Marie Laforet: The Girl With The Golden Eyes

I haven't had much alcohol during this pandemic, but last Saturday night I treated myself to some cans of cider. It put me in a jolly mood, and I was listening to music on Youtube. I stumbled across a beautiful French singer called Marie Laforet. She was singing in English a folk song that I had heard previously by many singers. It is called Barbara Allen. She accompanied herself on guitar as well. (I have shared the video to this blog page if you want to see it) I thought she was wonderful and before I stopped to think, I was looking to see what albums were available. I found one simply called Portrait 1963/1969. “That will do”, I thought, and clicked buy. Ideas were already forming in my head. “I could write a story on my blog page called ‘The Ballad Of Marie Laforet’, that will sound mysterious and people are bound to read it”.  I like French female singers. I bought an album a couple of years ago called La Question by Francoise Hardy which I highly rate and often listen to. The new CD arrived yesterday. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a little booklet with it containing sleeve notes, photos, and biography. I had to consult Wikipedia to find out about her. She was born in Soulac-sur-Mer, Médoc in 1939. In 1959 she stood in for her sister in a talent contest and won. As well as being a singer, Marie was also a successful actress. I read that she appeared in a film called La Fille aux Yeux d'Or (The Girl with the Golden Eyes) which would become her nickname. “That’s what I’ll call the story!”, I immediately thought.

It was when she sang in her second film St Tropez Blues that she began releasing singles and had her first hit in 1963 with Les Vendanges de l'Amour (The Harvests Of Love) She moved to Geneva Switzerland in 1978, opened an art gallery and lost interest in music until returning to sing in 2005. Marie Laforet sadly died in 2019 aged 80. When I played the album, it wasn’t at all what I expected. I think I was expecting that she would be like a French version of Joan Baez or someone like that. What I heard is French 1960s pop music. Wiki told me that her biggest successes were in the 1970s. Perhaps I should have done more research. I still like the album I bought though, very much indeed. Some of the songs are what I think the French would call Ye Ye music. Several of the songs are covers of well-known English or American songs.

Viens Sur La Montagne was originally Go Tell It On The Mountain which was a Peter, Paul, & Mary song. Katy Cruelle is a song I first heard by Karen Dalton. There are two Simon & Garfunkel songs covered here. La Flute Magique is her version of El Condor Pasa and you can guess which song La Voix Du Silence is. Marie Douceur, Marie Colere is a great version of Paint It Black by The Stones. Le Vin De L’ete I knew as Summer Wine by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood. Of her own original French songs, I find Manchester et Liverpool quite interesting because northern industrial English cities are not usually found in romantic song titles. I can’t say much else about the songs because my French is really poor and I can’t be bothered to translate all the lyrics, but I like her voice, even if I don’t understand what she is singing about. I don’t think I will play this album as much as the Francoise Hardy, but I am glad I found Marie Laforet, the girl with the golden eyes.