About Serge Gainsbourg
part 4
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Bardot felt that «Je t'aime... moi non plus» was too daring and prevented it from being released. Gainsbourg, of course, found someone else.
British actress Jane Birkin was not at all put off by «Je t'aime...moi non plus». She made her mark in world cinema three years earlier in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up. Her part in film was small, but featured nudity that was extremely daring by Anglo-American standards.
«Je t'aime... moi non plus», version Gainsbourg-Birkin was released in 1968. Canal+ journalist Marc Toesca described the reaction to the song as follows: "Surprise et succè en France. Mais les soupires et halètements provoquent un scandale... chez nos prudes voisines anglais." The outcry was such that the original label in England, Fontana, dropped the record despite its being number 2 on the charts. A small company, Major Minor, immediately bought the rights and saw the song climb to Number 1, the only French song to ever do so.
In the USA, there was never a question of putting the song on the radio. It may have been the era of free speech and free love, but not on the American air waves. It wasn't the lyrics to the song that caused the trouble - after all it was sung in French, but one listen to even a breif passage and you'll understand: «Je vais, Je vais et je viens / Entre tes reins / Je vais et je viens / Entre tes reins / Et je / Me re- / Teins... » Across the country, copies of the 45 kept popping up at colleges and Universities. A sophomore at the time, I recall it as the most played song on the juke box in our student center. At least until faculty pressure forced its removal. Despite the lack of air play and no coordinated marketing effort, Serge Gainsbourg became the most successful French singer in America since the Singing Nun!
Gainsbourg closed the 60s with his album 69, année érotique and opened the 70s with his first concept album, Melody Nelson. These albums are combined in the disk Gainsbourg Vol. 5, Je t'aime... moi non plus. The success of these two albums recorded with Jane Birkin was such that Ms. Birkin, despite possessing a singing voice with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever, has enjoyed a lasting career as a singer in France!
The seventies saw Gainsbourg experiment outside music, releasing a feature film of Je t'aime... moi non plus, and directing television commercials for such products as Lux and Woolite. He continued to write songs for others, but his best work was for himself on albums such as Vu de l'exterieur, Rock around the bunker, L'homme à tête de chou and Aux armes et caetera.
This last album was recorded with musicians from Bob Marley's Wailers, and introduced reggae to France. It also introduced Gainsbourg to the wrath of the Legion d'Honeur, who took as a serious insult Gainsbourg's reworking of the National Anthem. «Allons enfants de la patrie / Le jour de gloire est arrivée / etc. »
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source:francevision.com
