Wally Badarou

4-18-08 Wally Badarou

12" CHIEF INSPECTOR ISLAND US 90516.1

7" CHIEF INSPECTOR ISLAND US 7-99557

12" CHIEF INSPECTOR (VINE STREET) / (HILL STREET) ISLAND/4TH UK 12BRW 37

CD ECHOES ISLAND UK CID 104

LP ECHOES ISLAND US 90495.1

12" HI-LIFE ISLAND DE 608.622

CD5 HI-LIFE (CDV) ISLAND/4TH UK BRW 53

LP ISLAND VISUAL ARTS INTRODUCES WALLY BADAROU ISLAND UK WAL 1

7" LA MARCHE DES MILLE / PRELUDE A LA MARSEILLAISE ISLAND FR 112.633

12" SPIDER WOMAN (NOVELA DAS NOVE) / (Edited Remix) ISLAND US DMD 944

12" SPIDER WOMAN (NOVELA DAS NOVE) / CHIEF INSPECTOR ISLAND/4TH UK 12BRW 44

CD WORDS OF A MOUNTAIN ISLAND UK CID 9897

CD3 WORDS OF A MOUNTAIN ISLAND UK CIDX 429

LP WORDS OF A MOUNTAIN ISLAND US 91260.1

Soundtracks:

LP KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (O.S.T.) ISLAND US 90475.1

CD LUNATIC (O.S.T.) MANGO US 539905.2

LP THEY CALL THAT AN ACCIDENT (O.S.T.) ISLAND ITA ISTA 2

I do not recall if I first saw the video for “Chief Inspector” or if I actually was curious about Mr. Badarou because of his work on records by Marianne Faithfull and Grace Jones. At the time, I did not know him as a solo artist, only as a sideman (oblivious to his debut solo album “Back To Scales To-Night” (1980) (which I still don’t have in any form). I’ve also never been able to find his last CD, “Colours Of Silence” (Universal France, 2001).

“Echoes” drove me nuts – I just loved it – and it is still one of my all-time favorite 80’s albums – a trophy album, in fact. Wonderful keyboard instrumentals. If only I’d known that he was working with Level 42 – something I didn’t fully realize until MUCH LATER.

Signed to “Island Visual Arts”, I found a promo-only LP, “IVA Introduced Wally Badarou” and loads of 12” singles. All great stuff. His soundtrack albums are also really good, with select cuts sounding like they were right out of the same modes he was using on “Echoes” – I love that sound!

I wrote to Mr. Badarou, and he wrote back, telling me that everything was going to be re-issued, and that he would let me know when it was going to happen – but it hasn’t happened yet. He still probably has no idea how much I loved his 80’s work – all that great keyboard playing on Grace Jones “Nightclubbing” and on Marianne Faithfull “A Child’s Adventure”…”Echoes” is just so damned good! It’s one of the LP’s that I always buy, when I see it. I just know some of my friends need to hear this album.

I wish I knew about more stuff that he worked on, a la Level 42. He has such a distinctive keyboard sound – I forget, is he on those two good (Island / Mango label) album by Manu Dibango? If he isn’t, he should have been!

Merci, Monsieur Badarou, j’aime votre musique. Je voudrais achete les disques re-edition. Dites-moi de les temps c’est possible. Merci!