La Revolution Francaise
Band members Related acts
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line up 1 (1968-69) - Jean-Guy 'Arthur' Cossette -- lead guitar - Francois Guy -- vocals, guitar - Georges Marchant -- bass - Louis Parizeau -- drums
line up 2 (1969-70) NEW - Angelo Finaldi -- lead guitar, backing vocals (replaced Jean-Guy Cossette) - Francois Guy -- vocals, guitar - Georges Marchant -- bass NEW - Richard Tate -- drums, backing vocals (replaced Louis Parizeau)
line up 3 (1970-71) - Angelo Finaldi -- lead guitar, backing vocals - Francois Guy -- vocals, guitar - Richard Tate -- drums, backing vocals
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- Francois Guy (solo efforts) - Les Jaguars (Jean-Guy Cossette) - John, James and Francis (Francois Guy) - The Kids - Les Merseys (Richard Tate) - The Moonbears (Francois Guy) - Les Sinners (Jean-Guy Cossette, Francois Guy, Georges Marchan, Louis Parizeau and Richard Tate) - Trixie & the In-Mates (Angelo Finaldi)
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Genre: psych Rating: 3 stars *** Title: C Cool Company: CANUSA Catalog: CLJ-33-112 Country/State: Montreal, Canada Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: minor ring and edge wear Available: 1 Catalog ID: 5651 Price: $100.00
Best time to play: late Saturday nights when you aren't paying all that much attention
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Singer Francois Guy quit Les Sinners in October,1968. His next move was to form La Revolution Francaise with ex-Sinners Georges Marchant on bass, drummer Louis Parizeau and former Les Janguars guitar player Jean-Guy Cossette. Signed by singer/producer Tony Roman's small CANUSA label the group debuted with the 1968 single:
- 1968's ' Pierre-Paul Ladouceaur' b/w Isabelle (Le Cote Commercial)' (CANUSA catalog C-372)
The single sold well enough for CANUSA to finance a supporting album - 1968's "C. Cool". Produced by drummer Parizeau, the set showcased Guy in the role of front man, handling lead vocals and responsible for all of the material. Compared to the Les Sinners catalog these tracks were clearly an attempt to adapt to changing audience tastes. While the first side wasn't exactly lysergic drenched wildness, it was clearly more experimental than previous releases, tracks like 'Et La Terre Tournera' incorporating a tasty hard rock edge while retaining the earlier group's commercial sound. Even conventional ballads like 'Coule L'Amour' and the Baroque-tinged 'Pierre-Paul Ladouceaur' reflected a modest psychy feel complete with pounding keyboards and drifty, acid influenced atmospherics. Yeah, 'Bingo' was little more than a studio throwaway, but having one loser on side one wasn't a major crime. The side long title track was a different story. Set against strumming acoustic guitars with occasional sound effects, isolated electric guitar runs, and even a sitar interlude, the song featured a weird, meandering mixture of spoken word narratives and isolated song fragments. Guy sounded pretty intense (or perhaps simply stoned). Anyone out there who speaks French want to enlighten me on what was going on? Certainly weird and not something you were likely to want to hear on a regular basis. By the way all six songs were performed in French.
All told it held up fairly well against Les Sinners catalog, but they'll be some folks out there who enjoy the album's quirkier aspects.
"C Cool" track listing:
1.) Et La Terre Tournera (Francois Guy) - rating: **** stars 'Et La Terre Tournera' opened the album with a fascinating slice of folk-rock-meets-garage-attitude. Kicked along by Louis Parizeau's pounding drums and Jean-Guy Cossette's excellent guitar, the song had an instantly mesmerizing melody. After splitting with CANUSE, the band releasedhe best tune on the LP as a single on their own Revolution label:
- 1968's 'Et La Terre Tournera' b/w 'C-Cool' (Revolution catalog number R-2003)
2.) Coule L'Amour (Francois Guy) - rating: *** stars Propelled by some nice acoustic guitar and lysergic piano, 'Coule L'Amour' was pretty ballad that grew on you with time. Kind of a Beatles vibe on this one. 3.) Pierre-Paul Ladouceaur (Francois Guy) - rating: **** stars With a very Beatlesque flavor including Georges Marchant's Paul McCartney-styled bass and some heavily orchestrated segments, 'Pierre-Paul Ladouceaur' found the band going full-tilt psychedelic. Nice vocal from Francois Guy. As mentioned the song had previously been tapped as a Canadian single: - 1968's 'Pierre-Paul Ladouceaur' b/w Isabelle (Le Cote Commercial)' (Canusaw catalog C-372) 4.) Ta Famille (Francois Guy) - rating: **** stars 'Ta Famille' ('Your Family') found the band returning to a simpler, pop orientation. As much as I liked their more elaborate efforts, they were at their best on power-pop tracks like this one. 5.) Bingo (Francois Guy) - rating: ** stars In contrast, 'Bingo' found the band seemingly falling victim to the desire to appeal to grandmothers ... Seriously, talk about sickenly sweet ... yech.
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2) Showcasing a nice acoustic riff guitar from Cossette, the side long title track started out as a pretty enough ballad, with a strident edge (guess Guy and company were trying to make some sort of statement here), but to a large extent the results sounded like a stoned in-studio demo that simply wasn't ready for prime time. Things started to go off the tracks when the sitar solo kicked in along with the extended spoken work segment. The sitar was actually quite entertaining, but boy did it sound lost amidst the rest of the song. From there the song sounded like an acid trip gone astray with all kinds of craziness going on, including a brief English segment that sounded like a Simon and Garfunkel outtake. Maybe that was the intent ... who knows. To be honest, I wish I knew what this one was about which might help alleviate some of it's boredom factor. They could have been talking about anything from setting up Quebec as an independent country, to picking up their dry cleaning. Who knows. Actually, it would have been just as boring in English.
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Genre: psych Rating: 3 stars *** Title: Québécois Company: Trans-Canada Catalog:
TSF-769) Country/State: Montreal, Canada Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: minor ring and edge wear Available: -- Catalog ID: -- Price: --
Best time to play: late Saturday nights when you aren't paying all that much attention
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Shortly after the debut album's release the original line-up fell apart with lead guitarist Jean-Guy Cossette, bassist Georges Marchantt, and drummer Louis Parizeau restarting Les Sinners with vocalist Alain Jodoin. Singer/front man Francoise Guy decided to keep La Revolution Francois alive, recruiting former Trixie & the In-Mates guitarist Angelo Finaldi and ex-Les Merseys drummer Richard Tate for what was La Revolution Francaise Mark II. The trio went on to release a string of four singles over the next two years.
La Revolution Francaise MK II (left to right Angelo Finaldi - Richard Tate - Franoise Guy)
Singing the praises of independence for Quebec, the revamped band's first single proved a major hit and cultural event. The 45 reportedly sold over 100,000 copies throughout Quebec, effectively becoming the province's national anthem.
- 1969's 'Quebecois' b/w 'Shoo-Doo-Bee-Do' (Revolution catalog number R-2010)
That was followed by:
- 1969's ' Le Temps de la Révolution' b/w ' Au Clair de la Lune' (RCA catalog number 75-5055) - 1970's 'Gele' b/w 'Chante Rossignol' (RCA Victor catalog number 75-5070) - 1971's 'Y'Mouille A Sciaux' b/w 'J'Aime Une Fille Aux Yeux D'or' (Revolution catalog number 2022)
"Québécois" (Trans-Canada catalog number TSF-769), was a compilation that pulled together most of the first album (thankfully with a heavily edited version of the side long title track) and the band's earlier singles. I've been looking for the band's sophomore album but haven't found one yet. For anyone interested, YouTube has a black and white television performance of the title track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V73-M3RFKMM
"Québécois" track listing: (side 1) 1.) Québécois (Francois Guy) - 2.) Isabelle (Francois Guy) - 3.) L'amour (Francois Guy) - 4.) Bingo (Francois Guy) - 5.) Shoo Doo Be Doo (Francois Guy) -
(side 2) 1.) Et la terre tournera (Francois Guy) - 2.) Pierre-Paul Ladouceur (Francois Guy) - 3.) Ta Famille (Francois Guy) - 4.) C-Cool (Francois Guy) - 5.) Americas (Francois Guy) -
In attempt to appeal to the English speaking audience they released a couple of 45s as The French Revolution:
- 1969's 'Nine Till Five' b/w 'Why' (London catalog number M 17367) - 1969's 'America' b/w 'Shoo-Doo-Bee-Do' (Capitol catalog 72588) - 1970's 'Dawn of the Revolution' b/w 'I Do Believe In Magic' (RCA Victor catalog number 75-1032)
There's also a rare 45 by the side project The Kids:
- 1969's 'America' b/w 'Shoo-Doo-Bee-Do' (Capitol catalog 72580)
After La Revolution Francaise called it quits Guy formed another trio John, James and Francis with original Sinners guitarist Jay Boivin and Jean-Guy Durocher. The trio managed to release one single for the small Aquarius label 'Six O'Clock In the Morning' b/w 'I Do Believe In Music' (Aquarius catalog number ?). Guy then went solo.
Finaldi and Tates became members of Johnny Halliday's touring band. Tate later hooked up with Les Sinners.
Guy and company then ended their relationship with CANUSA, taking the then-rare step of briefly setting up their own Revolution label. There's an extensive string of non-LP singles:
- 1969's 'Quebecois' b/w 'Shoo-Doo-Bee-Do/Chantons l'ete' (Revolution catalog number R-2010) - 1969's 'Nine Till Five' b/w 'Why' (Decca catalog number F-22898) - 1969's 'Americas' b/w 'Shoo-Doo-Bee-Do' (Tower catalog number 504) - 1970's 'Le Temps De Le Revolution'' b/w 'Au Clair De La Lune' (RCA Victor catalog number 75-5055) - 1970's 'The Dawn of the Revolution' b/w 'I DO Believe In Magic' (RCA Victor catalog number 75-1032) - 1970's 'Chante Rossignoi' b/w 'Gele' (RCA Victor catalog number 75-5075) - 1971's 'Y'mouille a Sciaux' b/w 'J'aime Une Fille Aux Yeux D'or' )Revolution catalog number R-2022)
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