Friday Freak-Out: The "Swiss Beatles" - Les Sauterelles - "Dream Machine" (1969)

[Video Link] Friday Freak-Out: Where is a Swiss Beatles when we need them now? Bedazzled presents a 1960s group called Les Sauterelles.

Cavern Club: "Way back in the early ’60s, when everybody was listening to the Mersey sound, there was an unknown group called Les Sauterelles that was introducing rock and roll to a rather conservative Swiss audience. As this music became more and more established, so did the interest in the “Swiss Beatles.”

The “Swiss Beatles” - Les Sauterelles - "Dream Machine"

• [snagglepuss]

  They sound about as much like the Beatles as they look like Moby Grape. Meaning, “Sort of, but not really”.

• [Stephen Schenck]

  “Where is a Swiss Beatles when we need them now?”

  Well, we’ve got Swizz Beatz, I guess.

• [Navin_Johnson]

  ‘Cause we’re hiding money from the taxman, yeah from the taxmaaaayaaaan

• [rattypilgrim]

  Sounds more like the Monkees.

  • [Boundegar]

    That is not a bad thing.

  • [Souse]

     My thought exactly.  Not a bad sound.

    • [rattypilgrim]

       To each his/her own but there is no comparison between the Monkees and the Beatles.

      • [Boundegar]

         You are obviously not a 50 year old teenage girl.

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        The Monkees were vastly better than that elevator music band called The Beatles.

• [Uncle Geo]

  Uruguayan Beatles band, the very popular Los Shakers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfVpvrYf_Lo
  Decidedly more jazz funk when they morphed into Opa:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdQ1ve295xs&feature=related

  • [Ernest Valdemar]

    I see your Los Shakers and raise you a Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes live on Brazilian TV circa 1967.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9qHM3ey0o4

    Note the strolling fascist at 00:40 looking for subversives, and missing the elephant in the living room. Say what you will about the Beatles, none of them were ever forced to seek political asylum or face summary execution.

    EDIT: Same performance, alternate footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9qHM3ey0o4

    I could listen/watch all day, and just might.

    • [B E Pratt]

       Os Mutantes! Yes!!! They somehow managed to translate a semi-obscure tongue-twister of a Mamas and Papas song called ‘Once Was A Time I Thought’ into Portuguese. Fun stuff.

• [Incipient Madness]

  The seem more like the Swiss Monkees. 

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Dekho ab to kisko nahin hai khabar.
  

• [rattypilgrim]

  Antinous, you should get a raise for posting this video. My head hurts yet I feel compelled to watch it again.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Mark posted a version of it a couple years ago, but it was crappier quality and only had the first half.

• [LightningRose]

  You young whippersnappers sure are freaked out easily.

• [TomAqMar]

  To say nothing of the frickin’ rotating chairs from THE PRISONER.