After Hours

Françoise Hardy. Tirez pas sur l'ambulance

Ah, the eighties! So many bad ideas coming together at precisely the right time! Here's exactly how bad things had gotten for some. In the sixties and some of the seventies, FH was a renowned folk-rocker and balladeuse. She wrote and performed much of her own material and was well known far beyond the shores of France. I feature a lot of her sixties stuff here, because much of it is quite good and she also looks very good singing it. But by the eighties, those times were gone. For some reason, she thought it was important to stay with current trends. And she recorded this tune. Ugh, it's not so great. FH herself doesn't look bad even with the short-and-sassy look, but is she wearing sweats for the entire video? It sure looks like it. It's strange that she seems to be missing the kind of presence she had back in the sixties. It's sad to say, but she kind of looks like somebody's mom who is trying to make this video as quickly as possible so she can go home and cook dinner. And what's "don't pull on the ambulance" supposed to mean anyway? Beats me! So note to self: don't show any more FH videos from the eighties, not that there are a whole lot of them.