Albert Bouchard invited me to come over and play a Valentines Day set with him in Paris. Albert would play drums and David his bass player would play also. Dom the producer had been saying that there was a really good Parisian guitar player, who he thought would like to play with me and would do a great job. Baz. I checked out his website and said yeah. I sent over a set on CD, and hoped for the best. We tried to arrange a rehearsal in Paris, but in the end, as it turned out, we met him the afternoon of the gig, at the sound check.
My wife, the lovely Carol DeCarlo, and I have been to Paris several times in the last few years. It really is great. Beautiful. Very good food. Cafes. Everything they say about Paris, is true. And I don't have a problem with the people. They have a sense of themselves. Every people should. As for the women - I like them. I'd like one as an au pair. Carol doesn't think we need one, but I know she'd take a Thai houseboy in a minute.
Rational Passional - click to see video
So we get to Paris the day before Valentines, and we stroll and eat like les petites cochons (little piggies). One thing we love to do, traveling anywhere in Europe, is bring along a sharp folding knife, and buy bread, cheese, melons, sausages etc. Great in the hotel room, or parked on the side of a country road. Carol finds a good red wine. I'm not into wine, myself. Sometimes I wish I were, people do seem to enjoy it. Vietnamese fast food across from the hotel, too.
The Brain Surgeons started their sound check. Baz turned up. Looked cool. Seemed like a nice guy. He had designed and manufactured his electric guitar made of stainless steel. On stage for the sound check. The only moment we were going to have to play these songs together. I started with Rational Passional, the old Underbelly song, because we were starting the set with it. Albert was right on it. He'd played it. And Baz was right there - and just took off on his leads. Just what we needed. We ran through the set once. Played Great Balls of Fire to have an encore ready and then went and ate a fine and tasty French supper.
Whenever we're in France Carol and I always start a big evening with a little "Ecoute Minou". People call it Pussy Cat Drops. Made from a hormonal extrusion collected from Parisian women in the peaks of l'amour. Expensive, but it's lovely and it's Paris. Dom had some too. Baz already had a live supply of French women on hand. Swedish too.
The set went great. Good house full of people having a good time. I had written a special verse in Rational Passional for this gig:
"I was here in Paris playin and I thought I should be sayin something 'bout the assholes taking us to war I guess it makes you wonder when you see my country blunder like this Have the people lost their minds for sure? The bandits of the hour in their lust for oil and power Have a vision of a world that they must fight But my friends there is another, we are sisters we are brothers And together we are stronger cause we're right"
After that Albert came up to my mic and pointed out to the crowd that we hadn't publicly played together since 1969. I hadn't thought about that. Kind of historic for us.
As the Brain Surgeons set ended Carol and I slipped off to the last Metro and our bed, where we dreamed of stainless steel guitars, french sausage, and Can Can pussy cats.
