Music videos that feature Rics

[doombass]

[ilan]

Oh those 70s pornstaches... The mirror was not yet invented. That's a sweet checkerboard MG.

[Dave W]

Never heard of her before, but nice cover. Almost a disco feel.

[ilan]

Never heard of her before, but nice cover. Almost a disco feel.

She was a Frank Farian project. He had better luck with Boney M.

[Dave W]

She was a Frank Farian project. He had better luck with Boney M.

Now I'll have to find out who they are. 

[ilan]

Now I'll have to find out who they are. 

You've dodged the Eurodisco bullet in the US, didn't you?

[Jeff Scott]

You've dodged the Eurodisco bullet in the US, didn't you?

Yes, we have! 

[gearHed289]

You've dodged the Eurodisco bullet in the US, didn't you?

Haha! That's the exact term I was thinking when i watched that vid. Very Euro!

[uwe]

I can't believe that anybody would ever have the guts to post a Gilla vid here - these Norsemen are fearless indeed. And the Minnesotan adds fuel to the fire by claiming it's a "nice cover", what have we come to?

I would like to stress that she's Austrian, not German, i.e. from a country that never had anything to do with Germany except fleetingly and only by mistake because our tanks took a wrong turn at a junction. You can hear her Austrian accent even when she sings English.

Milli Vanilli, does that ring a bell with you, Dave? That was one of Frank Farian's projects too. And Boney M is mainly known for one bass line:



Plus that the 'dancer', Bobby Farrell, didn't sing, that was Frank Farian - I hope you recognize a pattern here.

Now that Doomie has pillaged and desecrated this forums of forums, we might as well (dubiously) enjoy it while we can, here's more of Gisela Wuchinger aka Gilla, who walked the thin line between horrible Disco and horrible Schlager ...



She initially sang German Austrrrian. Generally pseudo-sultry lyrics to previous Anglo-American hits. We called it Pornoschlager back then. Frank Farian's acts often had the ill repute of allegedly featuring red light district folk and in the 70ies and early 80ies the Frankfurt red light district (Farian's studios were close to Frankfurt) was populated by Austrian pimps from Vienna who also dabbled in music.





Yup, before the 4001 she could be seen with an EB3L Slothead.

This thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning Far(ian) Corporation, another unspeakable crime, even Led Zep didn't deserve this:



Yup, that's at first Robin McAuley (Grand Prix and MSG) and then Bobby Kimball (Toto) singing, Kimball lived in Frankfurt for a few years.

But we haven't reached the nadir yet, even the great Cockney Rebel were not spared. On this clumsy cover of their magnificent  Sebastian, you can actually see and hear Frank Farian as the lead vocalist, front man guitarist. Adding insult to injury, he somehow even got a visibly embarrassed/bemused Steve Harley (who sang and composed the original) on the left (i.e. not the guy with the DX7 on the right) to play keyboards for him and sing a line or two.



Steve must have needed the money badly (his career was in the doldrums in the mid-80ies), but judging from his hairline today



he at least invested it into something lasting and durable.

[Dave W]

I can't believe that anybody would ever have the guts to post a Gilla vid here - these Norsemen are fearless indeed. And the Minnesotan adds fuel to the fire by claiming it's a "nice cover", what have we come to?

It was a nice cover. Not much else to say about it. That doesn't have anything to do with Milli Vanilli.

[uwe]

You're a closet Disco fan! True, Gisela actually did sing on it. Nobody could fake that Austrian accent.

Milli Vanilli were of course even more awful. But no one in Germany was surprised when it turned out they didn't sing. That was taken as a given if you were a product of the Frank Farian hit factory. Frank believed in the magic of illusion, create the music first and then, when a track picked up airplay, create a band or an artist to present it, something that would capture the imagination of the listeners. He was convinced of his own musical and production abilities, but not of his ability to present music (and his cover of Sebastian tellingly flopped).

Other than Milli Vanilli, these two songs were his biggest international hits (and to give credit to Eruption: they were a real band with a real and a really good at that singer, Precious Wilson, they were also Boney M's backing band live):

[uwe]

As for Bend Me, Shape Me, I prefer this version here ...



though you as a Yank probably know it from American Breed, who performed it with psychedelic charm:



In Europe, however, the somewhat more dynamic Amen Corner version was more popular (Andy Fairweather Low was the lead singer with Amen Corner):

[Dave W]

Before this thread, the American Breed version was the only one I had heard.

[uwe]

Really? That's interesting and so telling - there is apparently an ocean between us.  In Europe the song is forever identified with Amen Corner. Before this thread I hadn't heard the American Breed version, I thought it was an Amen Corner original! 

Mind you, it wasn't an Amercian Breed original either, these guys recorded and released it first a year before the Breed did (and I don't even know whether they wrote it or whether it was an outside songwriter team):



Unless my ears trick me, then the Amen Corner version transposed the original minor key first part of the verse into a parallel major one (and added a descending major third, second & root-vocal melody heard neither with The Outsiders nor American Breed) so their rendition sounds a lot more pop'ish and sprightly. The original Outsiders version is more like a dark Motown song, Amercian Breed added psychedelia to it. The vocal melody in the first part consists of root, minor seventh and minor third with both bands' versions. As does Gilla's version btw so Frank Farian obviously took the (in Europe) more rare American Breed version as a blueprint.

Thinking about it, Amen Corner were obviously aiming for a Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich sound at the time.

[ilan]

Nice 1966 slab P there.