Parlez-Vous Français?
01. Dinkytown (Remixed)
02. Cannot Love You Enough (Remastered)
03. Lady Beware (Remixed)
04. Robe In Glory (Remixed)
05. No Surprise (Strawberrius Remix)
06. Motor Scooter (Remastered)
07. Alive (Remixed)
08. Talkin’ Trash (Remixed)
09. Parlez-Vous Francais? (Remastered)
10. So Alone (Remixed)
11. Cannot Love You Enough
(Strawberrius 20th Anniversary Redux)
12. Dinkytown (Cassettarcana Version)
13. No Surprise (Cassettarcana Version)
14. Motor Scooter (Cassettarcana Version)
15. Robe In Glory (Demo)
16. Talkin’ Trash (Cassettarcana Version)
17. Alive (20th Anniversary Redux)
18. Lady Beware (Live at Shank Hall,
Milwaukee, 1991)
Pravda Records PR-6348 | released 1994 | CD/Cass/digital “The ineffable WW3 recreate a WHITE ALBUM-styled vibe of experimentation and diversity. Sweet pop’n’roll next to gut-bucket swing… a feedback loop, followed with a clanking bossa nova.” ––unknown
CD | PayPal | $12
stream | Apple Music
stream, downloads, CD, cassette | Bandcamp
Emulating My Entire Record Collection – At Once
In August 1992, the Willie Wisely Trio (Peter Anderson on drums, James Voss upright bass, Willie Wisely arch-top guitar & vocals and Greg Wold on trombone) set up our gear in the tracking room and basement of Gark Studio in South Minneapolis. It was the beginning of a long journey and almost two years later the album would finally be released as PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS? on Chicago’s Pravda Records.
The Willie Wisely Trio had established ourselves as minor regional sensation across the midwest and Canada. And to be signed by an out-of-town label was a most excellent thing. Headed by Kenn Goodman, himself a musician, he’d signed us based on a couple wild shows we’d played, opening up for his group The New Duncan Imperials. The opportunity was a result of incessant touring, 100 dates a year. And that road work had created an on-stage chemistry unlike any band you know. Our goal for the album was to have it accentuate our strangeness – to emphasize the wiggy chaos and fearless genre jumping we ventured in the night clubs.
In an attempt to emulate my ENTIRE vinyl record collection all at once, I wrote songs for the band in any style that was obsessing me at that moment. The title track was pure Serge Gainsbourg. Our ‘hit’ “Cannot Love You Enough” totally The Monkees. “Robe In Glory” was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. “Lady Beware” Iron Butterfly. “Talkin’ Trash” straight up Ray Charles. “Motor Scooter” Elvis Costello & The Attractions. The Trio’s odd assortment of instruments, and the fearless (drunken) bearing of all involved made it possible that a punk-a-billy-swinging-rock group could actually find itself an audience in grunge-era Minneapolis. And somehow we did, as we emulated Led Zeppelin and then Joao Gilberto in adjacent live songs. And our intention was to cram all that into our records.
But 1992-3 was a chaotic time and the recording sessions for PARLEZ-VOUS would be started and stopped four times, each with a different production team and recording method, before the album’s odds-defying completion.
Our first stab at making the album was at Gark Studio with Ezra Gold producing (as he’d done for our first album RAINCAN). We rather bravely decided to try these sessions with no overdubs, even recording the vocals live. Listening to these recordings now, they should have been included on the album. But for reasons illogical and long-ago forgotten, we abandoned them. Years later (studio owner Dave Pinsky reminds me), I would approve the erasure of the multi-track tape. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
In winter 1993, we took ourselves across town to The Terrarium in Minneapolis with Jason Orris behind the glass. We set up again to record live but then switched gears for more of a blended approach with some overdubbing and incorporating 4-track cassette demos I’d been making in our practice studio and my bedroom.
It was around this time that the band began to feel some centrifugal energy. James was starting a family and a business with his wife. Peter had Saucer, a band of his own. And Greg was nearly killing himself (figuratively and literally) managing a bar on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Meanwhile I was running us ragged, compulsively booking gigs anywhere a club booker would return my phone call. The frenetic pace drove Greg to quit the band in summer 1993, which hit us all pretty hard, mostly because he was our beating heart – a gargantuan teddy bear of a fella who knew how to laugh and love and blow air through a metal tube too. He was our insane mascot. And even though the songs were mine, with my lead vocals, and my name in the City Pages ad, for some reason that lumbering slide trombonist held us all together.
Greg’s departure made for broken sessions. I struggled with focus, even muting his performances on a couple songs (to a detriment) and basically stewing in my own self-doubt.
So next we brought in Tommy Roberts (future founder of Z.VEX Effects) to make sense of what we’d created thus far. But I was demoralized and couldn’t find confidence in the material to create a full record, despite having recorded well-over an album’s worth of songs. In fact, so many extra songs that in 2014 I’d compile GOSPO FEEL, the “forgotten album” of this era when make-it-hate-it-bury-it was the mantra. Tempermental artists.
So, finally we went back to Ezra Gold at Gark and recorded four more songs there, this time building tracks from the drums up. Almost entirely overdubbed. Then lastly, we had Ezra remix everything to try to create a sense of cohesion.
This was one circuitous route to completing a record (who’s working title, fittingly, was “Shit Yeah”). But, it garnered a 1994 Minnesota Music Award for Best Songwriting and resulted in one of the most endearing recordings of my career, a fan-favorite to this day “Cannot Love You Enough”, the dreamy “No Surprise”, as well as the screaming rock feedback feast of “Lady Beware”, the chaotic high point of any Trio show.
I’ve often framed PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS?, not without some hubris, as my “White Album”. Like the Beatles’ sprawling 1968 double album, with songs as varied as “Helter Skelter” to the lullaby “Goodnight”, to “Revolution 9” and “Blackbird”. We pushed ourselves to know no limits and the Trio’s PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS? stands as a testament to that defiance and the refutation of linear thinking.
Album Credits | Lyrics
Produced by Willie Wisely
Mixed by Ezra Gold & Willie Wisely
all songs by Willie Wisely ©1994.Wisely Publishers ASCAP
DINKYTOWN
Peter Anderson: drums, James Voss: bass, WW: piano & guitar, Greg Wold: trombone, Ezra Gold: percussion, engineer, mixer
CANNOT LOVE YOU ENOUGH
WW: piano & guitar, Peter Anderson: drums, James Voss: bass, Dave Krejci: Hammond Organ, Ezra Gold: engineer, mixer
LADY BEWARE
Peter Anderson: drums, Dave Krejci: Hammond organ, James Voss: bass, WW: 2nd bass & guitar, Ezra Gold: percussion, engineer, mixer, Jason Orris: engineer
ROBE IN GLORY
Peter Anderson: drums, Steve Blake: piano, James Voss: bass, WW: piano & guitar, Ezra Gold: percussion, engineer, mixer
NO SURPRISE
Peter Anderson: drums, Dave Krejci: Hammond organ, James Voss: bass, WW: guitar, Ezra Gold: percussion, engineer, mixer, Jason Orris: engineer
MOTOR SCOOTER
WW: piano, guitar, wurlitzer organ, Peter Anderson: drums, James Voss: bass,, Ezra Gold: engineer, mixer
ALIVE
WW: piano, guitar, & drums, James Voss: bass & backing vocals, Jason Orris: engineer Tommy Roberts: mixer
TALKIN’ TRASH
WW: guitar, Dave Krejci, Peter Anderson: drums, James Voss: bass, gang vocals, Mike Leville: gang vocals, Ezra Gold: engineer, mixer
PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS?
WW: piano & guitar, Peter Anderson: percussion, James Voss: bass, Greg Wold: trombone, Jason Orris: engineer, Tommy Roberts: mixer
SO ALONE
WW: guitar & engineer, Peter Anderson: drums, James Voss: bass, Ezra Gold: floor tom, engineer, mixer
Lyrics
Dinkytown
When in Dinkytown
Sip a cup of joe
Open up my books
But I’m staring at the girls
I’ve got time
Too much time
Way too much time
On my mind
When in Dinkytown
Wear an ethnic hat
Study’n oppression
But I think I’ll cut my class
I’ve got time
Too much time
Way too much time
On my mind
The day is wide open
This is my reward
The day is wide open
Oh but I’m free
The day is wide open
Oh but I’m bored
When in Dinkytown
Freshmen join the frats
Checking their reflection
In the store fronts they pass
They’ve got time
Too much time
Too much time
Way too much time
On my mind
On my mind
Too much time
Too much time
Way too much time
On my mind
Cannot Love You Enough
You could say you’re satisfied with the love I provide
And you could say I’ve given you a lot but then I might think you lie
It ain’t easy knowing my love fails coming through
Well I used to think that it was enough to just work my days away
But though I loved you all of the while it was something that I left unsaid
It ain’t easy knowing my love pales next to you
I cannot love you enough
I love you nearly
Half so much dearly as I should
I cannot love… you enough
It ain’t easy knowing my love fails coming through
Well I didn’t stop by to apologize ‘cause we’d mull it over way too long
Besides I’ll bet you that you’re going to hedge and come to forgive me if
I start coming on real strong
It ain’t easy having lame excuses, and I’ve got a few
I cannot love you enough
I love you nearly
Half so much dearly as I should
I cannot love… you enough
I love you nearly
Half so much dearly as I should
I cannot love… you enough
Lady Beware
Lady Beware!
Don’t be green, understand
Your man wants to get inside of your legs
It ain’t nice. It’s a
Sinister way to think, I don’t think twice
So you go
Forewarned about the intentions of your man
A sweet little boy, so precious and coy
Arrest him for what’s on his mind
Lady Beware!
What lurks on the mind
The mind of your man
Lady Beware!
Well they say, girls
Talk so slack your man can hope to blush
They’re meat.
Slaves slopping shit and padding my purse.
I believe,
A man would be the first to volunteer
Looking so nice guy, a sugary spice guy
Arrest him for what’s on his mind
Lady Beware!
What lurks on the mind
The mind of your man
Lady Beware!
Understand, your man
He’s raised about this world in such a way,
He climbs.
Liable, prone, inclined to feed you lies;
He’s got eyes.
It suits him fine to think he’ll never change
He looks like a saint, ten bucks says he ain’t
Arrest him for what’s on his mind
Lady Beware!
What lurks on the mind
The mind of your man
Lady Beware!
Robe In Glory
You and I
We held our codes
Long before toting heavenly loads
Let’s go home right now
Let’s go home and tell our story
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell…
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell my story
You and I
We stole the show
But there was much we did not know
Let’s go home right now
Let’s go home and tell the story
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell…
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell my story
Well I’ve been coming over hills and mountains
I’m going to drink from that Christian fountain
You know all of God’s sons and daughters that morning
Will drink that old healing water
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell…
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell…
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’m going home to tell…
I’m going to wear this robe in glory
Let’s go home and tell our story
No Surprise
I can’t understand why you treat me like you do
I’d re-arrange the stars
Mine becomes ours
I can’t comprehend these amazing stunts you pull
You leave me with a thrill
But I know what’s coming next
It’s no surprise
No surprise
No surprise
No surprise
What’s wrong now?
I hate that look in your eyes
You just say the word and I’ll be out of your face for good
That’s not what I want to hear
But I know what’s coming next
No surprise
Motor Scooter
Pull your socks on and go
Dirty Laundry Ain’t smelled so sweet tonight
That’s the road that I…
That’s the road that’s all right
Turn my back on the signs
Pass the house where the folks are standing still
That’s the row that I…
That’s the row that I hoe
I’m going to take a sweet ride… yeah
Peel out on my motor scooter… now
That’s the road that I’m… on yeah
Turn the corner and go
Ain’t going to see no red lights tonight
That’s the row that I…
That’s the row that I hoe
Squeeze the handle and speed
’Taint stopping for man nor beast tonight
Eating bugs with my face
That’s the roe that I hoe
I’m going to take a sweet ride… yeah
Peel out on my motor scooter… now
That’s the road that I’m… on yeah
Going to ride while I keep on pushing
Can’t go thirty-five
‘Tain’t speeding but I’m apt to give it a try
That’s the row that I…
That’s the row that I hoe
I’m going to take a sweet ride… yeah
Peel out on my motor scooter… now
That’s the road that I’m… on yeah
Bend over you can kiss my ass good-bye
That’s the road that I’m on
Peel out on my motor scooter… now
(ad lib…)
Alive
Feed me with a fever
Eat though I can’t take a bite
Cook for two like you used to do
Make me think that I’m alive
Laugh at me with feeling
Laugh though I can’t slap my thigh
Smile away like you used to do
Make me think that I’m alive
Love me with more feeling
Wrap your legs around this corpse
Love me for the last time in my life
Make me think that I’m alive
Squeeze me with more feeling
Wrap your legs around this corpse
Love me for the last time in my life
Make me think that I’m alive
Make me think that I’m alive
Make me think that I’m alive
Make me think that I’m alive
Talkin’ Trash
Tonight I throw a party, a real gone bash
Going to brew a stew called heavenly mash
At the corner store the boys are dipping into the stash
Long before I knewd it we was all talkin’ trash
We’re talkin’ trash
Your teeth are gnashing, thrashin’, lashin’
Help me I got me a rash, trash
Ladies strut by as they flutter a lash
Gentlemen smile and twist a mustache
Beggars on the stoop tip their haberdash
No soul spared when we’re out talkin’ trash
We’re talkin’ trash
Your teeth are gnashing, thrashin’, lashin’
Help me I got me a rash, trash
Remember what I’s doing in a real hot flash
The stew I’s brewin’ probably burned to an ash
I run back home in a furious dash
A dozen folks awaitin’, the party’s been crashed
I’m talkin’ trash
My teeth are gnashing, thrashin’, lashin’
Help me I got me a rash, trash
Parlez-Vous Français?
Parlez Vous Français?
He answers, “No.”
Smiles seem to say
What’s Apropos.
Words could not interpret
This affair.
Parlez Vous Français?
They don’t care.
Les mots siele ne peuvre interprete
C’est affaire.
Parlez Vous Français?
On son foue.
So Alone
Don’t rumple, bump, or phase
Don’t bother, brush, or gaze at me
So alone
I want to be alone
I spoke with such a nerve
Out loud without reserve
A drink or two towards proud
I heard it hush the crowd
So alone
I want to be alone
As friends began to leave
My apologies turned to plees
I wished I were a fly
But these walls were much too white
So all alone
I want to be alone
Don’t rumple, bump, or phase
Don’t bother, brush, or gaze at me
So all alone, so alone
So alone, well I got to be alone
So alone, I got to be alone
I want to be alone