Dutronc

Dr. X posts this from his summer home in Normandy:

I believe your Star Fleet colleagues are fascinated by the estimable Eduard Khil, as fine a baritone as ever received a 4th-class Order of Merit for the Fatherland.

I don't know why (the hairstyle?) but it brought to mind another performer of the era, with a perhaps better-developed sense of irony.  See if you notice any similarities in this performance by Jacques Dutronc:



Dutronc was subjected to so many indignities in the 1960s it would be impossible to catalog them all, but here are some highlights:

• Mini, mini, mini
• Les PlayBoys
• Le Plus Dificile

As bizarre and sometimes horrific as these are visually, a few interesting things emerge.  First, the man simply cannot be thrown off his game. He's a pro's pro. You could ask him to sing in a mosh pit of rabid springer spaniels, and he'd execute - probably walking off without a stain on his suit.

Second, he's alarmingly skillful and diverse. He's playing the game, but at his convenience he's also shaking the jukebox so hard the record skips, as in Les Cactus (translation here) or his magnificent A la Queue les Yvelines:



Third, he was the only musician on the planet at that time who wasn't trying to be The Beatles.  To the degree he had any, his role models were Bob Dylan and Ray Davies.

Fourth, he spares no one.  Here is the song that made him a star, Et moi, et moi, et moi:



In English that would be, approximately (translation source here):

Seven hundred million Chinese
And me, and me and me
With my life, my little place
My headache, mon psyche
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


Eighty million Indonesians
And me, and me and me
With my car and my dog
His Canigou [brand of dog food] when he barks
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


Three or four hundred million blacks
And me, and me and me
I go to the tanning booth
To the sauna to lose weight
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


Three hundred million Soviets
And me, and me and me
With my manias and my tics
In my little goose-feather bead
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


50 million imperfect people
And me, and me and me
I watch Catherine Langeais [TV presenter from the 50s - 70s)
On TV at home
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


Nine hundred million dying of hunger
And me, and me and me
With my vegetarian diet
And all the whiskey I drink
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


500 million South Americans
And me, and me and me
I'm naked in the bath
With a girl washing me
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


50 million Vietnamese
And me, and me and me
Rabbit-hunting on Sunday
With my gun, I'm the king
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


500 thousand little Martians
And me, and me and me
Like an asshole Parisian
I wait for my check at the end of the month
I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life


I think about it and then I forget
That's life, that's life