Exactly 23 years ago today, on 22nd November 1999, a French version of ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ was released exclusively in France under the title ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐̧๐๐๐.
➡️ https://bit.ly/3ALV9Zw
In its original English version, the song is the 12th track on ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ ๐’๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ album.
 |
| Photo credit: Rudy Leonet, Radio 21; single cover / edit by Olga |
⭐Adaptation of Brian’s lyrics into French was done by Brian’s friend Nicholas Elliot. ๐ถ๐ต๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ถ๐ณ๐จ๐บ ๐ฌ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ
Nicholas Elliot is an American-French director, actor, and writer. He was born in Massachusetts (USA) in 1974 and grew up in France and Luxembourg. He studied theater and cinema in Paris where he lived for 6 years.
Besides translating Burger Queen into French, Nicholas designed ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ and together with Russell Thomas, worked on the video compilation ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐ (2004) released on DVD. He also directed a short film ๐บ๐๐'๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐ ๐ with Brian as an executive producer.
Later, Nicholas Elliot moved to New York to pursue his film career and join the band Turkish Love Circus as a singer.
⭐๐น๐ฌ๐ณ๐ฌ๐จ๐บ๐ฌ๐บ⭐
▪ ๐ป๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐:
Burger Queen Franรงais
Aardvark
Every You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999
&
Burger Queen Franรงais
Pure Morning video
▪ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ (๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ / ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐)
Burger Queen Franรงais
Aardvark
Every You Every Me live from the End Session on April 10, 1999
▪ ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Burder Queen Franรงais
The Crawl (Live Version Radio 21)
▪ ๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ that includes ๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฐ'๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ album and ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐̧๐๐๐ single was also released only in France.
 |
| Photo credit: Francis Tsang |
⭐The single was recorded at the Real World Studios and Matrix Studios, mixed at Whitfield Street Studios and Matrix Studios.
⭐๐จ๐น๐ป๐พ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ is by Risto Bimbiloski based on photography by Corrine Day.
๐ถ๐ป๐ฐ๐ป๐ณ๐ฌ๐ถ
๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐๐ซ ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ง is a play on words between the name of the famous fast food chain Burger King, the word queen and the Luxembourg where Brian and Stefan spent their teenage years.
๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: "Yeah, we did a song. A new song that will be on the new album, which is called Burger Queen. It's a pun on Burger King and it also means Luxembourger queen. The queer from Luxembourg. It is a very sad story. The character in this song is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's one of the worst things to be in the wrong place. He is homosexual, he is goth, he's on heroin and he lives in Luxembourg. These are four things you can have in your life ... No. I'm not saying that being homosexual is bad. It's the worst place where you can be all of those things. It makes us cry to listen to this song and play it."
(๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ค, 1997)
⭐The ๐๐๐๐๐๐ are inspired by Brian’s lonely adolescence in Luxembourg.
๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: "I've always been a loner. The three of us were, we spent our teenage years locked in our rooms, playing music. And like many boys of that age, I dreamed of becoming a star. A city like Luxembourg can be stifling when you are trying to create an identity. I couldn't be myself there. I felt isolated, far from the places I wanted to be. There was no place where I could express myself, find an echo. From this isolation I made songs, Teenage Angst or Burger Queen, because it inevitably turned me into a voyeur. Which is not the most enviable position to observe the world."
(๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ ๐°169, 14 ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 1998)
▪ ▪ ▪
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐จ๐ง: Maybe your European upbringing allows you to get away with lyrics that you wouldn't have dared use if you'd been brought up speaking English in the UK or America. I'm thinking especially of those rhymes in 'Burger Queen'...
๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: That's the whole point of a song like 'Burger Queen' sort of like structurally or if you're talking about it from a musical standpoint. The whole point of that song is to use a cheesy rhyme but to use words like infection, you know, connection, erection, you know. So it's subverting the cheesiness. It's like putting fuck and baby in the same verse.
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐จ๐ง: I bet it's also the first time caesarean section's been used in a pop song!
๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: I know, I'm so, so proud of that. I'm so proud of that one. (laughs)
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐จ๐ง: Is that song based on a real person?
๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: No, that one's kind of more of a story really. It's kind of about being in the wrong place at the wrong time you know and I guess you just finally... since we kind of grew up in Luxembourg - finally since we've written a song about it we can kind of forget about it now. But you know I think it's just... the play on Burger King, Burger Queen, Luxemburger, just kind of you know amused me when I first came up with it and along with 'My Sweet Prince' I think it's one of the saddest songs, but really beautiful, that we've written. I think there's a real beauty in our sadness you know when it goes down there there's something in it that really pulls at your heart, you know, and I don't know how we really achieve it but it's there. There always seems to be a tiny bit of hope at the end of it as well which is important."
(๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐กโ ๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐, ๐ด๐ข๐๐ข๐ ๐ก 1998)
 |
| Photo credit: Scarlet Page |
๐ธ ▪ ๐ธ ▪ ๐ธ ▪ ๐ธ
Having passed Lorraine, finding yourself in the Grand Duchy comes a true shock. Just a few steps from the rapeseed fields close to the former mine basin, and the border clearly warns of the inevitability of the shock coming: alcohol and cigarettes at a price that can withstand any competition, signs in two languages: French and Luxembourgish. The latter resembles distorted German with guttural sounds.
Very quickly, the roads turn into avenues lined with tall buildings with signs of the of the largest commercial banks on the planet; luxury multifunctional cars and high-end sports cars are proudly displayed in front of them. No one walks here, people mostly drive in soft silence, muffled by financial well-being.
It was in this universe of comfort and slowness that the childhood and adolescence of young Brian Molko passed. Within this reliable but terribly predictable world, the young guy couldn’t find his place. He felt completely out of touch with his older brother and couldn't find any suitable cultural pursuits for himself. “My teenage years were dark, filled with loneliness and boredom. I felt out of place. All the time I was waiting for something special to happen and turn my whole life upside down.” (Brian Molko)
[…]
“What was great about Luxembourg, that’s its extremely international community. I grew up surrounded by children of various nationalities. I think, it made me open to different cultures, different traditions at an early age. And that taught me a lot. It taught me tolerance and understanding towards others. I think it's very important." (Brian Molko)
[…]
Next to his mother and older brother, his life flowed like a long and very calm river. Constantly busy with his own affairs and being in endless departures due to his business, Brian's father was very rarely at home. It’s the lack of paternal attention that future leader of Placebo would later call an important factor that had a huge impact on his personality.
“My father is an American financial freak. Of course, in a family where there was no place for any artistic aspirations, I felt like a black sheep. Nobody believed in me. So, I locked myself in my room and learned to play guitar." (Brian Molko)
“When I was a kid, we often drove somewhere in the family van, and my parents listened to The Beatles, The Kinks and other bands like that on the road. I was put to bed to the Elton John’s music … The Bee Gees and questionable masterpieces of The Wings, but at the age of 7 you can’t protest, you have to endure. My father was a big fan of Buddy Holly. It was really cool because my friends’ parents loved Elvis and I was kind of an anti-Elvis." (Brian Molko)
 |
| Photo credit: Robin Sellick |
Molko suffered of deep frustration and to replace it, he often visited Luxembourg bars of – which bothered his parents a lot. Unlike the little American bourgeois around him, he didn’t do any sports and instead, he escaped to the Netherlands where he also visited local bars with a wide range of psychotropic substances
“The Luxembourg school is the worst thing that happened in my life. I had to quit the high school because I was constantly bullied there. I used to provoke others, including the guys two times bigger than myself. Standing in front of a small, frail boy, they didn’t dare to hit. I remember that once, they hang me up by my feet at a height of six meters. If they had untied the rope then, I would definitely have my neck broken. So, I looked into the eyes of death at a very young age." (Brian Molko)
“Sometimes, I still have nightmares that I’m back to school. But the good thing is that in the middle of a dream, I always realise that school is over for me many years ago, and then I begin to badmouth everyone on my way.” (Brian Molko)
(๐โ๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐ท๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐ ‘๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐’)
Post by Olga
