Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Leo Ferre- Amour Anarchie - anyone? French chansonnier who began his career in the 30s/40s, was friends with Piaf and Andre Breton, a poet and committed anarchist who was nevertheless successful enough to buy his own private island, where he lived with a houseful of chimpanzees. By the late 60s he was aligning himself with the youth revolt, the beatniks and the hippies, was hanging out with the Moody Blues and namechecking them in song, and on the truly strange 'Amour Anarchie' (from 1970) he's backed on two tracks by French prog band Zoo, who lend a Gainsbourgian ambience to his always impassioned rants and croons. This is all I know about this guy, and even that may be wrong, but I found these albums in a charity shop and they're great, if you like that kind of Scott Walker / Jacques Brel melodrama.