Yé-Yé Of The Day: Les Sultans!

I know, I know, there's more to 60's French music than covers of English-language hits, but whenever I hear a French cover of one of my favourite songs that really gets it right, a little chill goes up my spine. With Les Sultans' "Je T'Aime Bien" (AKA The Zombies' "You Make Me Feel Good"), I could hardly believe my ears. I'd heard a couple of crappy French versions of "She's Not There" and figured that there were few bands in any language who could do justice to the brilliance of The Zombies' originals. But Québec's Les Sultans nailed it--the gorgeous folk-rockish guitars, the dead-on harmonies, the tambourine shake--everything is as it should be. All of their songs are great, really, but other titles of note include "Dis-Lui" (The Zombies' "Leave Me Be") and "Il N'y A Rien Au Monde Que Je Ne Ferais Pas..." (The Kinks' "Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout The Girl"). I'd give my right arm to be 16 back in 1966 Montréal. Damn.

Psycha Bourée

Dashiell Hedayat--"Chrysler Rose" (10.1 massive psychedelic megabytes)

I can't begin to describe this song except to say that if it was a house I would want to live in it.

(I originally misspelled his name--my source for the song got it wrong--but further investigation reveals that Hedayat was a poet who was involved with the experimental group Gong and that this song comes from the album Obsolete.)