BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

It took "balls" to leave on MF5 ...
knowing that many people wouldn't get the subtle joke & the point JMJ was making.

JMJ basically risked ridicule, criticism & album sales to make his statement.

(Although the CinC version is superb).

GeeJee wrote:And I guess MF5 is a severe joke...

I could agree with you, if he kept the joke on CiC, but he didn't... You are a musician, you know what I'm talking about...

Regards

Eh, one time after CiC (the Radio Europe thing) doesn't really matter

I can tell a joke now, tell it again and continue telling it and it hasn't got any more serious than the first time

Finaero wrote:Eh, one time after CiC (the Radio Europe thing) doesn't really matter

Note how he introduces this song on Europe2 ("Attention!"). There's a hint that he's ridiculizing himself for this song.

Finaero wrote: I can tell a joke now, tell it again and continue telling it and it hasn't got any more serious than the first time

Plus, it is a subtle joke: Jarre keeps on acting as if it was meant seriously, but in fact it wasn't. As long as most people don't get it, you can play it on and on. Just like R.E.M. did with "Shiny Happy People", which actually is a joke if you read the lyrics closely, but I'm sure there are still people out there taking this song seriously.

Catte wrote:Just like R.E.M. did with "Shiny Happy People", which actually is a joke if you read the lyrics closely

That is the point. Did R.E.M. change the lyrics? No!

Jarre changed MF5 from the album to the concerts in China. He gave up the joke!!!

LLGARCIA wrote:He gave up the joke!!!

Uh despite not playing the whole thing it isn't really different.

And despite playing it on Radio in 1994... nothing says that he gave up the joke. Except someone not willing to accept it as one

Yet I have to say that I still think Aerology sounds like a big joke, and if he is really playing that seriously...

LLGARCIA wrote:

Catte wrote:Just like R.E.M. did with "Shiny Happy People", which actually is a joke if you read the lyrics closely

That is the point. Did R.E.M. change the lyrics? No!

Does the core meaning of the song change if you leave out the woman singer? No!

LLGARCIA wrote:Jarre changed MF5 from the album to the concerts in China. He gave up the joke!!!

By treating this song as any other ordinary Jarre song and playing it, he wasn't giving up the joke (the arrangement of ALL previously released tracks on CiC was changed). Plus, it still was accompanied by automatic rhythms and drums, so it remains the "song at the touch of a button" in contrast of complex fairlight programming.

Though, for the Chinese of course, it was rather a demonstration of "capitalist" musical technology than a joke.

Just because some folks think it's cheesy, or whatever, it's obvious that Jarre meant it as a joke? So what if Jarre never intended MF5 to be a joke? Then it's you who ridicule his work.

I don't think it's meant as a joke, it's just one man and his organ, a bit like Oxygene 13. Just not a sad song, but a rather happy one.

Catte wrote:the arrangement of ALL previously released tracks on CiC was changed

I'm talking about the fact that in the album version, the chords change out of tempo (2'42'' to 3'10''). Like if it was played by a drunk awkward player!

In the Concerts in China, all is on the wright place!

That's why I say he left the joke - the "misplaying".

AnDrOiD wrote: I don't think it's meant as a joke, it's just one man and his organ, a bit like Oxygene 13. Just not a sad song, but a rather happy one.

First of all, I don't have a clear reference on this "joke" issue, so I might be totally wrong.

Secondly, MF5 being a joke on "critics" (!) doesn't necessarily mean that the song itself is a joke or of lesser quality. In fact, it does have a nice and catchy melody, qualifies well as a rumba song (in fact it is called "The Last Rumba") and gained a certain popularity.

PS: It is not the first time Jarre used "music at the the touch of a button". He did that already on Equinoxe with "Band in the rain/Equinoxe 8" very nicely. Another instance is Rendez-Vous 5, where snippets of RV4 and RV3 are replayed on a one-touch-keyboard between the first and second part - nicely imitating atmospheric reflections and disturbances.

I never listen to critics or journalists who want to make a debate, I disagree with them in many cases.

After a long absence for some unknown reason I decided to listen to Jarre's Les Chants Magnétiques on my ipod in the car as I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway today.



What an amazing little album. I'm no expert on electronic music (visuals being my forte) but it seems impressive to me considering that for the time, and for Jarre it was a big leap from Oxygene and Equinoxe. It is like a fusion of experimental soundscapes mixed with very simple, yet melodic movements. Just listen to Part 3 with the industrial/train sounds with some almost asian wooden sounds then how it flows into the hypnotically rhythmic and quiet thumping of Part 4.

Plus I found this interesting fact that I had completely forgotten (from wiki):

For this album Jarre was partly inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and a fascination with the reproducibility of digital sound, being heavily laden with sample work, foreshadowing the sound of Jarre's 1984 album Zoolook.

The album has official titles in both French and English. The French title, Les Chants Magnétiques is a play on words. Literally translated into English this means "Magnetic Songs" or "Magnetic Singing". Spoken aloud however, it sounds very similar to "Les Champs Magnétiques" (literally, "Magnetic Fields"), due to the French words chants (songs or singing) and champs (fields) being homophones (a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning). As this is not the case in English, such word play could not have survived translation, and the more straightforward title "Magnetic Fields" was chosen instead.

Might I add that the end of side A (Magnetic Fields 1) is the most atmospheric thing he has done in a long time. I mean the saxophone sample which fades out, after the great 3rd part of MF1.

MF is a little wonder. I really like that album. I must say though, that some live versions of especially parts 2 (any post-CIC) 3 and 4 (CIC) are imho better than the originals.

As for the MF5 subject discussed earlier, I think part 5 is at least an anticlimax, just as much as Band In The Rain is an anticlimax. Not necessarily a joke - but a true melancholic anticlimax to the rest of the album. And - may I remind you that MF5 is a re-arrangement of a traditional chinese melody?

MF sure makes good driving music, that's for sure.