The rest of Europe

9-11-09 The rest of Europe

I have visited a few other places in Europe – Germany, France, Italy – for instance. I liked all of those countries, and I have the most friends in France of these three countries.

Of course, the music from each country is very different! The Germans tend to like machines, the French are very romantic and the Italians have an amusement factor that seems to be absent from the Germans.

My favorite German acts are the same as they have been for nearly four decades: Faust, Amon Duul II, Can, Neu!, Achim Reichel…Michael Rother, Manuel Gottsching, Lothar Meid.

My favorite French artists are Roland Bocquet, Serge Gainsbourg, Alain Chamfort, Charlelie Couture, Lard Free / Urban Sax…

For the Italians, I love both their 70’s progressive rock, and some of the 70’s & 80’s Italian pop music. Remember Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Museo Rosenbach, The New Trolls, and Osanna? Later on, I gravitated towards Lucio Battisti, Adriano Celentano, Righeira and Pino Daniele.

The food is also very different between these countries – with the Italians favoring red tomato sauce. The Germans do beer right, and have good sausages. I liked all the food I had in France – an odd amalgam of Northern African, “typical French” and wonderful brasserie food.

I understand more French than I do Italian or German. It always seemed to me like the Germans all spoke English pretty well.

I only ever went to Spain once. Let’s just say it was not a pleasant trip – we had guns pulled on us in Irun – and that was by the police! After that, we decided to walk along the railroad tracks and wait in the French train station for the train back to Paris.

I am not much of a fan of what is marketed in the US as “World Music”. I infinitely prefer the stuff that is sold in the country that it’s from. The stuff that is believed to not be of interest outside of the country it’s from. Holland is probably the strangest, as most of their pop music is in English, and a lot of it is unknown outside of Holland. Most Japanese domestic music is created only for their “domestic market” – and largely unknown outside of Japan.

Thanks for reading my brief rambling hallucinations about assorted countries around the globe that can enrich our lives, if so desired. I am always up for a discussion about music, if it falls a bit outside of the ‘comfort zone’ (i.e. anything not in English).