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Jim Hendrix on French pop TV show ‘Dim Dam Dom’


 
The folks at Mod Cinema just keep the goods rolling out, don’t they? It’s hard to stay up with the embarrassment of riches on offer from them. Take for instance their recent duo of double DVD sets featuring unedited episodes of Dim Dam Dom, the distinctive, ultra-hip, fashion-forward late sixties French pop TV series. Dim Dam Dom had a very French “mod” sensibility, giving it a vastly different look and feel to British programs like Colour Me Pop or Top of the Pops and American counterparts like Shindig! and Hullabaloo.

Dim Dam Dom was a music variety hour produced for the Deuxième channel in France. The title summarizes this shows concept, “Dim” for Sunday, “Dam” for ladies, and “Dom” for men. Pioneering the creativity of the show was Daisy Galard. From the elaborate dance choreography, to the set design, to the production and staging, Dim Dam Dom serves as a colorful time capsule of pop music in 1968.

Included in Mod Cinema’s two 2-disc Dim Dam Dom sets are several complete unedited episodes (most in color, a few in black & white) with rare performances by Johnny Hallyday, Mireille Darc, Grapefruit, Marie Laforêt, Nino Ferrer, Eddy Mitchell, Stone, Memphis Slim, Ronnie Bird, Françoise Hardy, Procol Harum, The Electric Prunes, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity, Sylvie Vartan, Jacques Dutronc, Pussy Cat, The Moody Blues, P.P.Arnold, Serge Gainsbourg, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jacques Dutronc, “Les Bee Gees,” Claude François, The Easybeats, Manfred Mann, France Gall (who also sings the shows “theme song”) and many many others.

Order Dim Dam Dom from Mod Cinema here.

Below, The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing “Burning of the Midnight Lamp.”
 

 
Bonus clip after the jump: A young Keith Emerson and The Nice performing “Karelia Suite” on “Dim Dam Dom,” 1969.

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.07.2011
12:07 pm
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France Gall, the ‘Lolita’ of French pop music
08.31.2011
02:03 pm
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Our friends at the mighty Mod Cinema have released another of their high quality 2 DVD-set anthologies of French singers. You may recall me posting about their fantastic Françoise Hardy DVD compilation a few months ago, now gorgeous France Gall gets the Mod Cinema treatment:

Although she’s best-known as the pretty, perky teenager who won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest, French pop singer France Gall has had a much longer and more varied career than that. Although only a cult figure in most of the rest of the world, Gall is a major star and beloved figure in her native country. The psychedelic-era found Gall, under the guidance of Serge Gainsbourg, singing increasingly strange songs, like “Teenie Weenie Boppie” (a bizarre tune about a deadly LSD trip that somehow involves Mick Jagger) set to some of Gainsbourg’s most out-there arrangements. This DVD compiles rare footage of France Gall performing on French & German TV. 79 songs spanning 2-discs including “Teenie Weenie Boppie”, “Bebe requin”, “Les sucettes”, “Avant la bagarre”, “Toi que je veux”, “La vieille fille”, “Computer No.3”, “Baci, Baci, Baci”, “Dancing disco”, as wells as duets with Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Fugain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Claude Francois, and more!

It’s interesting to note that Walt Disney himself wanted France Gall for a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, but the project was shelved with Uncle Walt’s death in 1966. Bernardo Bertolucci reportedly wanted her for the leading female role in his X-rated Last Tango in Paris opposite Marlon Brando. Can you imagine? No offense to the late Maria Schneider, but it’s too damned bad that didn’t happen!

Order a copy of The France Gall Collection (1964-1979) at Mod Cinema

Also, if you live in Los Angeles, there are still three more screenings of the new Gainsbourg and His Girls documentary at Cinefamily.

Below, France Gall sings Gainsbourg’s “Baci, Baci, Baci” on Musicolor in 1969.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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08.31.2011
02:03 pm
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Françoise Hardy Collection Vol.1 (1963-1979)
03.21.2011
12:12 pm
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From our friends at Mod Cinema comes this fantastic forty song collection of TV performances, promo films and some wonderful duets featuring breathtakingly gorgeous French chanteuse Françoise Hardy. I was introduced to her at party in the the mid-90s and believe me when I tell you, it was a special thrill just to touch her hand. She was in her 50s at the time, and she was still one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever laid eyes on. Talk about a MILF…!

Françoise Hardy covered more stylistic ground and owed more debts to pop/rock than she’s given credit for. Immensely popular in her native France, the chanteuse first displayed her breathy, measured vocals in the early and mid-‘60s. Her (mostly self-penned) recordings from that era draw from French pop traditions, lightweight ‘50s teen idol rock, girl groups, and sultry jazz and blues—sometimes in the same song. The songs are invariably catchy and the production, arrangements, and near-operatic backup harmonies excellent, at times almost Spector-esque. This DVD compiles rare footage of Françoise performing on French television. Over 40 songs including “Tous les garçons et les filles”, “Le premier bonheur du jour”, “Ton meilleur ami”, “Mon amie la rose”, “La maison où j’ai grandi”, “Voilà”, “Comment te dire adieu?”, “J’écoute de la musique saoûle”, as wells as duets with Jane Birkin, Sylvie Vartan, Patrick Bouchtey, and Sacha Distel.

This two-hour collection is an embarrassment of groovy goodness. And the quality of the clips is uniformly very high.

Order a copy of the Françoise Hardy Collection Vol.1 (1963-1979) from Mod Cinema

Below, Françoise Hardy performing “Ma jeunesse fout l’camp”
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.21.2011
12:12 pm
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