Rocking Retro: Plastic Bertrand – Ca Plane Por Moi
Today it was revealed that Plastic Bertrand, the Belgian proto-new wave punk rocker of the 70’s, is not really Plastic Bertrand. A 2006 lawsuit against the singer has revealed this week (via experts in court) that the first four albums from the artist feature the voice of someone else. This includes the 1977 hit “Ca Plane Por Moi,” which was revealed to have been sung by the producer Lou Deprijck, as admitted today by the singer himself.
This is a bit of a shock to music and punk historians, as the song is considered seminal and an important, if not quirky, footnote for the shift from punk to 80’s new-wave. The song, while catchy, is hardly melodic, save for a Beach Boys-lifted four-note falsetto repeated endlessly throughout. The guitar lines and horn riffs serve as rhythm backdrops more than anything, and the lyrics are nonsensical in both French and English. Still, “Ca Plane Por Moi” remains a brilliant piece of pop, even if, starting today, we’re not completely sure of its origin anymore.
