“Sex. Fire. Soul. Voodoo.” That’s how Cuba’s Soul Sister Number One was described. Couldn’t be more accurate.
Born Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond in Santiago de Cuba in 1936, she was known as La Lupe or La Yiyiyi by her adoring fans. Her groundbreaking musical talent and performance style made her one of Cuba’s most brilliant exports. Unlike the well-behaved Celia Cruz, La Lupe was a wild woman, given passionately to her emotions in any moment. This was a trait that landed her in her fair share of trouble, and some say, doomed her career. But her theatrics were not a distraction to compensate for a lack of talent as is so often the case – singing prowess she had in spades. Her early career in Havana attracted devoted followers including Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Jean Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir and Marlon Brando.
The sixties saw La Lupe become the most acclaimed Latin singer in New York City, partly due to her partnership with salsa sensation Tito Puente. The Bronx resident was the first Latin singer to sell out a concert at Madison Square Garden. Watching her performances still gives me chills.
Sadly, her later success was dulled by an emotional instability that led to rumors of drug addiction, ill health, and a spilt with Puente. A fire made her homeless in the eighties and she was destitute throughout her late forties and early fifties. She died at 55 and is interred in Saint Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx. This clip from a documentary about her amazing life is a must-see.
Syrupy sixties chanteuse France Gall was the quintessential face of Sixties French pop. The Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Berger collaborator released over 65 singles and twenty albums during her singing career. Though many see Gall as a purveyor of fast-food audio fare, Gall was actually the innocent vehicle for Gainsbourg-written lyrical practical jokes, resulting in a string of hit singles with hidden meanings that tarnished her image. Songs like “Les Sucettes” (about a girl eating lollipops) and Bonsoir John John (written to a deceased JFK and tinged with hints of necrophelia) caught her unawares and hurt the success of subsequent releases.
I love her voice, her dress, and of course that hair only French chicks can pull.
I am currently obsessed with Suzi Jane Hokom‘s For A Day Like Today. Nevermind the Urban Outfitters-hijacked styling. I still want to run around in that field with her in 1971. Nature doesn’t come in these colors anymore.
Some Velvet Morning – hauntingly melancholy, cowboy psychedelia by Lee Hazelwood and the delicious Nancy Sinatra. His baritone is just incredible. And so is her outfit. This video is beautiful.
I was obsessed with French pop group Les Rita Mitsuoko all through college. My friend Clovis Pennington who waited tables while I slung cocktails at Stingy Lulu’s in the East Village turned me on to them. They were formed by guitarist Fred Chichin and singer Catherine Ringer and first performed as Rita Mitsouko at Gibus Club, Paris in 1980. They went on to become one of the most successful musical acts of the 1980s in France and one of the most unconventional and inspiring bands in French music. It was recently announced that Catherine Ringer is due to resume touring this April following the sad death of her partner Fred Chichin.
This is the video from one of my favorite songs of theirs, C’est Comme Ça. It was directed by Jean Baptiste Mondino.
The sixties chanteuse recently showed up in one of Matt’s late-night vintage video watching episodes and transfixed me.
Below is a clip of the hauntingly beautiful Mon Ami La Rose that focuses intensely on her caramel voice and gorgeous teeth for two entirely too short minutes. I just watched her twenty times in a row. I think this is the sound I want to hear every night before I fall asleep.
Pam Bristow is a twelve-year veteran of the Design, Fashion, and Communications industries. She has developed and executed creative solutions for both domestic and international brands in a diverse range of lifestyle categories. Her custom strategies include Concept Development & Ideation, Creative Direction, Interior and Environmental Design, Communications Strategies, Custom Publishing Projects, Strategic Collaborations, and Special Event Design.
A master “placemaker”, Pam has been creating and curating unforgettable, concept-driven environments and “jewel box” experiences for clients in the fashion, lifestyle, art, retail, and hospitality industries for over a decade.
Pam has a personal affinity for both emerging and established creative talent and has a proven history of success in the delicate marriage of art and commerce. Her area of expertise is in the creation of unique, culturally attuned, and highly tailored communications products that resonate with global tastemakers.
