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Evguénie Sokolov by Serge Gainsbourg, TamTam, 1998. An English translation of his hilariously ass-backwards spoof of the artworld. Tells the story of a young man, a f/artist if you will, who learns to harnass his explosive and omnipresent "blasting of anal gales and a wild pealing of chromatic flatulencies" into an inspiring propellent by sitting on a special chair and with pen in hand, his arm begins to function "like a seismograph." He becomes "asstronomically" famous for his profitable post-Dada, proto-caca gasograms. Until an ill wind begins to emerge from his "caeco-colonic rectal area." "Evguénie Sokolov" from his album Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Étoiles is a great naughty "song" — a series of farting sounds, "scat flatulence" if you will, set to a reggae beat. It serves as an ideal soundtrack for the book.
My articles on Serge
Serge Gainsbourg: The Obscurity of Fame: Profile of the rabblerouser-singer. Originally appeared in Cups. The article also serves as the introduction to Evguénie Sokolov: A Parabolic Tale by Gainsbourg, TamTam
The Rascal as Cultural Provocateur — Serge Gainsbourg: Review of View From The Exterior: Serge Gainsbourg & also at WFMU archive.
Serge Gainsbourg: The Obscurity of Fame: Profile of the rabblerouser-singer. Originally appeared in Cups. The article also serves as the introduction to Evguénie Sokolov: A Parabolic Tale by Gainsbourg, TamTam
The Rascal as Cultural Provocateur — Serge Gainsbourg: Review of View From The Exterior: Serge Gainsbourg & also at WFMU archive.
Recommended: Sylvie Simmons'
A Fist Full of Gitanes The guy lived a magical life full of fame, notoriety, and acclaim and he did it exactly the way he wanted. He was a lounge autonome if there ever was one. He is someone the Rat Pack would have gotten along with until he started out drinking them and started waxing metaphysical... I highly recommend SERGE GAINSBOURG: A FIST FULL OF GITANES by Sylvie Simmons, published by Helter Skelter in London. She has certainly done her research and it was nice [and imporetant] that she actually knows French. This is certainly true of why the Anglo mentality has so much trouble with the French mentality sometimes. They just refuse to get it. This book beats the merde out of Adam Clayson’s hack job bio, which I will not even dignify by telling you the title. I reviewed it in American Book Review last year and will be reviewing Simmons book for ABR and some other venue to be named later.
A Fist Full of Gitanes The guy lived a magical life full of fame, notoriety, and acclaim and he did it exactly the way he wanted. He was a lounge autonome if there ever was one. He is someone the Rat Pack would have gotten along with until he started out drinking them and started waxing metaphysical... I highly recommend SERGE GAINSBOURG: A FIST FULL OF GITANES by Sylvie Simmons, published by Helter Skelter in London. She has certainly done her research and it was nice [and imporetant] that she actually knows French. This is certainly true of why the Anglo mentality has so much trouble with the French mentality sometimes. They just refuse to get it. This book beats the merde out of Adam Clayson’s hack job bio, which I will not even dignify by telling you the title. I reviewed it in American Book Review last year and will be reviewing Simmons book for ABR and some other venue to be named later.
Also:
• Gainsbourg by Gilles Verlant, [Albin Michel, 1985], Great bio + discography & trans. Paul Knobloch.
• Au Pays Des Malices, [Le Temps Singulier, 1980], a selection of his writings and aphorisms.
• Black Out [Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1983], a comic book with text by Gainsbourg inspired by events around a power outage that occurred in LA [in 1964 – the Watts riots?]. Also the name of a film that did not quite happen.
• Gainsbourg by Alain Coelho, and Franck Lhomeau [Denoel, Paris, 1986], is a beautiful coffeetable book, full of photos by and of Gainsbourg, profiles and aesthetic analyses of his many artistic endeavors — if you read French.
• Dernières Nouvelles Des Étoiles [Librairie Plon, 1994], contains almost all of Serge’s lyrics.
• Gainsbourg Ou La Provocation Permanente [Yves Salgues, Jean-Claude Latte, 1989.]
• Le Mur de Gainsbourg [Samuel Tastet, EST, 1992] This photo-book documents the walls around Gainsbourg’s home in Paris’ 7th arrondisement and reveals the grafittied last respects (post-modernity’s bouquets) for the man and artist. The young Serge fans transformed this corner into a sacred precinct, reminiscent of Jim Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise.
• Gainsbourg by Gilles Verlant, [Albin Michel, 1985], Great bio + discography & trans. Paul Knobloch.
• Au Pays Des Malices, [Le Temps Singulier, 1980], a selection of his writings and aphorisms.
• Black Out [Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1983], a comic book with text by Gainsbourg inspired by events around a power outage that occurred in LA [in 1964 – the Watts riots?]. Also the name of a film that did not quite happen.
• Gainsbourg by Alain Coelho, and Franck Lhomeau [Denoel, Paris, 1986], is a beautiful coffeetable book, full of photos by and of Gainsbourg, profiles and aesthetic analyses of his many artistic endeavors — if you read French.
• Dernières Nouvelles Des Étoiles [Librairie Plon, 1994], contains almost all of Serge’s lyrics.
• Gainsbourg Ou La Provocation Permanente [Yves Salgues, Jean-Claude Latte, 1989.]
• Le Mur de Gainsbourg [Samuel Tastet, EST, 1992] This photo-book documents the walls around Gainsbourg’s home in Paris’ 7th arrondisement and reveals the grafittied last respects (post-modernity’s bouquets) for the man and artist. The young Serge fans transformed this corner into a sacred precinct, reminiscent of Jim Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise.
Serge Gainsbourg annotated Playlists etc.
Wreck 348: Gainsbourg / Gainsbarre
wReck thiS meSS ~ Radio Patapoe 88.3 ~ Amsterdam
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies:
Serge Gainsbourg: Een Hommage / Paradiso / 23 September “Records, TV , newspapers, having an impact on millions of kids, it’s hallucinatory. A painting by Raphael will never sell as many tickets as Michael Jackson – never. Hallucinatory – a minor art screwing a major art up the ass.”
• Serge [in Fistful of Gitanes] 18 September 2006
Generique Les Loups > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Fuite du Roquin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans la Bergerie > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Lemon Incest > Serge & Charlotte Gainsbourg [5]
La Horse [Gainsbourg] > Sofa Surfers [31]
Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Charlotte Gainsbourg Radio Interview
+ Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
La Horse > Serge Gainsbourg [31]
Toi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus > Dub Syndicate [29]
Nuits Francaises > Him and Her [32]
Je T’Aime (Moin non Plus) > Judge Dread [23]
Nouveau Western > MC Solaar [33]
Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus > Malcolm McClaren [23]
Dub From the Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
Sex Machine > Serge Gainsbourg vs La Horde [34]
Bonnie & Clyde > Bridget Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg [2a]
Bad News From the Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Requiem Pour un Con remix 91 > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Requiem Pour un Con > The Orb [2]
Requiem Pour un Twister > Serge Gainsbourg [15]
La Horse [Gainsbourg] > Howie B. [31]
+ Serge et Mort > Radio Actualities
Angoisse > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Un Violin un Jambon Serge Gainsbourg [35]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Poincenneur de Lilas > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
L’Homme a Tete de Chou > Serge Gainsbourg [35]
Sex Machine > Serge Gainsbourg vs La Horde [34]
• A bit out of sequence as the busyness of life collaborates with the ever narrower corridor of how we experience the squeezing and shrinking of time. The arguments between perception and actuality don’t matter. There is an acceleration of the passage and duration of events that can’t be explained so easily.
• That is my excuse but I am putting this show ahead of others because tomorrow in Amsterdam will see the big night of over 2 weeks of Serge-related activities at the Maison Descartes until 29 Sept, At the film Museum showing his tv commercials, the feature “Je T’Aime Moi non Plus” [starring Joe Dellasandro! I think], Equator and Charlotte Forever; and Saturday at the Paradiso with Jean-Claude Vannier [the man behind Melody Nelson], Cor Gout [Dutch interpretations of Serge songs], Sylvie Simmons reading from her excellent book “A Fistful of gitanes”, Pablo & Julien with their Dutch translation of Euvgenie Sokolov and DJ Guuzbourg with his special selection of sighing-girl songs. After midnight begins the dance night with 60s French ye-ye music and others…
[1] Marclay: A great cut by the first real scratching conceptual turntablist. From some collection of his plunderings on vinyl that I happened to have on tape thanks to my tour of duty at WFMU.
[2] "I Love Serge: ElectronicaGainsbourg" on Mercury France 2001. This is such an exquisite and right-on direct hit that it surpasses instantly ALL nostalgic value and becomes music for today. It is as if SG is still alive and instead of going into he studio with Sly & Robbie like he did in 1979, he went into the studio with all the youngest and hippest loungey trip hopster producers and came away with a great disc. As if he had nonchalantly gone on auto-cannibalization... and came back with something MOVING. What makes this one distinctive is one it uses the actual songs/voice/lyrics of SG to revamp old hits AND he cool loungy feel would fit in perfectly with SG's own demeanor and appetites. I highly recommend it. Especially SNOOZE, the Orb, Howie B. and Faze Action.
[2a] This comes off a tape made by Black Sifichi for me containing all sorts of rarities including strange interviews and cover versions of Bob Dylan! He also did “Comic Strip” in an English version and [Broken] English version of Bonnie & Clyde that romanticises outlaws. With Bardot’s prominent lungs adding vocal percussive verve.
[3] "Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg" on Tzadik, 1997, produced by John Zorn is at once a beautiful collection full of vexing and clueless homages. The ones that hit right to the quick. Marc Ribot’s tribute is right on as are Robin Holcomb / Wayne Horovitz, Cyro Baptista, Franz Treichler & Tronte, Michelle Amar & Eyvind Kang, and Medeski/Wood & Martin are all direct hits. They actually studied SG or at least boned up. While some of the others are purposelessly clueless or contrary as if making a mess of beauty can still be seen as earnest protest. Gallant near-misses include Sean Lennon & Cibo Matto, Fred Frith, Franz Treichler, and David Shea. Some clueless clinkers by Ruins and Anthony Coleman. A mixed bag rectifiable by programming own selection on your stereo. Liner notes by executive producer John Zorn.
[4] "Serge Gainsbourg" on Polygram adequate 2 record set with all the obvious hits but misses most of his great reggae forays with Sly & Robbie & the I-Threes. Very little info or context but good starter nonetheless. Also on just about every repackaging of SG material including the wonderful look at his hipster mambo period, * "Couleur Cafe" on Philips. This is one of 4 repackagings of Serge works in 4 themes. It is a very nicely produced series, better than any number of other rehashes of SG music. Death is certainly a boon to the reissue market.
[5] "De Gainsbourg A Gainsbarre" on Phonogram/Philips is a better than average 2-CD collection with a sensibly moving sequence to the songs that allows you to partake of a wide range [although not much of the reggae period] of his omniverious apprpriations and retoolings of pop genres. Great intro to Serge – with lyrics.
[5a] SG drunkenly singing a wonderful old tune and also doing up the national anthem... Off a tape from dub-mate, Laurent at WTM-Paris HQ.
[6] "Serge Gainsbourg du Jazz Dans le Ravin" on Philips, 1996, is truly a beautiful collection of his jazzier fare, some beautiful instrumentals like "Angoisse" which is truly memorable Serge Gainsbourg: du jazz dans le ravin (Philips / Mercury) 1996 repackaging of Gainsbourg’s jazzier stuff. Highly recommended. Especially the instrumental material some of which comes from his underrated soundtrack work. Could he have been competing with John Barry, the husband of his then-love, Jane Birkin?
[6a] This is off an old cassette that Laurent of WTM-Paris made for me. It reveals a situation in a pinball [flipper: FR] hall where Anna Karina [famous for her roles in various Godard and Truffaut flicks] confronts SG for being a womanizer. Wonderful summation of the torturous and delightful tension that lies between the sexes which maybe the secret to his genius – his ability to render that tense humorous repartee between the sexes.
[7] "Pink Elephants" is Mick Harvey's (ex-Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) follow-up to "Intoxicated Man" his first CD of Serge covers, and is just as good as an accurate yet soul-driven attempt to render Gainsbourg's songs in inspired yet faithful English translations. Other Bad Seeds:Barry Adamson creates probably the most hauntingly precise evanescent Serge replication. Anita Lane covers SG on her album "The World’s a Girl"
[8] Off a tape from radio comrade Dave Shyboy. The band is made up of Rob Murphy, Akiko Sato & Tomoko Minamizaki. Wow, this is a nice piece and continues that strange cultural phenom of the Japanese obsession with things French, from Hermes bags to SG. There ARE a lot of Japanese versions of SG music.
[9] “Aux Armes Aetcetera” is a great album of relaxed hip, of gnaja extremis, or laid back lounge that perfectly evokes the slack and soothing feeling of someone smoking a lot of ganja. He was one of the first of the |Westerners to invade Jamaica and he allowed the I-Threes and Sly & Robbie and the entire Taxi Crew to be themselves and at the same time produce one of the more interesting [western] reggae albums of all time.
[9a] "Aux Armes et Caetera" on Mercury. Beautiful reissue and re-establishment of the sound at the time of the recording – late 1970s. We get an incredibly lively atmosphere in Jamaica as the geniuses of late 1970 dub/reggae vie with Gainsbourg to create a loose and jolly album of deep bouncy dub that holds up incredibly well. Great package with original mixes, remixes and update versions by young French rappers and reggae singers.
[10] “Thank God It’s Friday” Soundtrack from what I have heard is a dreadful movie on Casablanca, 1978. It says its a bonus single. I never saw the film so I don’t know if that means it isn’t in the film. It doesn’t matter. This is an endurance test but somehow appropriate send-up homage and at 17 minutes clocks in at the same length as In-a-Gadda-da-Vida! Its sheer fat length [over 16 minutes] makes it an amazing version in and of itself. But it is also a strangely on target update of the song [albeit only 8 years after the original].
[11] This I got courtesy of the lead singer in PANE, Leo. It is a pretty interesting psycho-active remake.
[12] This was the original version which was pickled in a back archive for many many years after SG & BB broke up and SG started going out with ex-wife of John Barry, the utterly charming Jane Birkin who did her own version with SG which became the ultimate kitsch sex sigh song of all time.
[13] “Love on the Beat” on Philips, 1984 was produced by Larry Fast in NJ, actually VERY close to the WFMU studios. This song is gruesome and sometimes difficult to listen to as the sighs of a woman being “banged” turn from pleasure to torture and further and relentless. The disc also includes further forays into stretching his loutish persona, a persona that allowed him a kind of charmed hands-off creative life. “Harley Davidson” & “Lemon Incest” are 2 very provocative tongue firm in someone’s cheek pieces.
[14] “Chatterton” was a single dedicated to the young poet who committed suicide at 19[?] which is a starting point for SG to list other artistic casualties of society’s pressures to conform... not unlike Jim Carroll’s minor hit “People Who Died” but funnier.
[15] "Fellatio Praecox: Outspoken Word Trips” is his Black (unreleased private trax) Bootleg CD. And it contains this nitrous oxide powered manic homage to SG. BS dueting here with partner Roma Napoli, a visual artist who has helped shape Parisian art for the last 20 years.
[16] Incredible rare tapes of rare glimpses of SG doing radio, TV, etc. interviews where he talks about everything from Baudelaire to provocative actions to his fascination with the poetry of American pop [c. 60s] plus some in studio ‘unplugged’ versions of songs, courtesy again of Black Sifichi.
[17] Very in-depth interviews with SG mumbling and whispering [ala Dylan or Brando] where the miscomprehensions and inaudible parts just add to the creation of more poetic observations. And you see that he brought substance to style and that his style was etched deep into his DNA. Thanx Black Sifichi.
[18] “Jazz in Paris: Jazz & Cinema, vol. 3” on Universal/Gitanes inc. the SG soundtrack material but also soundtracks for “Les Tripes au Soleil” a film by Claude Bernard-Aubert, soundtrack composed by Andre Hodeir asn well as some pieces from “The Connection” and “One Mint Julep”. The SG work for “Wolves in the Sheepfold” [their loose trans] is among the hundreds of films which have fallen into almost total obscurity and in fact, may very well merely exist now in soundtrack form. The film is a noir thriller that pits juvenile delinquents against gangsters. The writer of the liner notes, Alain Tercinet, notes that the music is superb [i agree] and gets very close to the eterheal qualities of what was then known as “West Coast Jazz”. [18] “Jazz in Paris / Jazz & Cinema vol. 3” on Gitanes/Universal. Handsome series of repackaged jazz and soundtrack music focused mainly on Paris. Rare soundtrack showing his atmospheric Mancini / [rival] John Barry side.
[19] “Serge Gainsbourg no. 2” on Philips, rereleased with all the original artwork and with Alain Goraguer and his Orchestra. Philips pillages its own archives quite tastefully. as Simmons describes the disc “mutant jazz-pop engaged in an unnatural act with chanson…”
[20] "Couleur Cafe" on Philips. This is one of 4 repackagings of Serge works in 4 themes. It is a very nicely produced series, better than any number of other rehashes of SG music. Death is certainly a boon to the reissue market. For more about SG. This is from the soundtrack for Comment Trouvez-vous ma Souer? Also includes songs I have never heard: “Marshmallow Man” and “Rocking Horse” and “No Love for Daddy”. SG was developing his “unique” or at least interesting use of ambiences, a kind of wall of sound effect.
[21] Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles” on Philips. Simmons: “named after a Paul Klee painting that hung in Serge’s house”. Originally released in 1981. This is beautiful French surreal devil-may-fuck-me casual delivery meets the perfectly attuned reggae rhythms as supplied by Jamaican legends Sly & Robbie, the I-Threes. In it he tries to stir scandal to stir his heart.
[21a] “Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles” on Philips/Mercury/Universal, 2003. Amazingly cool 2-CD repackaging of rediscovered missing dub and reggae tracks plus the original album and DJ interpretations. Great package for all those Serge reggae-period fans, an oft-neglected aspect of SG’s output. I really like this stuff because it sounds so full and modern, full of dubby psychotropic playfulness and SG was the first francophone to use reggae [1978 with the 1979 release of his controversial “Aux Armes et caetera”, and preceded the Clash’s visit to Jamaica [although SG recorded his Jamaican material in the Bahamas which included the provocative/antagonizing parody of “La Marseillaise” that got him in trouble with the right wing and some old war veterans. So antagonistic that his Jamaican backing band got spooked to the point of refusing to appear before an ornery crowd, which compelled Gainsbourg to go out solo and perform some material a capella. On this album he addresses the antagonism of the old Vet Parachutists who threatened boycotts [which only increased sales of Aux Armes] on But here SG also makes you realize that reggae and the French language are very amicable. There is something smooth and slurred about French that lends itself well to ganja and dub. Disc one is basically fairly similar to the original 1981 release but they are still SG’s versions, some phrases are emphasized, some songs are shorter or longer or have a bit more reverby atmosphere.
Disc Two of the above includes very nice rediscovered remastered dub versions of the originals. They are tuned up to max reverb effect as SG drowned his Birkin separation sorrows in rum punch and ganja and went wild on extemporaneous ganja–inflected poesie absurd. This is a real treat and makes you realize that SG has/had a much better ear for sound than most of his chanteur contemporaries. This disc sounds like it could have been made yesterday. Disc Two, Part 2: This is an interesting although not altogether successful remix versions update with modern DJs and MCs jamming with the ghost of SG. It does testify to the ageless & universal aspects of his compositional and zeitgeist-absorption skills.
[22] I don’t know what record this is off of. But the acid must have been spiked with something much more menacing…
[23] "Je T’Aime … Encore Une Fois" courtesy of Dr. Benway a colleague at Radio 100 International. That SG did his less famous duet first with BB is fairly well-known. He put out the Birkin version when he started dating JB, who had been married to John Barry, renowned soundtrack [James Bond Theme] composer. That SG was a fine instrumental and soundtrack composer is less well-known. Many of his soundtrack efforts sound a little like he is trying to outdo Barry at his own game. It is easy to see why McLaren would like SG. Judge Dread does an appropriately bawdy penis-focused version. The insouciant spirit of tweaking straight media and boring culture must have had a hand in this version. Scandal-driven must have learned some of his naughty tactics not only from the Situationists but also from Gainsbarre.
I quote generously here from chapter 8 in A Fistful of Gitanes by Sylvie Simmons, Helter Skelter. It is an excellent account in an incredibly well-researched book that is not only full of little-known details and gossip but full of insight and places Gainsbourg in a more global and retrospective context. The book is an incredibly fascinating bio. Please patronise the publisher and order a copy. This deserves much broader circulation if not for SG himself then for the great job done by SS.
When, in 1991, Serge secured a place in the renowned French encyclopaedia 'Larousse', slotted between the painter Thomas Gainsborough and Nietzsche's poetic opus 'Gai Savoir', the song the compilers selected as representative of his oeuvre was 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus', his duet with lane Birkin. A song whose release as a single in 1969 caused outrage in several languages, at least one excommunication, incalculable unplanned pregnancies and sales in excess of six million singles worldwide.
While its vaporous, quasi-classical melody had its roots in an instrumental that Serge had written for the 1967 film Les Coeurs Verts, its title, he claimed, had been inspired by something that Salvador Dali once said: "Picasso is Spanish – me too. Picasso is a genius – me too. Picasso is a communist – me neither (moi non plus)."
Although there are several Gainsbourgologists who claim that this was a later press invention on Serge's part – and its neat way of bringing the conversation around to his own artiness, anti-communism and genius would certainly have been the kind of shrewd device he liked – it must be said that he did have a lifelong habit of coming across a catchphrase or a slogan and twisting it into a title which would, serve as the inspiration for a song.
And it might also be worth remembering that Serge – who never hid his admiration and affection for Dali, from buying his paintings and borrowing his home decor ideas to accompanying him on porn-watching sessions – had one of his seminal sexual experiences (which had long since become a favourite anecdote) with a woman he no longer loved, on the surrealist's living-room floor.
Certainly Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus's languid, almost over-pretty, chocolate-box melody contained some surreal images for a love song – ‘je vais et je viens, entre tes reins’, translation: 'I come and go between your kidneys'. But then, as the title indicated, this was a love song that denied it was a love song; or was too cynical or insecure to own up to what it really was. Something that Serge told Bayon in his 'Mort Ou Vices' interview comes to mind: All the key women in his life, he said, had told him that they loved him, "But me? Never. I feel it, but I don't know how to say it – although I love to hear it said."2
"I was shocked," Dominique Blanc-Francard (who years later would go on to become Serge's engineer) recalled the first time he heard the song on the radio as a teenager in France. "But at the same time I was excited. It was great – and it was amazing that someone had dared to do that. No-one else I know of in France had ever gone that far on a record, and certainly not with the talent that the record showed. I think that was what was so special about it – to have managed to be so provocative and at the same time to make such a beautiful piece of music. There are a lot of Anglo-Saxon artists who have been just provocative – Bowie, Lou Reed – but never in France, and never with such a beautiful, and such a chaste melody."
But the lyrical subtleties were lost on late '60s Brits (a repressed, quite puritanical bunch, in spite of the efforts of Swinging London and 'free-love' hippiedom); these, after all, were people who believed that 'French' was a sexual position. What they heard on 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was a slippery, expertly-stroked organ; a man and a woman's orgasmic groans; and a vaporous, soR-focus melody, the musical equivalent of a Vaseline-smeared Emmanuelle movie. Here it was known as 'that dirty record'- confirmation that life across the Channel was one of unchecked lubriciousness, and as essential a part of any successful seduction as a nice chilled bottle of Blue Nun. The press, of course, speculated – as they had with the Bardot version – that Serge and Jane had recorded a live sex session on a tape-recorder hidden under the bed. "To which Serge, said, 'Thank goodness it wasn't otherwise I hope it would have been a long-playing record'. We made it," said Jane, "very boringly in the studio in Marble Arch, both of us in sort of telephone cabins. When you recorded in the old days you only had two takes anyway He also put his hand up – because he was very afraid I was going to go on with the heavy breathing two seconds longer than I should and miss the high note – which was very, very high, an octave higher than the Bardot recording, because Serge thought that was more perverse, like a little choirboy – so he was waving at me like a madman from his cabin."
All in all it was better version, Serge said, than his original recording with Bardot. That one was "sublime", he told Bayon, but at the same time "it was too... hot, whereas with Jane and me it was total technique. It's like fucking: if you fuck hot, you fuck badly, if you fuck technique, you fuck better." With Bardot he said "It was a horrifying kind of copulation, which was, I believe, too much."
As soon as they had finished recording the song, Serge and Jane rushed back with it to Paris. "The hotel where we were living at the time – where Oscar Wilde died; Serge liked it because of that anecdote – had a restaurant in the wine-cellar where people could sit in the little compartments and have dinner. There was a man that used to play rather slow and discreet records for background music. Serge couldn't resist popping on 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'," said Jane. As they sat back and watched, "Everybody's knives and forks were in the air, suspended. Nobody went on eating. Serge said 'I think we've got a hit'." So did the record company chief. "He already knew the song because he'd heard the Bardot version, but he listened to it and said, 'Well Serge, I'm willing to go to pason but I'd rather go for a long-playing record, so go back to London and make another 10 songs, and I'll bring it out under a plain cover'. So we went back to England – Serge made up a couple of new songs on the ferry boat and we resung a few others so we could put out an L.P. And they put 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plust’ out in a plastic cover on which they wrote 'Interdit aux moins de 21 ans "' Over 21s only. Which of course guaranteed that sales soared.
Meanwhile, in Italy, 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was banned after being denounced as "obscenity" in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "The head of Phonogram in Italy was sent to prison and excommunicated," said Jane - actually a two-month suspended sentence and a fine for the distributor. "Serge said it was the biggest PR he could ever get. Then they heard about the record in South America through this Vatican newspaper and it got slipped back into Italy under the camouflage of Maria Callas record covers. So the whole thing from then on was extremely stimulating and exciting, because no-one had ever done anything like it before." Bans followed in Spain and Sweden. In the U.S., with very limited airplay, it hit an implausibly perfect soixante-neuf in the singles charts; the song seemed to take on a life and an inbuilt publicity campaign of its own.
In Britain, soon after its summer '69 release, the BBC predictably banned it, announcing that the song was "not considered suitable for play". Equally pre-dictably, the statement ensured that the record would be a hit. On August 2 the song made it to number two in the charts – and would have gone to the top if Philips' U.K. arm, Fontana, had not bowed to pressure from its international H.Q. They too issued a statement, which announced: "Certain sections of the press and general public have seen fit to make a controversy over the contents of this recording. And as Philips does not intend to allow any of their products to be the subject of controversial matters, the record is being withdrawn from our catalogue."
"Philips," said Gilles Verlant, "was partly owned by the reigning Dutch queen Juliana. When she heard of the scandal, the story goes, she told the board of directors she was displeased and asked for the song to be dropped immediately." At which point British keyboard player Tim Mycroft, operating under the group name Sounds Nice, took the opportunity to step in with an instrumental version, renamed 'Love At First Sight'. His reasoning made sense: since the BBC's ban (which, with their near-monopoly of the airwaves at the time, effectively meant zero airplay, outside of a couple of pirate stations and discotheques) had been based on the song's lyrical content (although, since the Iyrics were in French, no-one could precisely say what they were about) there could find no other objection once the words were removed. Profiting from the song's new infamy, Mycroft's rendition charted too, reaching number 18 on September 6.
Then suddenly Serge and Jane's version was back in the shops again – resuscitated by an independent record label Major-Minor. On 11 October 1969 it made it to number one. 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus', the first foreign-language single to take the pole position, spent a total of 34 weeks on the U.K. chart. Over the years it would continue to make the odd – sometimes very odd – reappearance. First, as expected, came the spoof version: Up Pompeii's Frankie Howard duetting with June Whitfield in 1971 on 'Up Je T'Aime'. Upholding the fine reputation of British sexuality, it featured June trying to stir the snoring Frankie by whispering French words of love in his ear, only to be met by protests: "Not again! Do you know what time it is? What on earth's got into you? It's not Friday, is it? Speak English, woman!" and so on. In 1974, the Jane and Serge original was reissued with a sexy picture-sleeve, bringing it back in the charts for a third time, this time reaching number 31. The following year, Judge Dread's interpretation of the song made it into the top 10. Even into the '80s, the song could still shift copies. A quite dreadful cover by actors Gordon Kaye and Vicki Michelle from the TV series Allo, 'Allo, singing in their characters of Rene and Yvette, managed to squeeze into the Top 60. The '90s in their turn brought a bagpipe version by The Lothian & Borders Police Band. The song made its last, and possibly least appropriate British appearance of the millennium as the theme music to a British TV commercial – the not entirely erotic John Smith's Bitter beer.
In the U.S. 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was tugged into a 16-minute epic in 1978 by disco queen Donna Summer and tackled by Cibo Matto and Sean Lennon on jazzman John Zorn's tribute album to Serge. As this book went to press [2003?], Madonna had sought and been granted permission to record her own version of the song and, since her original plan – a reputed duet with Britney Spears – sadly (or not) fell through due to their "divergent schedules", she was last reported to have approached David Bowie to be her new singing partner.
In Australia, the song was translated into English by Mick Harvey of The Bad Seeds and sung by Nick Cave and Anita Lane. But it was the U.K. that truly embraced the song – for which Serge had a theory. He shared it with French magazine Rock & Folk in 1971: "I know certain people close to Princess Margaret who think it's about sodomy. A fact which made them very happy Perhaps that's the reason why I got to number one in England."
The source "close to Princess Margaret" one assumes, was Lord Snowdon – alias Anthony Armstrong-Jones, the man name-checked in 'Un Poison Violent, C'Est Ca L'Amour' on Anna, and Serge's future album-sleeve photographer. Snowdon also told him, to Serge's utter delight, that on one of his trips with the wife to the Caribbean, the brass band dispatched to the airport to give the distinguished visitors their official greeting played the only two 'British' tunes they knew – the U.K. National Anthem, and 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'.
"Even now, when I go to England" said Jane, "taxi drivers screech to a halt when I can't resist saying I was the girl who sang 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'. One of them turned round and said, 'I had three fucking children to that record!' He had it at home and I went there and signed it. It's a historical record – but it's also a criminal record; you're reminded of it constantly. All I got from the British press for the last 30 years, was 'what dirty records have you made, Jane?' which was a bit demoralising. But actually, if you're going to be well-known for something until you die, why not that?"
In a sober moment, Serge claimed that his hymn to sexual liberation was, in fact, an "anti-fuck" song, about the desperation and innate impossibility of physical love. If the Vatican had not approved of its "almost liturgical" melody, they could at least have commended him for lyrics in which he did not allow himself to come. Anyway, he joked, the record was too short: "As for reaching a climax, it would have had to have been a 1 2-inch record for that."
Whatever, at the age of 41 and after 11 years in the business, Serge finally had his hit. An enormous hit. One that deserved a mark of recognition. Since nobody had awarded him one, he took himself off to Cartier the jewellers and ordered himself a star – a Jewish star, in platinum. A first step towards exorcising the rejection and humiliation of his teenage 'sheriff's badge' years.”
[24] A single by this Russian Jew covering Dylan, an American Jew from Minnesota. They had a lot more in common than just these facts and this cover version/interpretation of Dylan’s "Hollis Brown" in 1964. Dylan was still largely unknown to the French listeners then. Too bad Dylan has never turned to SG to cover one of his songs. It would be an interesting exercise. Vidocq was a kind of Robin Hood…
[25] From film of the same name released in 1968 in Germany. Aka “Hemmungslose Manon”.
[26] “Requiem for a Jerk” Con loosely translated as jerk or asshole, by Harvey as cunt to capture that percussive punch to the face of the KK sound. Harvey’s version is great. SG a song about writing a song written especially for a jerk [unnamed] who caused him lots of grief. Basically please listen to this song where I talk about home much you disgust me and after you listen you’ll know where we stand.
[27] "Serge Gainsbourg no. 2 avec Alain Gorguer" on Philips. Excellent rereleases of early Serge material with original artwork, cover, etc. showing him in his emergent dandy [Dali-Baudelaire-meets-mambo] phase.
[28] “Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited” on Barclay/Universal. I don’t have the record but I do have a sampler that came with a great retrospective issue of Inrockuptibles. Having just read a review of the entire album in ‘our’ Volkskrant [daily] I suspected as much from the names of the participants: that for the most part it is all a bit of clueless bandwagon aping. Doing what might be good for a young career. But for the most part it, the young Brits interpreting SG, and the project proves you can’t just let people hear a song once and tell them a bit about him or whatever and expect a lot of soulful results. This is an exception. For better Eng versions check Mick Harvey. For better youthful interpretations check the reggae/dub collections “Mauvaises Nouvelles” and “Aux Armes et Caetera” which are great collections of SG’s reggae era work recorded in Kingston with Sly & Robbie & a top notch crew. It includes not only original versions, but many dubbier outtakes and young interpretations by youthful rappers, reggae singers.
[29] This is a very cool version which goes perfectly along with their other send up of a singer who indulges in prurience, Barry White [there is some loungy relaxed aspect of the 2 that converges at insinuated prurience] “I’m the Man For You Baby.”
[30] Excerpts from an interview with SG in 1989 with Christian Fevret that appeared on an Inrockuptible cd I think. It reveals SG as a self-effacing and reserved star who mumbles in a humble imploding manner.
[31] "Cinemix" on Universal. "Cinemix" on Editions Sido / Universal. Hip and contentious reuses of forgotten French soundtracks. Here Tati becomes almost unrecognizable for better or worse.
[32] Just discovered this on an old WTM program tape c. 1992. Typical orgasmic sigh send up. “Je T’Aime” must be one of the most satirised songs…
[33] C Solaar is one of the great jazz-influenced rappers who does not go in for gangsta rap and maintains a certain high level of content, sound and self-esteem. Cool for years here sampling generously the pneumatic sighs of Bardot from “Bonnie & Clyde”.
[34] Amazing piece by La Horde commandeering some SG vocals for the funky “Sex Machine” of James Brown. I like this kind of cultural plunderphonics so much I played it twice. [thanx black sifichi at radio aligre for sending that along!!]
[35] “Serge Gainsbourg vol. 3” on Universal. Weird selection of less-successful works with some amazing oddities squeezed in like this. Some hillbilly inspired sounds here and there!
Gains-notes:
• Some Versions of "Je T’Aime ... Moi Non Plus" check out the Covers Project for more Serge Covers, plus many thanx to the elusive Dr. Benway
• "69 Année Érotique" by Luscious Jackson on "Aint Nuthin’ But A She Thang."
• "Harley Davidson" was a song written for Brigitte Bardot, which he sang with her as a true homage to pure sensuality. Bardot straddles a Harley in leather hot pants on a TV variety show. While "Harley David Son of a Bitch," was recorded some twenty years later on the album Love On the Beat as an outlaw self-parodying satire to insouciant posturing — Gainsbourg grunts in full Brando-esque "Wild One" hoodlum bluster "Hey, what the hell you doin’ on my Harley?" This song is properly recooked by the Bollocks Brothers with Johnny Lydon’s brother on snarly vocals.
• "Harley David Son of a Bitch" by avant garde performer, Kazuko Hohki, is an eccentric gem.
• The British duo No-Man did a dramatic trip-hop-styled cover of "Evelyn (The Song Of Slurs)" for a Gainsbourg tribute album a few years ago. By the way, apparently they used Mick Harvey's English translation. The song also appears on their Dry Cleaning Ray album from 1997.
• "Bonnie & Clyde" by Luna with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab is an excellent, if a little benzedrine-melancholy, version of Bardot and Gainsbourg’s first hit.
• "Comic Strip" duet Black Sifichi & Roma Napoli called "Comics Trip" on "Fellatio Praecox: Outspoken Word Trips" (unreleased private trax) Bootleg CD, great raw versions of pieces that appear on the excellent Sifichi debut, TICK.
• "Rascal You" in 1986 Gainsbourg sang "Vieille Canaille" in duet with sometime French rockabilly legend, Eddy Mitchell, (a recombined Big Bopper + Karl Malden).
• "Comment A Dire Adieu" by Jimmy Somerville in fine nitrous oxide castrati form(post-disco!!). Is he part BeeGee or part Chipmunk?
• "Nous ne Sommes pas des Anges" by Heavenly (Operation Heavenly, England; Sarah records)
• "Versions" is a 1996 collection of Jane Birkin reworked/remixed Gainsbourg songs with, among others, the great Les Negresses Verts and Suede’s Brett Anderson.
• In 1983, Gainsbourg wrote an entire album’s worth of compositions including the bizarre homage to Bowie "Beau Oui Comme Bowie" for Isabelle Adjani. Years earlier, then only 19, Adjani visited Gainsbourg and declared, according to Gainsbourg, that "if I ever decide to sing, it will be Gainsbourg songs."
• Singers who have covered Gainsbourg songs: Jane Birkin, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Dutronc, Catherine Deneuve, Petula Clark, Vanessa Paradis, Juliette Greco, Black Grape, Momus, Valerie Lagrange,Dave-Id Busaras, Erotic Light Orchestra, Frankie Howard & June Whitfield, Malcolm McLaren, Panico, Pet Shop Boys, Ray Coniff, Vicious Pink Phenomenon, Zouk, Dub Syndicate, Dzihan & Kamien, Fausto Papetti, Paul Mauriat, Anna Karina, Marie Blanche Vergne, Zizi, Etienne Dao, Twinkle, Lady Atomika, Philippe Dauga, Michelle Mercier, Alain Chamfort, Alan Bashung, Mirielle Darc, Martin Circus, Julien Clerc, Bijou, Toubib, Jo Lemaire, Gloria Lasso, Regine, Dominique Walter, Claude François, Michelle Torr, France Gall, Les Mercenaires, Les Freres Jacques, Michelle Arnaud, Pia Colombo, Jean-Claude Pascal, Philippe Clay, Catherine Sauvage, Alain Brunet, Nana Mouskouri, Dalida, Marc Almond...
Some Songs That Sample Gainsbourg: • "Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg" by Christian Marclay, the first avant anthropological scratch sampler goes Sergely delirious.
• In 1967 Bardot and Gainsbourg had a hit with the irrepressibly quirky "Bonnie and Clyde" [French & English versions]. This song is handsomely sampled on "Nouveau Western" by the premier French rapper, MC Solaar and also on — is it "Bubbaluba" — (oh shoot, I’ve lost this version and my notes on this one) by the adventurous English post-dub crew, Renegade Sound Wave. [Someone help me out with this one!]
• "Behind The Sun (Deep Ambient Mix)" by Starseed contains subtle samples of "Je T’Aime"
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies:
Serge Gainsbourg: Een Hommage / Paradiso / 23 September “Records, TV , newspapers, having an impact on millions of kids, it’s hallucinatory. A painting by Raphael will never sell as many tickets as Michael Jackson – never. Hallucinatory – a minor art screwing a major art up the ass.”
• Serge [in Fistful of Gitanes] 18 September 2006
Generique Les Loups > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Fuite du Roquin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans la Bergerie > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Lemon Incest > Serge & Charlotte Gainsbourg [5]
La Horse [Gainsbourg] > Sofa Surfers [31]
Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Charlotte Gainsbourg Radio Interview
+ Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
La Horse > Serge Gainsbourg [31]
Toi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus > Dub Syndicate [29]
Nuits Francaises > Him and Her [32]
Je T’Aime (Moin non Plus) > Judge Dread [23]
Nouveau Western > MC Solaar [33]
Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus > Malcolm McClaren [23]
Dub From the Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
Sex Machine > Serge Gainsbourg vs La Horde [34]
Bonnie & Clyde > Bridget Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg [2a]
Bad News From the Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Requiem Pour un Con remix 91 > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Requiem Pour un Con > The Orb [2]
Requiem Pour un Twister > Serge Gainsbourg [15]
La Horse [Gainsbourg] > Howie B. [31]
+ Serge et Mort > Radio Actualities
Angoisse > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Un Violin un Jambon Serge Gainsbourg [35]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Poincenneur de Lilas > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
L’Homme a Tete de Chou > Serge Gainsbourg [35]
Sex Machine > Serge Gainsbourg vs La Horde [34]
• A bit out of sequence as the busyness of life collaborates with the ever narrower corridor of how we experience the squeezing and shrinking of time. The arguments between perception and actuality don’t matter. There is an acceleration of the passage and duration of events that can’t be explained so easily.
• That is my excuse but I am putting this show ahead of others because tomorrow in Amsterdam will see the big night of over 2 weeks of Serge-related activities at the Maison Descartes until 29 Sept, At the film Museum showing his tv commercials, the feature “Je T’Aime Moi non Plus” [starring Joe Dellasandro! I think], Equator and Charlotte Forever; and Saturday at the Paradiso with Jean-Claude Vannier [the man behind Melody Nelson], Cor Gout [Dutch interpretations of Serge songs], Sylvie Simmons reading from her excellent book “A Fistful of gitanes”, Pablo & Julien with their Dutch translation of Euvgenie Sokolov and DJ Guuzbourg with his special selection of sighing-girl songs. After midnight begins the dance night with 60s French ye-ye music and others…
[1] Marclay: A great cut by the first real scratching conceptual turntablist. From some collection of his plunderings on vinyl that I happened to have on tape thanks to my tour of duty at WFMU.
[2] "I Love Serge: ElectronicaGainsbourg" on Mercury France 2001. This is such an exquisite and right-on direct hit that it surpasses instantly ALL nostalgic value and becomes music for today. It is as if SG is still alive and instead of going into he studio with Sly & Robbie like he did in 1979, he went into the studio with all the youngest and hippest loungey trip hopster producers and came away with a great disc. As if he had nonchalantly gone on auto-cannibalization... and came back with something MOVING. What makes this one distinctive is one it uses the actual songs/voice/lyrics of SG to revamp old hits AND he cool loungy feel would fit in perfectly with SG's own demeanor and appetites. I highly recommend it. Especially SNOOZE, the Orb, Howie B. and Faze Action.
[2a] This comes off a tape made by Black Sifichi for me containing all sorts of rarities including strange interviews and cover versions of Bob Dylan! He also did “Comic Strip” in an English version and [Broken] English version of Bonnie & Clyde that romanticises outlaws. With Bardot’s prominent lungs adding vocal percussive verve.
[3] "Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg" on Tzadik, 1997, produced by John Zorn is at once a beautiful collection full of vexing and clueless homages. The ones that hit right to the quick. Marc Ribot’s tribute is right on as are Robin Holcomb / Wayne Horovitz, Cyro Baptista, Franz Treichler & Tronte, Michelle Amar & Eyvind Kang, and Medeski/Wood & Martin are all direct hits. They actually studied SG or at least boned up. While some of the others are purposelessly clueless or contrary as if making a mess of beauty can still be seen as earnest protest. Gallant near-misses include Sean Lennon & Cibo Matto, Fred Frith, Franz Treichler, and David Shea. Some clueless clinkers by Ruins and Anthony Coleman. A mixed bag rectifiable by programming own selection on your stereo. Liner notes by executive producer John Zorn.
[4] "Serge Gainsbourg" on Polygram adequate 2 record set with all the obvious hits but misses most of his great reggae forays with Sly & Robbie & the I-Threes. Very little info or context but good starter nonetheless. Also on just about every repackaging of SG material including the wonderful look at his hipster mambo period, * "Couleur Cafe" on Philips. This is one of 4 repackagings of Serge works in 4 themes. It is a very nicely produced series, better than any number of other rehashes of SG music. Death is certainly a boon to the reissue market.
[5] "De Gainsbourg A Gainsbarre" on Phonogram/Philips is a better than average 2-CD collection with a sensibly moving sequence to the songs that allows you to partake of a wide range [although not much of the reggae period] of his omniverious apprpriations and retoolings of pop genres. Great intro to Serge – with lyrics.
[5a] SG drunkenly singing a wonderful old tune and also doing up the national anthem... Off a tape from dub-mate, Laurent at WTM-Paris HQ.
[6] "Serge Gainsbourg du Jazz Dans le Ravin" on Philips, 1996, is truly a beautiful collection of his jazzier fare, some beautiful instrumentals like "Angoisse" which is truly memorable Serge Gainsbourg: du jazz dans le ravin (Philips / Mercury) 1996 repackaging of Gainsbourg’s jazzier stuff. Highly recommended. Especially the instrumental material some of which comes from his underrated soundtrack work. Could he have been competing with John Barry, the husband of his then-love, Jane Birkin?
[6a] This is off an old cassette that Laurent of WTM-Paris made for me. It reveals a situation in a pinball [flipper: FR] hall where Anna Karina [famous for her roles in various Godard and Truffaut flicks] confronts SG for being a womanizer. Wonderful summation of the torturous and delightful tension that lies between the sexes which maybe the secret to his genius – his ability to render that tense humorous repartee between the sexes.
[7] "Pink Elephants" is Mick Harvey's (ex-Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) follow-up to "Intoxicated Man" his first CD of Serge covers, and is just as good as an accurate yet soul-driven attempt to render Gainsbourg's songs in inspired yet faithful English translations. Other Bad Seeds:Barry Adamson creates probably the most hauntingly precise evanescent Serge replication. Anita Lane covers SG on her album "The World’s a Girl"
[8] Off a tape from radio comrade Dave Shyboy. The band is made up of Rob Murphy, Akiko Sato & Tomoko Minamizaki. Wow, this is a nice piece and continues that strange cultural phenom of the Japanese obsession with things French, from Hermes bags to SG. There ARE a lot of Japanese versions of SG music.
[9] “Aux Armes Aetcetera” is a great album of relaxed hip, of gnaja extremis, or laid back lounge that perfectly evokes the slack and soothing feeling of someone smoking a lot of ganja. He was one of the first of the |Westerners to invade Jamaica and he allowed the I-Threes and Sly & Robbie and the entire Taxi Crew to be themselves and at the same time produce one of the more interesting [western] reggae albums of all time.
[9a] "Aux Armes et Caetera" on Mercury. Beautiful reissue and re-establishment of the sound at the time of the recording – late 1970s. We get an incredibly lively atmosphere in Jamaica as the geniuses of late 1970 dub/reggae vie with Gainsbourg to create a loose and jolly album of deep bouncy dub that holds up incredibly well. Great package with original mixes, remixes and update versions by young French rappers and reggae singers.
[10] “Thank God It’s Friday” Soundtrack from what I have heard is a dreadful movie on Casablanca, 1978. It says its a bonus single. I never saw the film so I don’t know if that means it isn’t in the film. It doesn’t matter. This is an endurance test but somehow appropriate send-up homage and at 17 minutes clocks in at the same length as In-a-Gadda-da-Vida! Its sheer fat length [over 16 minutes] makes it an amazing version in and of itself. But it is also a strangely on target update of the song [albeit only 8 years after the original].
[11] This I got courtesy of the lead singer in PANE, Leo. It is a pretty interesting psycho-active remake.
[12] This was the original version which was pickled in a back archive for many many years after SG & BB broke up and SG started going out with ex-wife of John Barry, the utterly charming Jane Birkin who did her own version with SG which became the ultimate kitsch sex sigh song of all time.
[13] “Love on the Beat” on Philips, 1984 was produced by Larry Fast in NJ, actually VERY close to the WFMU studios. This song is gruesome and sometimes difficult to listen to as the sighs of a woman being “banged” turn from pleasure to torture and further and relentless. The disc also includes further forays into stretching his loutish persona, a persona that allowed him a kind of charmed hands-off creative life. “Harley Davidson” & “Lemon Incest” are 2 very provocative tongue firm in someone’s cheek pieces.
[14] “Chatterton” was a single dedicated to the young poet who committed suicide at 19[?] which is a starting point for SG to list other artistic casualties of society’s pressures to conform... not unlike Jim Carroll’s minor hit “People Who Died” but funnier.
[15] "Fellatio Praecox: Outspoken Word Trips” is his Black (unreleased private trax) Bootleg CD. And it contains this nitrous oxide powered manic homage to SG. BS dueting here with partner Roma Napoli, a visual artist who has helped shape Parisian art for the last 20 years.
[16] Incredible rare tapes of rare glimpses of SG doing radio, TV, etc. interviews where he talks about everything from Baudelaire to provocative actions to his fascination with the poetry of American pop [c. 60s] plus some in studio ‘unplugged’ versions of songs, courtesy again of Black Sifichi.
[17] Very in-depth interviews with SG mumbling and whispering [ala Dylan or Brando] where the miscomprehensions and inaudible parts just add to the creation of more poetic observations. And you see that he brought substance to style and that his style was etched deep into his DNA. Thanx Black Sifichi.
[18] “Jazz in Paris: Jazz & Cinema, vol. 3” on Universal/Gitanes inc. the SG soundtrack material but also soundtracks for “Les Tripes au Soleil” a film by Claude Bernard-Aubert, soundtrack composed by Andre Hodeir asn well as some pieces from “The Connection” and “One Mint Julep”. The SG work for “Wolves in the Sheepfold” [their loose trans] is among the hundreds of films which have fallen into almost total obscurity and in fact, may very well merely exist now in soundtrack form. The film is a noir thriller that pits juvenile delinquents against gangsters. The writer of the liner notes, Alain Tercinet, notes that the music is superb [i agree] and gets very close to the eterheal qualities of what was then known as “West Coast Jazz”. [18] “Jazz in Paris / Jazz & Cinema vol. 3” on Gitanes/Universal. Handsome series of repackaged jazz and soundtrack music focused mainly on Paris. Rare soundtrack showing his atmospheric Mancini / [rival] John Barry side.
[19] “Serge Gainsbourg no. 2” on Philips, rereleased with all the original artwork and with Alain Goraguer and his Orchestra. Philips pillages its own archives quite tastefully. as Simmons describes the disc “mutant jazz-pop engaged in an unnatural act with chanson…”
[20] "Couleur Cafe" on Philips. This is one of 4 repackagings of Serge works in 4 themes. It is a very nicely produced series, better than any number of other rehashes of SG music. Death is certainly a boon to the reissue market. For more about SG. This is from the soundtrack for Comment Trouvez-vous ma Souer? Also includes songs I have never heard: “Marshmallow Man” and “Rocking Horse” and “No Love for Daddy”. SG was developing his “unique” or at least interesting use of ambiences, a kind of wall of sound effect.
[21] Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles” on Philips. Simmons: “named after a Paul Klee painting that hung in Serge’s house”. Originally released in 1981. This is beautiful French surreal devil-may-fuck-me casual delivery meets the perfectly attuned reggae rhythms as supplied by Jamaican legends Sly & Robbie, the I-Threes. In it he tries to stir scandal to stir his heart.
[21a] “Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles” on Philips/Mercury/Universal, 2003. Amazingly cool 2-CD repackaging of rediscovered missing dub and reggae tracks plus the original album and DJ interpretations. Great package for all those Serge reggae-period fans, an oft-neglected aspect of SG’s output. I really like this stuff because it sounds so full and modern, full of dubby psychotropic playfulness and SG was the first francophone to use reggae [1978 with the 1979 release of his controversial “Aux Armes et caetera”, and preceded the Clash’s visit to Jamaica [although SG recorded his Jamaican material in the Bahamas which included the provocative/antagonizing parody of “La Marseillaise” that got him in trouble with the right wing and some old war veterans. So antagonistic that his Jamaican backing band got spooked to the point of refusing to appear before an ornery crowd, which compelled Gainsbourg to go out solo and perform some material a capella. On this album he addresses the antagonism of the old Vet Parachutists who threatened boycotts [which only increased sales of Aux Armes] on But here SG also makes you realize that reggae and the French language are very amicable. There is something smooth and slurred about French that lends itself well to ganja and dub. Disc one is basically fairly similar to the original 1981 release but they are still SG’s versions, some phrases are emphasized, some songs are shorter or longer or have a bit more reverby atmosphere.
Disc Two of the above includes very nice rediscovered remastered dub versions of the originals. They are tuned up to max reverb effect as SG drowned his Birkin separation sorrows in rum punch and ganja and went wild on extemporaneous ganja–inflected poesie absurd. This is a real treat and makes you realize that SG has/had a much better ear for sound than most of his chanteur contemporaries. This disc sounds like it could have been made yesterday. Disc Two, Part 2: This is an interesting although not altogether successful remix versions update with modern DJs and MCs jamming with the ghost of SG. It does testify to the ageless & universal aspects of his compositional and zeitgeist-absorption skills.
[22] I don’t know what record this is off of. But the acid must have been spiked with something much more menacing…
[23] "Je T’Aime … Encore Une Fois" courtesy of Dr. Benway a colleague at Radio 100 International. That SG did his less famous duet first with BB is fairly well-known. He put out the Birkin version when he started dating JB, who had been married to John Barry, renowned soundtrack [James Bond Theme] composer. That SG was a fine instrumental and soundtrack composer is less well-known. Many of his soundtrack efforts sound a little like he is trying to outdo Barry at his own game. It is easy to see why McLaren would like SG. Judge Dread does an appropriately bawdy penis-focused version. The insouciant spirit of tweaking straight media and boring culture must have had a hand in this version. Scandal-driven must have learned some of his naughty tactics not only from the Situationists but also from Gainsbarre.
I quote generously here from chapter 8 in A Fistful of Gitanes by Sylvie Simmons, Helter Skelter. It is an excellent account in an incredibly well-researched book that is not only full of little-known details and gossip but full of insight and places Gainsbourg in a more global and retrospective context. The book is an incredibly fascinating bio. Please patronise the publisher and order a copy. This deserves much broader circulation if not for SG himself then for the great job done by SS.
When, in 1991, Serge secured a place in the renowned French encyclopaedia 'Larousse', slotted between the painter Thomas Gainsborough and Nietzsche's poetic opus 'Gai Savoir', the song the compilers selected as representative of his oeuvre was 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus', his duet with lane Birkin. A song whose release as a single in 1969 caused outrage in several languages, at least one excommunication, incalculable unplanned pregnancies and sales in excess of six million singles worldwide.
While its vaporous, quasi-classical melody had its roots in an instrumental that Serge had written for the 1967 film Les Coeurs Verts, its title, he claimed, had been inspired by something that Salvador Dali once said: "Picasso is Spanish – me too. Picasso is a genius – me too. Picasso is a communist – me neither (moi non plus)."
Although there are several Gainsbourgologists who claim that this was a later press invention on Serge's part – and its neat way of bringing the conversation around to his own artiness, anti-communism and genius would certainly have been the kind of shrewd device he liked – it must be said that he did have a lifelong habit of coming across a catchphrase or a slogan and twisting it into a title which would, serve as the inspiration for a song.
And it might also be worth remembering that Serge – who never hid his admiration and affection for Dali, from buying his paintings and borrowing his home decor ideas to accompanying him on porn-watching sessions – had one of his seminal sexual experiences (which had long since become a favourite anecdote) with a woman he no longer loved, on the surrealist's living-room floor.
Certainly Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus's languid, almost over-pretty, chocolate-box melody contained some surreal images for a love song – ‘je vais et je viens, entre tes reins’, translation: 'I come and go between your kidneys'. But then, as the title indicated, this was a love song that denied it was a love song; or was too cynical or insecure to own up to what it really was. Something that Serge told Bayon in his 'Mort Ou Vices' interview comes to mind: All the key women in his life, he said, had told him that they loved him, "But me? Never. I feel it, but I don't know how to say it – although I love to hear it said."2
"I was shocked," Dominique Blanc-Francard (who years later would go on to become Serge's engineer) recalled the first time he heard the song on the radio as a teenager in France. "But at the same time I was excited. It was great – and it was amazing that someone had dared to do that. No-one else I know of in France had ever gone that far on a record, and certainly not with the talent that the record showed. I think that was what was so special about it – to have managed to be so provocative and at the same time to make such a beautiful piece of music. There are a lot of Anglo-Saxon artists who have been just provocative – Bowie, Lou Reed – but never in France, and never with such a beautiful, and such a chaste melody."
But the lyrical subtleties were lost on late '60s Brits (a repressed, quite puritanical bunch, in spite of the efforts of Swinging London and 'free-love' hippiedom); these, after all, were people who believed that 'French' was a sexual position. What they heard on 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was a slippery, expertly-stroked organ; a man and a woman's orgasmic groans; and a vaporous, soR-focus melody, the musical equivalent of a Vaseline-smeared Emmanuelle movie. Here it was known as 'that dirty record'- confirmation that life across the Channel was one of unchecked lubriciousness, and as essential a part of any successful seduction as a nice chilled bottle of Blue Nun. The press, of course, speculated – as they had with the Bardot version – that Serge and Jane had recorded a live sex session on a tape-recorder hidden under the bed. "To which Serge, said, 'Thank goodness it wasn't otherwise I hope it would have been a long-playing record'. We made it," said Jane, "very boringly in the studio in Marble Arch, both of us in sort of telephone cabins. When you recorded in the old days you only had two takes anyway He also put his hand up – because he was very afraid I was going to go on with the heavy breathing two seconds longer than I should and miss the high note – which was very, very high, an octave higher than the Bardot recording, because Serge thought that was more perverse, like a little choirboy – so he was waving at me like a madman from his cabin."
All in all it was better version, Serge said, than his original recording with Bardot. That one was "sublime", he told Bayon, but at the same time "it was too... hot, whereas with Jane and me it was total technique. It's like fucking: if you fuck hot, you fuck badly, if you fuck technique, you fuck better." With Bardot he said "It was a horrifying kind of copulation, which was, I believe, too much."
As soon as they had finished recording the song, Serge and Jane rushed back with it to Paris. "The hotel where we were living at the time – where Oscar Wilde died; Serge liked it because of that anecdote – had a restaurant in the wine-cellar where people could sit in the little compartments and have dinner. There was a man that used to play rather slow and discreet records for background music. Serge couldn't resist popping on 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'," said Jane. As they sat back and watched, "Everybody's knives and forks were in the air, suspended. Nobody went on eating. Serge said 'I think we've got a hit'." So did the record company chief. "He already knew the song because he'd heard the Bardot version, but he listened to it and said, 'Well Serge, I'm willing to go to pason but I'd rather go for a long-playing record, so go back to London and make another 10 songs, and I'll bring it out under a plain cover'. So we went back to England – Serge made up a couple of new songs on the ferry boat and we resung a few others so we could put out an L.P. And they put 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plust’ out in a plastic cover on which they wrote 'Interdit aux moins de 21 ans "' Over 21s only. Which of course guaranteed that sales soared.
Meanwhile, in Italy, 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was banned after being denounced as "obscenity" in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "The head of Phonogram in Italy was sent to prison and excommunicated," said Jane - actually a two-month suspended sentence and a fine for the distributor. "Serge said it was the biggest PR he could ever get. Then they heard about the record in South America through this Vatican newspaper and it got slipped back into Italy under the camouflage of Maria Callas record covers. So the whole thing from then on was extremely stimulating and exciting, because no-one had ever done anything like it before." Bans followed in Spain and Sweden. In the U.S., with very limited airplay, it hit an implausibly perfect soixante-neuf in the singles charts; the song seemed to take on a life and an inbuilt publicity campaign of its own.
In Britain, soon after its summer '69 release, the BBC predictably banned it, announcing that the song was "not considered suitable for play". Equally pre-dictably, the statement ensured that the record would be a hit. On August 2 the song made it to number two in the charts – and would have gone to the top if Philips' U.K. arm, Fontana, had not bowed to pressure from its international H.Q. They too issued a statement, which announced: "Certain sections of the press and general public have seen fit to make a controversy over the contents of this recording. And as Philips does not intend to allow any of their products to be the subject of controversial matters, the record is being withdrawn from our catalogue."
"Philips," said Gilles Verlant, "was partly owned by the reigning Dutch queen Juliana. When she heard of the scandal, the story goes, she told the board of directors she was displeased and asked for the song to be dropped immediately." At which point British keyboard player Tim Mycroft, operating under the group name Sounds Nice, took the opportunity to step in with an instrumental version, renamed 'Love At First Sight'. His reasoning made sense: since the BBC's ban (which, with their near-monopoly of the airwaves at the time, effectively meant zero airplay, outside of a couple of pirate stations and discotheques) had been based on the song's lyrical content (although, since the Iyrics were in French, no-one could precisely say what they were about) there could find no other objection once the words were removed. Profiting from the song's new infamy, Mycroft's rendition charted too, reaching number 18 on September 6.
Then suddenly Serge and Jane's version was back in the shops again – resuscitated by an independent record label Major-Minor. On 11 October 1969 it made it to number one. 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus', the first foreign-language single to take the pole position, spent a total of 34 weeks on the U.K. chart. Over the years it would continue to make the odd – sometimes very odd – reappearance. First, as expected, came the spoof version: Up Pompeii's Frankie Howard duetting with June Whitfield in 1971 on 'Up Je T'Aime'. Upholding the fine reputation of British sexuality, it featured June trying to stir the snoring Frankie by whispering French words of love in his ear, only to be met by protests: "Not again! Do you know what time it is? What on earth's got into you? It's not Friday, is it? Speak English, woman!" and so on. In 1974, the Jane and Serge original was reissued with a sexy picture-sleeve, bringing it back in the charts for a third time, this time reaching number 31. The following year, Judge Dread's interpretation of the song made it into the top 10. Even into the '80s, the song could still shift copies. A quite dreadful cover by actors Gordon Kaye and Vicki Michelle from the TV series Allo, 'Allo, singing in their characters of Rene and Yvette, managed to squeeze into the Top 60. The '90s in their turn brought a bagpipe version by The Lothian & Borders Police Band. The song made its last, and possibly least appropriate British appearance of the millennium as the theme music to a British TV commercial – the not entirely erotic John Smith's Bitter beer.
In the U.S. 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' was tugged into a 16-minute epic in 1978 by disco queen Donna Summer and tackled by Cibo Matto and Sean Lennon on jazzman John Zorn's tribute album to Serge. As this book went to press [2003?], Madonna had sought and been granted permission to record her own version of the song and, since her original plan – a reputed duet with Britney Spears – sadly (or not) fell through due to their "divergent schedules", she was last reported to have approached David Bowie to be her new singing partner.
In Australia, the song was translated into English by Mick Harvey of The Bad Seeds and sung by Nick Cave and Anita Lane. But it was the U.K. that truly embraced the song – for which Serge had a theory. He shared it with French magazine Rock & Folk in 1971: "I know certain people close to Princess Margaret who think it's about sodomy. A fact which made them very happy Perhaps that's the reason why I got to number one in England."
The source "close to Princess Margaret" one assumes, was Lord Snowdon – alias Anthony Armstrong-Jones, the man name-checked in 'Un Poison Violent, C'Est Ca L'Amour' on Anna, and Serge's future album-sleeve photographer. Snowdon also told him, to Serge's utter delight, that on one of his trips with the wife to the Caribbean, the brass band dispatched to the airport to give the distinguished visitors their official greeting played the only two 'British' tunes they knew – the U.K. National Anthem, and 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'.
"Even now, when I go to England" said Jane, "taxi drivers screech to a halt when I can't resist saying I was the girl who sang 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'. One of them turned round and said, 'I had three fucking children to that record!' He had it at home and I went there and signed it. It's a historical record – but it's also a criminal record; you're reminded of it constantly. All I got from the British press for the last 30 years, was 'what dirty records have you made, Jane?' which was a bit demoralising. But actually, if you're going to be well-known for something until you die, why not that?"
In a sober moment, Serge claimed that his hymn to sexual liberation was, in fact, an "anti-fuck" song, about the desperation and innate impossibility of physical love. If the Vatican had not approved of its "almost liturgical" melody, they could at least have commended him for lyrics in which he did not allow himself to come. Anyway, he joked, the record was too short: "As for reaching a climax, it would have had to have been a 1 2-inch record for that."
Whatever, at the age of 41 and after 11 years in the business, Serge finally had his hit. An enormous hit. One that deserved a mark of recognition. Since nobody had awarded him one, he took himself off to Cartier the jewellers and ordered himself a star – a Jewish star, in platinum. A first step towards exorcising the rejection and humiliation of his teenage 'sheriff's badge' years.”
[24] A single by this Russian Jew covering Dylan, an American Jew from Minnesota. They had a lot more in common than just these facts and this cover version/interpretation of Dylan’s "Hollis Brown" in 1964. Dylan was still largely unknown to the French listeners then. Too bad Dylan has never turned to SG to cover one of his songs. It would be an interesting exercise. Vidocq was a kind of Robin Hood…
[25] From film of the same name released in 1968 in Germany. Aka “Hemmungslose Manon”.
[26] “Requiem for a Jerk” Con loosely translated as jerk or asshole, by Harvey as cunt to capture that percussive punch to the face of the KK sound. Harvey’s version is great. SG a song about writing a song written especially for a jerk [unnamed] who caused him lots of grief. Basically please listen to this song where I talk about home much you disgust me and after you listen you’ll know where we stand.
[27] "Serge Gainsbourg no. 2 avec Alain Gorguer" on Philips. Excellent rereleases of early Serge material with original artwork, cover, etc. showing him in his emergent dandy [Dali-Baudelaire-meets-mambo] phase.
[28] “Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited” on Barclay/Universal. I don’t have the record but I do have a sampler that came with a great retrospective issue of Inrockuptibles. Having just read a review of the entire album in ‘our’ Volkskrant [daily] I suspected as much from the names of the participants: that for the most part it is all a bit of clueless bandwagon aping. Doing what might be good for a young career. But for the most part it, the young Brits interpreting SG, and the project proves you can’t just let people hear a song once and tell them a bit about him or whatever and expect a lot of soulful results. This is an exception. For better Eng versions check Mick Harvey. For better youthful interpretations check the reggae/dub collections “Mauvaises Nouvelles” and “Aux Armes et Caetera” which are great collections of SG’s reggae era work recorded in Kingston with Sly & Robbie & a top notch crew. It includes not only original versions, but many dubbier outtakes and young interpretations by youthful rappers, reggae singers.
[29] This is a very cool version which goes perfectly along with their other send up of a singer who indulges in prurience, Barry White [there is some loungy relaxed aspect of the 2 that converges at insinuated prurience] “I’m the Man For You Baby.”
[30] Excerpts from an interview with SG in 1989 with Christian Fevret that appeared on an Inrockuptible cd I think. It reveals SG as a self-effacing and reserved star who mumbles in a humble imploding manner.
[31] "Cinemix" on Universal. "Cinemix" on Editions Sido / Universal. Hip and contentious reuses of forgotten French soundtracks. Here Tati becomes almost unrecognizable for better or worse.
[32] Just discovered this on an old WTM program tape c. 1992. Typical orgasmic sigh send up. “Je T’Aime” must be one of the most satirised songs…
[33] C Solaar is one of the great jazz-influenced rappers who does not go in for gangsta rap and maintains a certain high level of content, sound and self-esteem. Cool for years here sampling generously the pneumatic sighs of Bardot from “Bonnie & Clyde”.
[34] Amazing piece by La Horde commandeering some SG vocals for the funky “Sex Machine” of James Brown. I like this kind of cultural plunderphonics so much I played it twice. [thanx black sifichi at radio aligre for sending that along!!]
[35] “Serge Gainsbourg vol. 3” on Universal. Weird selection of less-successful works with some amazing oddities squeezed in like this. Some hillbilly inspired sounds here and there!
Gains-notes:
• Some Versions of "Je T’Aime ... Moi Non Plus" check out the Covers Project for more Serge Covers, plus many thanx to the elusive Dr. Benway
• "69 Année Érotique" by Luscious Jackson on "Aint Nuthin’ But A She Thang."
• "Harley Davidson" was a song written for Brigitte Bardot, which he sang with her as a true homage to pure sensuality. Bardot straddles a Harley in leather hot pants on a TV variety show. While "Harley David Son of a Bitch," was recorded some twenty years later on the album Love On the Beat as an outlaw self-parodying satire to insouciant posturing — Gainsbourg grunts in full Brando-esque "Wild One" hoodlum bluster "Hey, what the hell you doin’ on my Harley?" This song is properly recooked by the Bollocks Brothers with Johnny Lydon’s brother on snarly vocals.
• "Harley David Son of a Bitch" by avant garde performer, Kazuko Hohki, is an eccentric gem.
• The British duo No-Man did a dramatic trip-hop-styled cover of "Evelyn (The Song Of Slurs)" for a Gainsbourg tribute album a few years ago. By the way, apparently they used Mick Harvey's English translation. The song also appears on their Dry Cleaning Ray album from 1997.
• "Bonnie & Clyde" by Luna with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab is an excellent, if a little benzedrine-melancholy, version of Bardot and Gainsbourg’s first hit.
• "Comic Strip" duet Black Sifichi & Roma Napoli called "Comics Trip" on "Fellatio Praecox: Outspoken Word Trips" (unreleased private trax) Bootleg CD, great raw versions of pieces that appear on the excellent Sifichi debut, TICK.
• "Rascal You" in 1986 Gainsbourg sang "Vieille Canaille" in duet with sometime French rockabilly legend, Eddy Mitchell, (a recombined Big Bopper + Karl Malden).
• "Comment A Dire Adieu" by Jimmy Somerville in fine nitrous oxide castrati form(post-disco!!). Is he part BeeGee or part Chipmunk?
• "Nous ne Sommes pas des Anges" by Heavenly (Operation Heavenly, England; Sarah records)
• "Versions" is a 1996 collection of Jane Birkin reworked/remixed Gainsbourg songs with, among others, the great Les Negresses Verts and Suede’s Brett Anderson.
• In 1983, Gainsbourg wrote an entire album’s worth of compositions including the bizarre homage to Bowie "Beau Oui Comme Bowie" for Isabelle Adjani. Years earlier, then only 19, Adjani visited Gainsbourg and declared, according to Gainsbourg, that "if I ever decide to sing, it will be Gainsbourg songs."
• Singers who have covered Gainsbourg songs: Jane Birkin, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Dutronc, Catherine Deneuve, Petula Clark, Vanessa Paradis, Juliette Greco, Black Grape, Momus, Valerie Lagrange,Dave-Id Busaras, Erotic Light Orchestra, Frankie Howard & June Whitfield, Malcolm McLaren, Panico, Pet Shop Boys, Ray Coniff, Vicious Pink Phenomenon, Zouk, Dub Syndicate, Dzihan & Kamien, Fausto Papetti, Paul Mauriat, Anna Karina, Marie Blanche Vergne, Zizi, Etienne Dao, Twinkle, Lady Atomika, Philippe Dauga, Michelle Mercier, Alain Chamfort, Alan Bashung, Mirielle Darc, Martin Circus, Julien Clerc, Bijou, Toubib, Jo Lemaire, Gloria Lasso, Regine, Dominique Walter, Claude François, Michelle Torr, France Gall, Les Mercenaires, Les Freres Jacques, Michelle Arnaud, Pia Colombo, Jean-Claude Pascal, Philippe Clay, Catherine Sauvage, Alain Brunet, Nana Mouskouri, Dalida, Marc Almond...
Some Songs That Sample Gainsbourg: • "Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg" by Christian Marclay, the first avant anthropological scratch sampler goes Sergely delirious.
• In 1967 Bardot and Gainsbourg had a hit with the irrepressibly quirky "Bonnie and Clyde" [French & English versions]. This song is handsomely sampled on "Nouveau Western" by the premier French rapper, MC Solaar and also on — is it "Bubbaluba" — (oh shoot, I’ve lost this version and my notes on this one) by the adventurous English post-dub crew, Renegade Sound Wave. [Someone help me out with this one!]
• "Behind The Sun (Deep Ambient Mix)" by Starseed contains subtle samples of "Je T’Aime"
Wreck 238: Gainsbourg: Dub & Flatulence
wReck thiS meSS ~ Radio Patapoe 97.2 ~ Amsterdam
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies:
Maandag, 3 November 2003 (17.00 to 19.00)
SIMUL-streaming
“Vous ne m’aimerez plus un, mais deux. Indissociables, yin et yang, Rimbaud et Barnum — Et, maintenant, démerdez-vous Avec ça, les p’tits fanatiques.” • Serge Gainsbourg
“…I hit on the sad notion of recording my flatulency, which now had the silent sound of tear gas, with Hi-Fi equipment, and the first playbacks plunged me, alternately, into two very different states. In the first, I would invent an acoustic illustration to … Jet-Man, and I would imagine my hero flying uyp through the cumulus clouds … and, with one anal burst, leaving lyre-jets far behind … In the second, I would be transported by the symphonic concert, and would sink into a heavy, melomaniacal and tetanic lethargy…” • Serge Gainsbourg, from his novel “Evguénie Sokolov”*
Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [23]
Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg [Instrumental] [23]
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Overseas Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg vs DJ Telegram [21a]
Ecce Homo > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Mickey Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Mickey Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Mickey Maouse / Minny Pussy > Serge Gainsbourg vs Lisa Dainjah [21a]
Juif et Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Juif et Dieu > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Toi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Toi Mourir > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Nostalgie Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
La Nostalgie Camarade > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Bana Basadi Balalo > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bana Basadi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bana Basadi Balalo > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Evguénie Sokolov > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Evguénie Sokolov / Show Life > Serge Gainsbourg vs Al Pancho [21a]
Evguénie Sokolov > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Negusa Nagast > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Negusa Nagast > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Strike! > Serge Gainsbourg vs Buffalo Bill [21a]
Strike > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Strike Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Strike > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Dub From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
“As the Casino de Paris house lights dimmed and the concert began, a silhouette of Gainsbourg puffing on a cigarette appeared atop an extremely high staircase. A Las Vegas entrance, if ever there was one. Then to the horror and bewilderment of us all, the figure stumbled on the steps and tumbled all the to the floor, lying there motionless as a shocked silence filled the hall. From the wings, a spotlight caught the entrance of the ‘real’ Gainsbourg while his stunt double picked himself up off the floor and scirried offstage. The concert began thus, and the audience’s response was that same nervous laughter that Gainsbourg spoke of for ‘Evguénie Sokolov’.”
• Russell Mael, from the band Sparks, afterword to Evguénie Sokolov*
• Special thankx to Dr. Benway for his Serge CDRs and his CDR of very unusual yodels as well. And Black Sifichi for getting me a French copy and Laurent at WTM-Paris for over a dozen years of correspondence and sonic support.
* An excellent source for French literature in English is TamTam Bookslocated in California. Order the growing list of French TamTam lit via TamTam or Book Soup or Amazon.com or other on-line bookstore.
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies:
Maandag, 3 November 2003 (17.00 to 19.00)
SIMUL-streaming
“Vous ne m’aimerez plus un, mais deux. Indissociables, yin et yang, Rimbaud et Barnum — Et, maintenant, démerdez-vous Avec ça, les p’tits fanatiques.” • Serge Gainsbourg
“…I hit on the sad notion of recording my flatulency, which now had the silent sound of tear gas, with Hi-Fi equipment, and the first playbacks plunged me, alternately, into two very different states. In the first, I would invent an acoustic illustration to … Jet-Man, and I would imagine my hero flying uyp through the cumulus clouds … and, with one anal burst, leaving lyre-jets far behind … In the second, I would be transported by the symphonic concert, and would sink into a heavy, melomaniacal and tetanic lethargy…” • Serge Gainsbourg, from his novel “Evguénie Sokolov”*
Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [23]
Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg [Instrumental] [23]
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Overseas Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg vs DJ Telegram [21a]
Ecce Homo > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Mickey Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Mickey Maouse > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Mickey Maouse / Minny Pussy > Serge Gainsbourg vs Lisa Dainjah [21a]
Juif et Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Juif et Dieu > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Toi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Toi Mourir > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Nostalgie Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
La Nostalgie Camarade > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Bana Basadi Balalo > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bana Basadi Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bana Basadi Balalo > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Evguénie Sokolov > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Evguénie Sokolov / Show Life > Serge Gainsbourg vs Al Pancho [21a]
Evguénie Sokolov > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Negusa Nagast > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Negusa Nagast > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Strike! > Serge Gainsbourg vs Buffalo Bill [21a]
Strike > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Strike Dub > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Strike > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Dub From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
Bad News From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Dub From The Stars > Serge Gainsbourg [21a]
“As the Casino de Paris house lights dimmed and the concert began, a silhouette of Gainsbourg puffing on a cigarette appeared atop an extremely high staircase. A Las Vegas entrance, if ever there was one. Then to the horror and bewilderment of us all, the figure stumbled on the steps and tumbled all the to the floor, lying there motionless as a shocked silence filled the hall. From the wings, a spotlight caught the entrance of the ‘real’ Gainsbourg while his stunt double picked himself up off the floor and scirried offstage. The concert began thus, and the audience’s response was that same nervous laughter that Gainsbourg spoke of for ‘Evguénie Sokolov’.”
• Russell Mael, from the band Sparks, afterword to Evguénie Sokolov*
• Special thankx to Dr. Benway for his Serge CDRs and his CDR of very unusual yodels as well. And Black Sifichi for getting me a French copy and Laurent at WTM-Paris for over a dozen years of correspondence and sonic support.
* An excellent source for French literature in English is TamTam Bookslocated in California. Order the growing list of French TamTam lit via TamTam or Book Soup or Amazon.com or other on-line bookstore.
Wreck 187: Serge Purge
wReck thiS meSS ~ Radio Patapoe 97.2 ~ Amsterdam ~
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies: no. 187 > Serge Purge
Maandag, 19.08.02 (17.00 to 19.00)
“There’s a trilogy in my life, an equilateral triangle… of Gitanes, alcoholism and girls…”*
Génerique > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Fuite du Rouquin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans le Bergerie > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Cha Cha Cha du Loup > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans le Bergerie Fin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Black March > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Black Trombone > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Ce Mortel Ennui > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
“My music is Judeo-Russian; always something sad.”
Génerique > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
L’Eau a la Bouche > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Les Amours Perdue > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Érotico Tico > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
C’est Petits Riens > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
“No one knew how to employ me as an actor; they always gave me bad-guy roles because of my ugly face.”
Tatoué Jérémie > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Ce Grand Méchant > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Faze Action [2]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Cyro Baptista & Olivier Glissant [3]
Marabout > Bob Sinclar [2]
Serge Est Mort > France Culture Radio
Voici ... Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Quand mon 6.35 me Fait Les Yeux doux > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Fugue > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Machins Choses > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Negative Blues > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Intoxicated Man > Medeski, Wood & Martin [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Genesis P. Orridge [22]
Le Claquer de Doigts > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
La Nuit d’Octobre > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
Adiue, Créature > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
“It wasn’t Bob Marley who initiated France in reggae, it was me”
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Ecce Homo > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Mickey Maousse > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Juif et Dieu > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
NYUSA > Snooze [2]
I have done a series of 5 radio shows now since 1995 devoted to Serge and his influences [Vian…] and cover versions and samples of his music [Donna Summer to MC Solaar…]. This special came a day after he was born on August 18 according to the Autonomedia Jubilee Saints calendar. I have also written a lot about Serge for a few magazines.
I am currently recommending his novella about the art of flatulence called Eugenie Sokolov. [The song of the same name is comprised entirely of flatulence noises set to a reggae beat.] It’s published byTamTam Books. I wrote the foreword and Russell Mael of Sparks supplied the afterword and John Zorn and Brigitte Bardot lend their names to the cause as well. TamTam has also published Vian and Guy Debord… I am also recommending if you are interested in reading something about SG to go out and purchase or borrow or steal the following:
[*] Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes by Sylvie Simmons, Helter Skelter, 2002 is a book I can fully recommend as an insightful and yet titilating look at the controversial singer. SS did her research and interviewed the likes of Jane Birkin and others close to him. It is a juicy and compassionate read. I was supposed to write a review of it for American Book Review but received my book contract shortly after and so I never got around to doing the review. This is my attempt to make good on a book that runs the gamut from the most intimate SG details to a broader perspective on the effect one man can have on the popular culture of his day and beyond the grave until today. She does her real best in getting at all the word play that comprises a good protion of what makes SG and his work work and play. Puns, double entendres, cultural references, poetry, allusions all get lost in direct translations. SS does an excellent job in making all of this make sense to an Anglo audience. From chap 18, Afterlife:
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp might have modelled himself on Serge; Brett Anderson of Suede duetted with Jane birkin on a benefit Album. The Serge Effect permeated Britpop and beyond – through Divine Comedy, My Bloody Valentine, Black Grape, St. Etienne, Luna (who covered “Bonnie & Clyde” with Laetitia Sadler of Stereolab), The Bollock Brothers (Johnnyt Rotten’s brother’s band who covered “Harley David Son of a Bitch”), The High Lllamas … Momus (who dedicated 1991’s “Hippopotamus” to Gainsbourg) Baby Birkin… The most recent Serge-related UK hit has been David Holme’ album “Let’s Get Killed,” featuring samples from “Histoire de Melody Nelson.
But also Nick Cave, Anita Lane, Luscious Jackson, Air, John Zorn, Mick Harvey, Sonic Youth, Beck [“His influence is all over the place…I think it’s more about the disregard and abandon behind what he was doing.”] are among other devotees… THIS PLAYLIST GOES OUT TO OVER 1500 READERS-EYEBALL "LISTENERS" per WEEK* * "plus another few hundred when it hits the BSI list!"
Ethno-Illogical Psycho-Radiographies: no. 187 > Serge Purge
Maandag, 19.08.02 (17.00 to 19.00)
“There’s a trilogy in my life, an equilateral triangle… of Gitanes, alcoholism and girls…”*
Génerique > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Fuite du Rouquin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans le Bergerie > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Cha Cha Cha du Loup > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Les Loups dans le Bergerie Fin > Serge Gainsbourg [18]
Black March > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Black Trombone > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Ce Mortel Ennui > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
“My music is Judeo-Russian; always something sad.”
Génerique > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
L’Eau a la Bouche > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Les Amours Perdue > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Érotico Tico > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
C’est Petits Riens > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
“No one knew how to employ me as an actor; they always gave me bad-guy roles because of my ugly face.”
Tatoué Jérémie > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
Ce Grand Méchant > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Serge Gainsbourg [20]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Faze Action [2]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Cyro Baptista & Olivier Glissant [3]
Marabout > Bob Sinclar [2]
Serge Est Mort > France Culture Radio
Voici ... Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Quand mon 6.35 me Fait Les Yeux doux > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Fugue > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Machins Choses > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Negative Blues > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Intoxicated Man > Medeski, Wood & Martin [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Genesis P. Orridge [22]
Le Claquer de Doigts > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
La Nuit d’Octobre > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
Adiue, Créature > Serge Gainsbourg [19]
“It wasn’t Bob Marley who initiated France in reggae, it was me”
Overseas Telegram > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Ecce Homo > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Mickey Maousse > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Juif et Dieu > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
Shush Shush Charlotte > Serge Gainsbourg [21]
NYUSA > Snooze [2]
I have done a series of 5 radio shows now since 1995 devoted to Serge and his influences [Vian…] and cover versions and samples of his music [Donna Summer to MC Solaar…]. This special came a day after he was born on August 18 according to the Autonomedia Jubilee Saints calendar. I have also written a lot about Serge for a few magazines.
I am currently recommending his novella about the art of flatulence called Eugenie Sokolov. [The song of the same name is comprised entirely of flatulence noises set to a reggae beat.] It’s published byTamTam Books. I wrote the foreword and Russell Mael of Sparks supplied the afterword and John Zorn and Brigitte Bardot lend their names to the cause as well. TamTam has also published Vian and Guy Debord… I am also recommending if you are interested in reading something about SG to go out and purchase or borrow or steal the following:
[*] Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes by Sylvie Simmons, Helter Skelter, 2002 is a book I can fully recommend as an insightful and yet titilating look at the controversial singer. SS did her research and interviewed the likes of Jane Birkin and others close to him. It is a juicy and compassionate read. I was supposed to write a review of it for American Book Review but received my book contract shortly after and so I never got around to doing the review. This is my attempt to make good on a book that runs the gamut from the most intimate SG details to a broader perspective on the effect one man can have on the popular culture of his day and beyond the grave until today. She does her real best in getting at all the word play that comprises a good protion of what makes SG and his work work and play. Puns, double entendres, cultural references, poetry, allusions all get lost in direct translations. SS does an excellent job in making all of this make sense to an Anglo audience. From chap 18, Afterlife:
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp might have modelled himself on Serge; Brett Anderson of Suede duetted with Jane birkin on a benefit Album. The Serge Effect permeated Britpop and beyond – through Divine Comedy, My Bloody Valentine, Black Grape, St. Etienne, Luna (who covered “Bonnie & Clyde” with Laetitia Sadler of Stereolab), The Bollock Brothers (Johnnyt Rotten’s brother’s band who covered “Harley David Son of a Bitch”), The High Lllamas … Momus (who dedicated 1991’s “Hippopotamus” to Gainsbourg) Baby Birkin… The most recent Serge-related UK hit has been David Holme’ album “Let’s Get Killed,” featuring samples from “Histoire de Melody Nelson.
But also Nick Cave, Anita Lane, Luscious Jackson, Air, John Zorn, Mick Harvey, Sonic Youth, Beck [“His influence is all over the place…I think it’s more about the disregard and abandon behind what he was doing.”] are among other devotees… THIS PLAYLIST GOES OUT TO OVER 1500 READERS-EYEBALL "LISTENERS" per WEEK* * "plus another few hundred when it hits the BSI list!"
wreck 93: Serge Gainsbourg Meta-morphed
wreck thiS meSS: #93: Serge Gainsbourg Meta-morphed 18.05.00 on Radio 100
Serge Est Mort > France Culture Radio
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Voici ... Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture
Ballade de Melody Nelson > Howie B. [2]
The Ballad of Melody Nelson > Fred Frith [3]
Ballade de Melody Nelson > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Faze Action [2]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Cyro Baptista & Olivier Glissant [3]
Couleur Cafe > Serge Gainsbourg [5 also 4*]
Requiem Pour un Twisteur > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Chanter le Marsaillaises > sample [5a]
L'Herbe Tendre > avec Michel Simon [drunk] [5a]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Requiem Pour un Con (91 rap remix) > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
Requiem Pour un Con > Orb [2]
Pink Elephants > Mick Harvey [7]
Requiem Pour un Con > Mick Harvey [7]
La Javanaise > Mick Harvey [7]
La Chanson de Prévert > Serge Gainsbourg
Black Trombone > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
La Javanaise > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
La Javanaise > Murphy No Geisha [8]
Coco and Co. > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Marabout > Bob Sinclar [2]
Aux Armes Aetcetera > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Javanese Remake > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Brigade Des Stups > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Lola Rastaquere > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Lola Rastaquere > Chateau Flight [2]
Intoxicated Man > Medeski, Wood & Martin [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Donna Summer [10]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Cibo Matto [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Nick Cave, Anita Lane & Mick Harvey [7]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin [4]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Dzihan & Kamien [2]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Genesis P. Orridge [11]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [12]
Relax Baby Be Cool > Serge Gainsbourg & Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare [9]
Eau et Gaz a Tous Les Etages > Serge Gainsbourg & Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare [9]
Marilou Sous la Neige > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
NYUSA > Serge Gainsbourg [4*]
NYUSA > Snooze [2]
Fugue > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Machins Choses > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Rien Rien J'Disais Ca Comme Ca > Serge Gainsbourg & Anna Karina [6a]
Bonnie et Clyde > Herbert [2]
Bonnie et Clyde (Eng.) > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [2a]
Voici Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture annonce
Bonnie et Clyde > Robin Holcomb & Wayne Horvitz [3]
No Comment > Serge Gainsbourg [13]
No Comment > Dax Riders [2]
Chatterton > Serge Gainsbourg [14]
Sea, Sex & Sun > Serge Gainsbourg
Sea, Sex & Sun > Demon Ritchie [2]
Black Sifichi WTM Radio Libertaire ID/Generique
Comic Strip > Black Sifichi & Roma Napoli [15]
Comic Strip (Eng.) > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot
Interviews Boris Vian Influence / Poesie [16]
Andalouse > Serge Gainsbourg [16]
Interview Fragment about the use of Anglaise in songs [16]
Autographe > Serge Gainsbourg [16]
Aeroplanes > Readymade [2]
Angoisse / Black March / Generique / Some Small Chance / Fugue / Wake Me At Five > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
+ Interviews with SG w/ Christian Fevret [17]
Angoisse > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
L'Hotel Particulier > Stratus [2]
Hotel Specific > Mick Harvey [7]
Five Easy Pisseuses > OGM [2]
Fugue / Wake Me At Five > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Serge Est Mort > France Culture Radio
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg > Christian Marclay [1]
Voici ... Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture
Ballade de Melody Nelson > Howie B. [2]
The Ballad of Melody Nelson > Fred Frith [3]
Ballade de Melody Nelson > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Faze Action [2]
La-Bas C'Est Naturel > Cyro Baptista & Olivier Glissant [3]
Couleur Cafe > Serge Gainsbourg [5 also 4*]
Requiem Pour un Twisteur > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Chanter le Marsaillaises > sample [5a]
L'Herbe Tendre > avec Michel Simon [drunk] [5a]
Requiem Pour un Con > Franz Treichler [3]
Requiem Pour un Con (91 rap remix) > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
Requiem Pour un Con > Orb [2]
Pink Elephants > Mick Harvey [7]
Requiem Pour un Con > Mick Harvey [7]
La Javanaise > Mick Harvey [7]
La Chanson de Prévert > Serge Gainsbourg
Black Trombone > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
La Javanaise > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
La Javanaise > Murphy No Geisha [8]
Coco and Co. > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Intoxicated Man > Serge Gainsbourg [5]
Marabout > Bob Sinclar [2]
Aux Armes Aetcetera > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Javanese Remake > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Brigade Des Stups > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Lola Rastaquere > Serge Gainsbourg [9]
Lola Rastaquere > Chateau Flight [2]
Intoxicated Man > Medeski, Wood & Martin [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Donna Summer [10]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Cibo Matto [3]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Nick Cave, Anita Lane & Mick Harvey [7]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin [4]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Dzihan & Kamien [2]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Genesis P. Orridge [11]
Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [12]
Relax Baby Be Cool > Serge Gainsbourg & Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare [9]
Eau et Gaz a Tous Les Etages > Serge Gainsbourg & Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare [9]
Marilou Sous la Neige > Serge Gainsbourg [4]
NYUSA > Serge Gainsbourg [4*]
NYUSA > Snooze [2]
Fugue > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Machins Choses > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
Rien Rien J'Disais Ca Comme Ca > Serge Gainsbourg & Anna Karina [6a]
Bonnie et Clyde > Herbert [2]
Bonnie et Clyde (Eng.) > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot [2a]
Voici Serge Gainsbourg > Radio France Culture annonce
Bonnie et Clyde > Robin Holcomb & Wayne Horvitz [3]
No Comment > Serge Gainsbourg [13]
No Comment > Dax Riders [2]
Chatterton > Serge Gainsbourg [14]
Sea, Sex & Sun > Serge Gainsbourg
Sea, Sex & Sun > Demon Ritchie [2]
Black Sifichi WTM Radio Libertaire ID/Generique
Comic Strip > Black Sifichi & Roma Napoli [15]
Comic Strip (Eng.) > Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot
Interviews Boris Vian Influence / Poesie [16]
Andalouse > Serge Gainsbourg [16]
Interview Fragment about the use of Anglaise in songs [16]
Autographe > Serge Gainsbourg [16]
Aeroplanes > Readymade [2]
Angoisse / Black March / Generique / Some Small Chance / Fugue / Wake Me At Five > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
+ Interviews with SG w/ Christian Fevret [17]
Angoisse > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
L'Hotel Particulier > Stratus [2]
Hotel Specific > Mick Harvey [7]
Five Easy Pisseuses > OGM [2]
Fugue / Wake Me At Five > Serge Gainsbourg [6]
