(Robert Charlebois, LP, Canadian Solution Ltée/Kébec Disc SN 939, 1977)
Recorded at Son-Quebec, Montreal
June 30, 1974
Robert Charlebois--vocals
Marcel Beauchamp--bass &
keyboards
Michel Robidoux--12 str E-Guitar
Michel Fauteux--drums
Frank Zappa--guitar solo & arrangements
I don't wanna die eatin' peanuts and watchin' t.v.
even if I dig Jeannie
I don't want to sit around with rednecks in a camping ground
drinkin' beer with Beelie
But I wanna ride and fly
under a blue jean sky
Don't ask me why
Just gimme gimme some petroleum
Oh gimme gimme gimme gimme some
Gimme oil gimme oil gimme oil
Gimme gimme some petroleum
Lord gimme gimme gimme gimme some
Idi Ahmed
Make it no-lead
I don't wanna play dinky toys on my linoleum
Readin' Mad and Lampoon
I don't wanna play cowboys and Indians at the Forum
like a rock and roll bum
But I wanna ride and fly
under a blue jean sky
Don't ask me why
Gimme gimme etc.
(SPOKEN OUTRO:)
Taxi drivers only . . . Gimme gimme . . .
Bus drivers with feeling . . . Gimme Gimme . . .
CBers with noise . . . Gimme Gimme
Oil companies together, sing!
it's a gas, folks!
Robert Charlebois: Vocals
Marcel Beauchamp: Keyboards
Jean Marie Benoit: Keyboards
Frank Zappa: Guitar
Daniel Hubert: Bass
Richard Provencal: Percussion
Robert Charlebois. (Anyone know anything about this guy?) Rumor has it that FZ plays the guitar solo at the end.
A song by this title (i.e. "Petroleum") is on Swing Charlebois Swing by Robert Charlebois (RCA KDL 6436). It's now available on CD (at least in Canada), but I don't know the number.
I haven't heard either that album or the KBFH, so I don't know if it's the same song. Reports differ as to whether FZ plays guitar on the Charlebois track, or if it's simply dedicated to him.
I have a newspaper review of FZ in Montreal wherein it is written somthing along the lines that FZ had produced 2 or 3 albums for Charlesbois that he had chosen not to release...
I was very surprise, searching for something about Robert Charlebois on the web, to see the cover of Swing Charlebois Swing, one of the worst album of the great French Canadian singer.
I have the LP version Swing Charlebois Swing. I remember that people saying that Charlebois had a collaboration with Frank Zappa, but I don't think that FZ plays on Petroleum. The guitar don't sound like Zappa. On the liner notes, there's just some thanks to Zappa on the Petroleum cut. When you listen to the song - the only good one of that bad album! - you can clearly hear the influence of Zappa in the structure. It sounds a bit like the Zappa songs of the Discreet period (One size fits all, Overnite sensation.) I think that's a spirit collaboration, a collaboration of influence, between FZ and Charlebois. I never heard something between the two musicians. I think that this collaboration was just a rumour of that time.
Being a big fan of Charlebois, I don't think see many influences of Zappa on him, except for Petroleum, and also on the song Terre Love, which was on a 1971 LP. In the early part of his career (1968-1972), Charlebois was doing some very weird and unusual stuff, like many rock musicians of the time, but it don't really have something to do with Zappa, except on Petroleum and Terre Love.
A few words to clarify the Frank Zappa / Robert Charlebois colaboration, late 70's.
1. ) Yes, FZ played on the song Petroleum but that was at least a year before the Swing Charlebois Swing album was produced.
FZ was in Montreal for a concert, Robert asked him to participate in the recording of Petroleum. Frank accepted and showed up the next day in a Montreal Studio (Son-Quebec).
Not only did he play the end solo, but he also participated in the arrangements.
2.) The list of musicians on the site is not exact and should be:
Robert Charlebois, Vocals
Marcel Beauchamp, Bass & Keyboards
Michel Robidoux, 12 str E-Guitar
Michel Fauteux, Drums
Frank Zappa, Solo GuitarNote: Charlebois's bass player at that time was Serge Blouin, he started eating his socks and shoes a few days after when he learned that he missed the session with Frank.
Source:
I was there, Frank played on my Fender Strat.
Marcel Beauchamp
I talked about that session with my wife Louise, and she reminded me that she was with me during the recording session, and that she was very close to giving birth to our first daughter who was born July 15 1974, which means the song was recorded some days before, but very close to that date.
There are three dates in Canada that summer of 1974:
74/06/28 Centre Municipal des Congres de Quebec, Hilton Hotel (Quebec)
74/06/29 Place des Nations, Expo (Montreal)
74/07/01 Civic Center Arena (Ottawa)The band played in Detroit the next day, July 2, so June 30, 1974 seems to be the probable date of the recording session.
You're right, June 30th 1974, that's the date.
Unfortunatly, I've never heard the album but I can tell you being from the province of Quebec (Charlebois's birth place) the man is a well respected musician and probably considered by some to be an outrageous artist back in Quebec's '60's pop culture. He has over 20 albums out and he's still recording. One of his most known recording is called Lindbergh which came out in 1969 and to this day stills sounds fresh. If your looking for french artists from this continent to discover Robert is one of them.
Frank Zappa "mon seul ami dans le showbiz américain avec Stan Getz. Il m'a donné un beau cadeau en produisant ma chanson Petroleum. Je crois qu'il rêvait d'être Varèse ou Stockhausen à la fin de sa vie. C'était un bourreau de travail qui détestait les drogues." Robert Charlebois au Journal Voir édition du 8 au 14 novembre 2001 vol. 10 no 14.
"My only friend in American showbiz along with Stan Getz. He gave me a nice present by producing my song 'Petroleum'. I believe that he dreamed of being Varese or Stockhausen at the end of his life. He was a workaholic who hated drugs."
http://www.unibroue.com/index.cfm
Robert charlebois is the owner of that copagnie and it's a verry good beer, verry strong.
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