Lewis Furey

Lewis Furey, né Lewis Greenblatt (7 June 1949) is a Canadian composer, singer, violinist, pianist, actor and director.

Career

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Furey trained as a classical violinist, and at age 11 performed as a soloist in the "Matinées pour la jeunesse" concert series of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City. In 1974, he began playing and recording his own rock music compositions. In the ensuing years, he produced three albums of pop music: "Lewis Furey" (1974, A & M 4522), "The Humours of Lewis Furey" (1976, A & M 4594) and "The Sky is Falling" (1978, Aquarius AQR-521). Distinguishing features of the albums were Furey’s Lou Reed-like vocal stylings, a number of songs with gay content (particularly the local Montréal radio hit "Hustler’s Tango"), and exotic arrangements featuring unusual uses of violin and banjo as well as elements of klezmer music.

In 1975, he began a very successful new venture as a composer for films. His first film score, for director Gilles Carle’s "La Tête de Normand St. Onge" (1975), won a Canadian Film Award. In 1976 he worked on the Gilles Carle film "L'Ange et la femme" along with his future wife, the actress and singer Carole Laure. This project involved more than composing alone; Furey and Laure are famously seen performing a sex act in the film (see List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex). Furey also composed for the Allan Moyle film "The Rubber Gun", which despite the risqué-sounding title was about families affected by drug use. Later in the 1970’s, Furey and Laure produced a number of successful stage reviews in Paris. Furey also served as producer and frequently also as songwriter for a series of albums by Carole Laure, beginning with "Alibis" (1978, RCA KKL-1-0290), a hit in Québec in 1978. In 1979, Furey wrote the music for another Gilles Carle film, " [http://lorca.ca Fantastica] ", which starred Laure in the lead role of Lorca. Furey also acted in the film and was nominated for a Genie Award in Canada for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.”

Furey further developed his career in film and television music with productions such as a 1983 Gilles Carle movie, "Maria Chapdelaine", based on the classic Québec-based Louis Hémon novel of the same name. His score for this film won a Genie Award. His 1985 directorial debut was in the film "Night Magic", with script co-written by Leonard Cohen. Based in France since the late 1970’s, Furey has continued to score film and television work as well as producing and writing for successful albums by Laure, such as "She Says Move On" (1991) and "Sentiments naturels" (1997). A stage production based on the latter ran for over a month in Paris in 1998.

Furey's songs have been recorded by various other artists such as Céline Dion, who recorded "Michael's Song" ("La ballade de Michel") and "Listen to the Magic Man" ("Dans La Main D'un Magicien") for the film "The Peanut Butter Solution" (1985), both co-written by Eddy Marnay [detailed biography in French Wikipedia] ; Tom Robinson, who recorded "Closing the Door" and "Love Comes"; and Petula Clark. His first two albums became hits in Japan and are available on CD only as Japanese re-releases. He is abundantly represented on the Japanese-language internet (search on ルイス･フューレイ). A CD version of "The Sky is Falling" was released in France.

He is the brother of Canadian playwright/actor/pianist Richard Greenblatt (playwright), author of the major hit play "2 Pianos, 4 Hands".

Discography

Albums

*"Lewis Furey", 1974
*"The Humours of Lewis Furey", 1976
*"The Sky is Falling", 1979
* Carole Laure/Lewis Furey "Fantastica", 1980
* Carole Laure/Lewis Furey "Enregistrement Public au Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin", 1982
* Carole Laure/Lewis Furey "Night Magic", 1985

ingles

*Lewis Furey: "Lewis is crazy"/ "What a sad summer", Gamma, 1972 (Canada)
*Lewis Furey: "Hustler's tango" / "Last night", A & M, 1975 (USA)
*Lewis Furey: "Lullaby" / "Who's got the bag", A & M, 1976 (USA)
*Lewis Furey: "Top ten sexes", A & M, 1976 (USA)
*Lewis Furey: "Waiting on you" / "The sky is falling", Aquarius, 1978 (Canada)
*Lewis Furey& Carole Laure: "See you Monday", RCA / Saravah, 1979 (original soundtrack of the film "Au revoir... à lundi") (France)
*Lewis Furey& Carole Laure: "Fantastica" / "What's wrong with me", RCA / Saravah, 1980 (original soundtrack of the film "Fantastica") (France)
*Lewis Furey& Carole Laure: "I should have known better" / "Slowly, I married her", RCA / Saravah, 1982 (France)
*Lewis Furey& Carole Laure: "Fire" / "Angel eyes", RCA / Saravah, 1985 (original soundtrack of the film "Night Magic") (France)

Filmography

*"La Tête de Normand St. Onge", 1975 (composer)
*"L’Ange et la femme", 1977 (composer; actor)
*"The Rubber Gun", 1977 (composer)
*"Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang", 1978 (composer)
*"Au revoir à lundi", 1979 (composer; actor)
*"Avec... le charme de Carole Laure", 1979 (appears as himself; TV)
*"Agency", 1980 (composer)
*"Fantastica", 1980 (composer; actor)
*"Maria Chapdelaine", 1983 (composer)
*"American Dreamer", 1984 (composer)
*"Night Magic", 1985 (director; co-writer with Leonard Cohen; co-composer with Leonard Cohen)
*"The Peanut Butter Solution", 1985 (composer)
*"Sauve-toi, Lola", 1986 (composer)
*"Champagne for Two", Shades of Love series, 1987 (director; composer; TV)
*"Lilac Dream", Shades of Love series, 1987 (composer; TV)
*"Midnight Magic", Shades of Love series, 1987 (composer; TV)
*"The Rose Café", Shades of Love series, 1987 (composer; TV)
*"Sincerely, Violet", Shades of Love series, 1987 (composer; TV)
*"The Emerald Tear", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"Little White Lies", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"The Man Who Guards the Greenhouse", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"Moonlight Flight", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"Shadow Dancing", 1988 (director)
*"Sunset Court", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"Tangerine Taxi", Shades of Love series, 1988 (composer; TV)
*"Rats and Rabbits", 2000 (director; writer)
*"Une fille dans l'azur", 2001 (composer; TV)

External links

* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001290 Canadian Encyclopedia page]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0298862/ Internet Movie Database IMDb page]
* [http://www.filmreferencelibrary.ca/index.asp?layid=46&csid1=1628&navid=46 Canadian Film Encyclopedia page]
* [http://perso.orange.fr/vivonzeureux/lewisfurey/lewisfurey.html Very comprehensive overview, Vivonzeureux Fanzine, in French]
* [http://perso.orange.fr/vivonzeureux/lewisfurey/pidglewisfurey.html Partial "pidgin English" version of Vivonzeureux (Letslivappy) Fanzine page]
* [http://www.lewisfurey.com Lewis Furey's Personal Web Site]