About Serge Gainsbourg
part 3
back to part 2
One may well wonder how Gainsbourg got away with his excesses, both in his life and in his music. Where his songs are concerned, one can point to his musicianship and to his humor - many times he is making fun of his attitudes as well as those of the so-called prudes he was deliberately trying to offend.
Gainsbourg's wicked sense of humor is evident throughout his work, but no more so that in the song «Judith», written in 1960 for the film L'Eau à la bouche. The song sounds like something Paul Anka or Franky Avalon would have recorded - like rock beat, fuzzy saxophone and female chorus. Even the lyrics sounds like something for the Bobbie-soxers: "Judith que veux-tu de moi / Que veux-tu / Judith je n'aime que toi / Le sais-tu. " But after six stanzas of declairing his undying devotion, we get the Gainsbourg twist: "Mais si de guerre lasse / Un jour je me lasse / Judith ce jour-là vois-tu / Je te tue ."
Throughout the 1960s, Gainsbourg divided his time between his own records and writing songs for others. It was a career, but he remained a somewhat minor player in the music scene of les années yéyé. All this changed forever when he tied up with the 18 year old France Gall.
Her first hit had been «Sacré Charlemagne», released the previous year. But when she appeared on television, lollipop in hand, singing Gainsbourg's «Les sucettes», both of their careers went through the roof. Ostensibly the song of a young girl who loves anis flavored lollipops, «Les sucettes», in realitiy it was a vulgar joke made fully evident when Gainsbourg recorded the song himself. «Annie aime les sucettes / Les sucette's à l'anis / Les sucett's à l'anis / D'Annie / Donn'nt à ses baisers / Un goût ani / Sé quand ell'n'a sur sa lange / Que le petit bâton / Elle prend ses jambes à son corps / Et retourne au drugstore .» Once the joke was explained to Ms. Gall, she never worked or spoke with Gainsbourg again!
Suddenly Gainsbourg was in hot demand. After years of being the darling of the left bank, he was now main stream, a crafter of hits. By 1968, Serge Gainsbourg was known throughout France. He had appeared on television in his musical comedy, Anna, with Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy and his liaison with Brigitte Bardot provided a media field day.
In her autobiography, Initiales B.B. (éditions Grasset 1996), Brigitte Bardot writes of her affair with Gainsbourg: "Ce fut un amour fou - un amour comme on en rêve - un amour qui restera dans nos mémoires et dans les mémoires." Together they performed such Gainsbourg classics as «Bonnie and Clyde», «Harley Davidson» and «Contact». But after recording «Je t'aime...moi, non plus» (which sat on the shelves at Philips unreleased for 17 years!), the two split permanently.
more
source:francevision.com
