Singer Ringo and singer Sheila. Thoiry, France. 1972/Patrice PICOT/Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
Ringo was one of the kings of French pop music in the 1970s, who was eventually completely forgotten. His music has hardly been reissued on compact discs, except for a 2013 compilation and a few 1980s records being available. He was married to the equally popular French singer Sheila; they sang as a duo for a while, and their 1974 wedding was attended by 15,000 guests. This 1976 song about Thai birds is one of the most beautiful and languid in his repertoire, and the languor here is due not only to formal techniques but also to the inevitable associations of those years—thanks to the film Emmanuelle (1974) by Just Jaeckin, Bangkok had already become a symbol of sexual adventure in European minds.