Don't call me . . .

A bigot? Or a beggar? I'm not sure. All I know is that I've spent years looking for this song and not knowing whether it was "bigot" or "beggar" might have been a necessary detail in my search.

The song is called "Mauvais sang" ("Bad blood"), and it's by Anouk (aka Anouk Khelifa-Pascal).

This is one of those mysterious tunes I used to hear on RFI Musique, the international, commercial-free, internet music station of Radio France International. RFI Musique has gotten better over the years with posting its playlists timely and accurately, so when I recently reheard this on the station, I was able to track it down fairly quickly.

Well . . . I was able to track down the name of the song and the artist (although there are a number of "Anouks" out there, including a better-known Dutch performer) but not the song itself. Not available on iTunes, not available on Amazon US (except as a very expensive import CD), not available as an "advanced download" from numerous sources I've . . . heard others talk about.

Note: I'm really opposed to downloading "free" music on the internet because it hurts the artists--the singers, songwriters, performers, musicians, and producers, among others. Sometimes it's a matter of desperate times, desperate measures: If I've exhausted all known possibilities, I *might* look elsewhere and I *might* partake--but only as a stopgap until I can purchase the item legally. Like most performers, I don't have a lot of love lost for the music "industry" (which in one word says everything you need to know about the mindset behind the current condition of music-making). However, I do have a lot of love for performers, high and low, good and bad, successful and struggling. I try not to do them in by making casual, frequent, and cheap raids of online mp3 sites. I encourage you to adopt a similar approach.

Lecturing aside, I love the vibe and groove of this song and am glad to now finally connect the song with a title and performer.

I don't know much about Anouk. This song was recorded in 1997 for an album called Automatik Kalamity. She has performed with Manu Chao, I believe. And that's all I got.

But I'm intrigued enough to try to discover more by her.

Legally even.