Alain Goraguer - Piano theme from Claude Bernard-Aubert’s ‘La Rabatteuse’
Alain Goraguer was another top name in French jazz, recruited to write and record music exclusively for French X films (specifically those produced by Shangrila Productions and FFCM. and later distributed by Alpha France), after the genre took off in 1975. Goraguer, in his forties at this time, was already known in more ‘respectable’ circles as a pianist, arranger and composer, having worked with the likes of Boris Vian, Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Ferrat, even winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965, (hence his adoption of the pseudonym ‘Paul Vernon’ when scoring these films of a different kind….) He was not alone in wishing to dissociate himself from this brief enterprise, however well it must have paid, and his equally distinguished colleague, Philippe Brejean, likewise became ‘Gary Sandeur’.
‘La Rabatteuse’ was directed by Claude Bernard-Aubert in 1977, (again, like Gorageur, he had already built a name for himself in the mainstream industry, so became Burd Tranbaree for as long as he needed the money.) In the opening scene at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Brigitte Lahaie’s husband leaves her in the care of his best friend, Ghislain Van Hove, before flying away on a business trip. The duo then drive around 70s Paris in a red Renault 5, picking up women from every walk of life for each other’s amusement, from an off-duty air stewardess to a countess. Simple as that.
In the second set-piece, they go clothes shopping at an up-market boutique, (in a scene obviously borrowed from Radley Metzger's ‘The Image’ in 1975.) After the shop girl takes Lahaie and Hove upstairs to a private fitting room they go through various dresses and lingerie, and Goraguer’s piano theme plays out the scene nicely, (even though the discussion between the three characters will inevitably soon lead onto other things….)
The same track was also used effectively in Bernard-Aubert’s ‘Auto-stoppeuses en chaleur’ and ‘Veuves en chaleur’, (both from Shangrila Productions in 1978.) Most of the music Goraguer wrote and recorded for these films was upbeat and sleazy, employing the wah-wah guitar effects and Hammond organ one would generally associate with porn cinema. By contrast this piano solo is delivered as something more gentle and innocent. Built on a simple chord pattern (A minor to D major to F major to C major), Goraguer’s playing is obviously improvised and I doubt if the track was ever intended as anything more than a scene filler, between the more extreme visual material.
The music of ‘Paul Vernon’ was apparently published by ‘Editiones Musicales Cocorico International’ (either long since defunct or simply another pseudonym for one of Paris’s more respectable recording studios), and sadly none of this material was released publically at the time. However, forty years later a small independent label, Les Disques de Culte, announced on their site -
‘In 2015, while working on our book project about the filmography of Brigitte Lahaie, we found a lost treasure sealed in a forgotten bank safe: magnetic tapes containing original scores from director Burd Tranbaree‘s X-rated movies…. We couldn’t wait to meet their mythical composer Alain Goraguer…. With his agreement and complicity, we started this crazy project: the first ever vinyl record with the funkiest and sexiest tracks from the maestro's porn movies…. Devoted experts from Color Sound Studio restored and remastered every track with particular and detailed work for some damaged tapes, and that’s why, due to their damaged condition that this is the first and last chance to lead them to your ears in so good condition.’
The 2016 vinyl release ‘Brigitte Lahaie, Le Disque De Culte’ did indeed present a fantastic overview of Goraguer’s X film work, along with its follow-up, ‘Musique Classée X’ in 2018, but there is still so much of it missing. Also released in conjunction with the book ‘Brigitte Lahaie, les films de culte’ were Goraguer’s original scores for ‘La Rabatteuse’ and ‘Autostoppeuses en chaleur’, limited to ten copies each, and all hand-signed by both Lahaie and Goraguer. I do not own these latter two discs myself, but I have communicated with collectors who do, and can confirm that neither contains the said piano theme. Perhaps another casualty of long-term storage, now rotten away beyond recognition….
I am just an amateur and do not own any of this.