Le Chanson

Catherine Lara
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

Edith Piaf
11" x 8.5", 2013
watercolor, pen on paper

 The best thing about shopping for records in thrift stores is when you come upon a specific mini collection from a specific individual. These mini collections are often quite intriguing and when I'm intrigued enough about a previous owner I like to buy all the records that were dumped at this thrift store. I live for the days that I find records from an unusual (in terms of rarity of record finds) country all together in one store. Once I bought a whole box filled up with Latvian records and another time I bought 15 Philippine records in one haul. Sometimes you'll find records of a certain topic or genre, and another time the type of labeling will give away that the records once belonged to one collection. The collections are most interesting to me if it concerns somewhat obscure records, a different set of records than those that anyone could have. I didn't think anything of it when I came upon two Chris Williamson records yesterday (one I already had—I only like it so-so), but when more women-only records from the 1970s showed up my mind became focused. It's not the first time I've encountered a feminist thrift-store record dumping but this was yet more specific. Studying the sleeves of records by Teresa Trull and Jade & Sarsaparilla it became clear that I was dealing with a collection that once belonged to a lesbian woman (or couple). I went back through the rows of records I had already been through to find all those LPs that probably came from this anonymous collector. I ended up with 7 records, including two by Edith Piaf that I suspect belonged to the same owner. While I liked the Theresa Trull a lot the two Edith Piaf records was where it's at for me. There's nothing unusual or rare about the LP Les plus grands succès with music of Edith Piaf. Every single song on it I already had on one of my other Piaf records, it was even my third or even fourth copy, or version for some songs on this "greatest hits". The biggest ones are all on it: there's La Vie en Rose, Non, Je ne Regrette Rien, Milord, Les Trois Cloches, and so on. I liked the cover image, green stickers were half off at the Goodwill so I only had to pay 50 cents, and it has been a while since listened to Piaf, so I took it home. And when I played it after all these years since hearing all these songs, I was stunned because of how beautiful these recordings really are. So intense, so timeless, so beautiful. If you're like me and you haven't heard the songs of Edith Piaf for a few years, I recommend to dig into your vinyl collection, go to the French chanson section (or to the the letter P, or to wherever you may have filed Piaf under), and play your Piaf records again. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. If by any chance, you're one of the few people who doesn't have a copy of the 1950 recording of Hymne l'Amour you can listen to it by clicking this link and get in the mood. 

What could or maybe even should have been part of that collection by the lesbian couple is an album by Catherine Lara. I hate to comment on a person's sexuality (it is none of my business), but my couple in question would have eaten this up. Both Piaf (Hymne l'Amour) and Lara are represented in this Top 100. The Catherine Lara song L'Hiver was included on a mixed tape presented by Lightactivity of the fabulous blog Toys and Techniques.