Day 264: Soft Core

Soft Core by Maurice & The Clichés.

This is a very special post, and for my buddy Rex who regularly checks this blog, thank you for reminding me of this song over the years; feel free to fill in any details in the comments and please scroll down to watch the video.

Around 1983-84ish(?), I first heard this song with my friend in a vehicle driving around the Bay Area (my car, his car, I can’t remember) on radio station K*** (Rex, fill in the rest of those call letters…). From the opening bass riff to the sultry French woman narrating over a typewriter, leading into that strident keyboard solo, we we’re hooked. Then, add the lead singer with that English accent and vocal fry- we couldn’t stop grinning. Cue the wicked guitar solo somewhere after vs. 2: we totally lost it! But for some reason, we didn’t get the title of the track that day. It eluded us for years. For a time we were certain the lead singer was Tim Curry of Rocky Horror fame. Now the rest of the story is fuzzy, but I recall that Rex’s brother somehow discovered the track many years later and identified the group as Maurice & The Clichés.

Once we had discovered the artist, we just needed the french translation…

Special Thank You! to Arch for the French translation:
Dear Mr Editor/Director I am a young woman.. I seek a position with your film I’m terribly interesting and very pretty as well I ??? And my three loves are: My Porsche, the American cinema, and my dear horse ‘Roger’ My father is very generous with his money! Each weekend, I like exploring new things…
A note from Arch:
It’s difficult to convey the idiomatic aspect of the French, but it’s perfect for her character–slightly trashy and quite pretentious. In particular, the last phrase “des nouvelle avenues” in this context has a clear sexual implication.