil patter of a wrestling villain. And it sounds great on record, too!

In the fine tradition of vinyl oddities like Classy Freddie Blassie's "Pencil Neck Geeks" and the WWF's Wrestling Album, Vachon was beloved enough to warrant Denis Pantis of DSP records recording him "singing", of all things, A RAP SONG! Yes, "Le Rap A Mad Dog."

In a way, it makes perfect sense. Montreal was a huge disco town, yet at the time it didn't have a sizable enough black population to have its own genuine hip hop scene. So, in the tradition of Mel Brooks' "It's Good to be the King" (a fairly big rap record in 1981), it made sense to combine Montreal's homegrown disco sound and a homegrown wrestling villain with the novelty known as rapping.

Vachon's lawnmower voice and sizable personality are more than up to the task. I can’t understand anything he is saying (and it be would doubtful I could even if he was speaking English), but the sheer ridiculous force of Vachon’s schtick propels the track. The backing band does a credible job of mimicking the sounds of New York, with divebombing synthe blips, vamping guitars, and handclaps. Vachon calls out Rambo, Rocky, Reagan, Mr. T, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man and more before devolving into a series of incoherent grunts and mumblings.

I have this on 7”. I have no idea if it came out on 12” or not. As DSP was not really a disco label, it may well have not have, as it was probably marketed more as a novelty record than as a genuine disco record, so the need to push it towards real club DJ’s was probably minimal. I also don’t know what year it came out, although my guess is 1982.
Mad Dog Vachon- Le Rap A Mag Dog