Cyclone: Gallic Guitars A-Go-Go 1962-66 / Various [Import]

• Track Listing

UK collection. When rock 'n' roll music hit the shores of France, it was embraced with a fervor more intense than in other European countries. The first wave of French rock bands set the stage for the later yé-yé scene and led a generation of Gallic teens to follow suit and launch their own groups. Many were inspired to form combos by the Shadows, the reigning kings of instrumental rock throughout Europe in the early '60s. Every country had bands vying to be the top instrumental group but nowhere was the competition more fierce than in Paris. Many of the featured artists included the standards of the day in their repertoire. Their original efforts, though, are often more interesting, illustrating the great French tendency to digest American music as one giant lump, instead of seeing the genre-divided subsets that dictated the way Americans consumed music. Among the musicians are the same players who contributed to the sound of much-adored artists such as France Gall, Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday by supplying their musical accompaniment. Some of the contributors are expats, such as America's jazz guitar great turned French producer/songwriter Mickey Baker, and others hail from closer, among them the UK's Krewkats, Tommy Brown and Micky Jones, but they all come together to form this quintessentially French collection for your listening pleasure.

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