advertisement


The Serge Gainsbourg Appreciation thread

leevinyl said:
The production on the last Radiohead lp should owe royalties.
Click to expand...


Yup. ‘The Numbers’ in particular is very Histoire de Melody Nelson, with its lush orchestration and loping bassline. See also Beck Hansen’s Sea Change, especially ‘Paper Tiger’, which, as he admits, is a blatant copy.


matt j said:
When boiled down he is just a perv with some dodgy views/morals.
Click to expand...


Ha. Certainly at first sight, it’s hard to disagree, and that’s without spotting stuff like the countless double meanings in the lyrics. I gave some Serge albums to a French lass who I don’t know too well (who only knew him for things like the Whitney chat show) and gushed something like: ‘Melody Nelson is an awesome concept album. Serge runs down a fifteen summers old girl in his Roller, and becomes infatuated with her.’ That was quite awkward!
 
david ellwood said:
Im a fan of Charlottes too
Click to expand...

This self-directed video for ‘Lying With You’, from Charlotte’s last album Rest, and shot at her dad’s house in Paris, is quite a watch...




Opening as a museum this October, and as seen above, somewhat spookily left exactly as it was:


https://www.timeout.com/news/serge-gainsbourgs-house-in-paris-is-becoming-a-museum-030321

image.jpg
 
Alex N said:
Serge runs down a fifteen summers old girl in his Roller, and becomes infatuated with her.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that the age of consent in France is 15. (It may have changed very recently, I'm not sure.)

I also get the impression that there's a greater acceptance of "free thinking" sexuality than in other countries, or at least there was in the second half of the 20th century, especially among the educated bourgeois. It goes back to Baudelaire and Marquis de Sade and Proust of course, and more recently to Gabriel Matzneff and Michel Tournier and Alain Robbe-Grillet and of course Serge Gainsbourg. Maybe one of the Frenchies who post here will comment on that.

But anyway, one of the main reasons I'm interested in Gainsbourg is that I'm aware that it would be impossible for anyone to write his sort of poetry now without opprobrium. We have become a more conservative and buttoned up society.

And I think there is a genuine question: if it is wrong to keep the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel, for example, because the statue celebrates the life of an evil man, is it also wrong to publish L'Homme à tête de chou, which celebrates the fictional seduction and murder of a young girl?
 
I love Serge, but come on, it’s dodgy af...

Quatorze automnes et quinze étés

Un petit animal...

(etc...)

Jane with her jeans undone on the cover, as she’s preggers with Charlotte, is a nice touch (!)
 
Alex N said:
I love Serge, but come on, it’s dodgy af...

Quatorze automnes et quinze étés

Un petit animal...

(etc...)

Jane with her jeans undone on the cover, as she’s preggers with Charlotte, is a nice touch (!)
Click to expand...

It is dodgy today -- and there's dodgier in other works by Gainsbourg.

(NB I pointed out the references to Louis Carol in one of the songs in L'Homme à tête de chou, Carol adored the company of young girls.)
 

I think this one is interesting psychologically

Docteur Jekyll n'a eu dans sa vie
Que de petites garces qui se foutaient de lui


. . .

Il n'y a plus de Docteur Jekyll


...

Mon nom est Hyde, Mister Hyde
Docteur Jekyll un jour a compris
Que c'est ce Monsieur Hyde qu'on aimait en lui
Mister Hyde ce salaud
A fait la peau du Docteur Jekyll
Click to expand...

And I like the idea of creating an alternative self, Mandrykaaaaar. Here's the man himself


Again the words are not without interest from a psychological point of view.

On reconnaît Gainsbarre
A ses jeans à sa barbe
De trois nuits ses cigares
Et ses coups de cafard

. . .

Il est cool faut croire
Que de tout il en a rien à cirer

. . .

Et ouais cloué le Gainsbarre
Au mont du Golgothar
Il est reggae hilare
Le coeur percé de part en part
Click to expand...
 
chartz said:
He was probably talented, but his public image was appalling.
I remember him burning that big banknote – I was watching! – or making fun of veterans on a TV show.
He was always drunk when he appeared. He was rude and disrespectful too. Remember the Whitney Houston incident?
He also released loads of crap songs… and some incredibly creative and memorable ones!
Serge certainly was an ambiguous character who was both adored and detested.
I’m in between ;)
Click to expand...
Sums him up pretty well. Gainsbarre was so far off that I never saw anything political in him, his provocations were part of his stage personality and served mainly himself. Left or right, I never knew, and tbh I don’t see why I should care. Musically he stole a lot from a lot of people, but he turned it into something radically new.

Briefly about France being a ‘deeply racist country’ : Calling an entire country ‘racist’ is a tricky one I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top