Then the May magic set in. Tony re-worked the song into the psychedelic classic we now have before us. Take yourself back to the early seventies, put on your loons (no, they won't fit), don your headphones and float downstream.
https://soundcloud.com/fracture-zone/voici-venir-le-joli-mai-version-folle
Malicorne, often referred to as the French Steeleye Span, were formed in 1973 by Gabriel and Marie Yacoub. Gabriel had previously sung and played acoustic guitar, banjo and dulcimer in Alan Stivell's band, which introduced us to Breton Folk-Rock. I think he'd probably left by the time I saw Stivell at the City Hall in 1974.
"Voici Venir Le Joli Mai" was a track from Malicorne's concept album "Almanach" which journeyed through the calendar in traditional song. It is listed as being 24 seconds long. Despite it's brevity, it has much in common with the lyrics of a traditional English May song:
Voici venir le joli mai
L'alouette plante le mai
Voici venir le joli mai
L'alouette le plant
Vous plairait-il de vous lever
Pour nous donner a boire?
Here comes the pretty may
Lark plants may
Here comes the pretty may
The lark plants it
Would you like to get up and buy us a drink?
