Hommage À Serge Gainsbourg
Maison Serge Gainsbourg on the rue de Verneuil in Paris
A tribute to controversial French composer Serge Gainsbourg.
Recorded live at the festival in the Valley.
Serge Gainsbourg (1928 – 1991) was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. During WWII they were forced to wear a yellow star and eventually flee Paris. His parent had fled to France after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Serge Gainsbourg had a brief affair with Brigitte Bardot, a much longer affair with Jane Birkin.
His music had a reputation for being dark, with sexual overtones.
Le Poinçonneur des Lilas describes the day in the life of a Paris Métro ticket man whose job it is to stamp holes in passengers’ tickets. Gainsbourg describes this chore as so monotonous that the man eventually thinks of putting a hole into his own head and being buried in another.
Les Sucettes was written for teen singer France Gall. She thought she was singing about lollipops. She was singing about oral sex.
His most famous composition, which was immediately banned in the UK, was Je t’aime… moi non plus, recorded with Jane Birken. The Vatican felt obliged to make a public statement citing the song as offensive. It shot straight to No 1 in several countries.
Lemon Incest, translates as Inceste de citron, a wordplay on un zeste de citron (a lemon zest), was recorded with his daughter Charlotte (mother Jane Birkin).
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