C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 11:00pm
Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus from Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg
From the YouTube description:
In 1968 Gainsbourg had written "Je t'aime, moi non plus", an explicitly erotic song which he had recorded with Brigitte Bardot. After the pair's relationship had ended, Bardot begged Gainsbourg not to release the recording as a single and Gainsbourg, the perfect gentleman, respected her wishes. However, in 1969 Jane recorded the notorious song as a duet with Gainsbourg and it appeared on the pair's joint album "Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg".
When "Je t'aime moi non plus" was released as a single later that year it caused an absolute scandal. Indeed, Gainsbourg's erotic lyrics and Jane's passionate whispering totally outraged public opinion. The international press attacked the song's "lewd" message, radios banned it from their playlists and the Vatican went so far as to issue a statement condemning the immoral nature of the song. In short, "Je t'aime moi non plus" benefited from a huge amount of free publicity and rocketed straight to the top of the charts, selling around a million copies in the space of just a few months. Needless to say, Gainsbourg and Birkin became the most scandalous couple of the year and their relationship became the subject of intense media scrutiny.
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Serge! Ahh Tres bien, vraiment.
Merci Crooks et Liars.
Gainsbourg's Requiem pour un Con:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7PB76jVZGkU
How's this for rapping? In soixantaine-huit, no less.
Et son fille avec Jane, Charlotte:
5:55 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=JKPXPJryp3g
Et en conclusion, sa chanson plus belle: Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais (1971)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JKPXPJryp3g
Why is it that French music sounds like everyone is whispering? It's kind of annoying.
VegasRage @ 5:
Try smoking a couple packs of Gitanes each day and see how you sound!
i don't speak or understand french........but i understood that tune....that french dude was living large back in the day.....
Why do fish-faced Frenchmen have all the luck with the ladies?
This song is somewhat reminiscent of the classic song, the theme from a Man And A Woman.
orangehairboy @ 8:
Parce que le Français est la langue de l'amour !
You can thank France for the roaring '20s. The Doughboys, after witnessing the nightlife in Paris during The Great War, came back stateside and were destined to help bring the US out of its sexually conservative shell.
I don't care what any of you say, I still like french-fries!
For an ENGLISH VERSION with Nick Cave and (former bad seed) Anita Lane go here:
http://www.myspace.com/anitalane
and play track "I love you, Nor do I"
FYI- Bad Seed (and great songwriter himself) MICK HARVEY released 2 albums of Gainsbourg songs in english. 1st one was the best INTOXICATED MAN. This track is on the second less strong but still good PINK ELEPHANTS. P.S. GAINSBOURG is god.
Ballade De Melody Nelson
Soixante Neuf Annee Erotique
Chatterton
Pauvre Lola
Le Talkie-Walkie
=====
Magnifique!
"You are the wave. And I am a naked island!"
Hottt....
New_Damage @ 14:
Je fais des excuses. Pas "Ballade De Melody Nelson," mais, "Melody."
LaffinGas Says@12"I don’t care what any of you say, I still like french-fries!"
In 2003, at the height of the US anti-french smears, two weeks before the Iraq invasion, my wife and I went to Paris for a visit. I went there fully expecting the onslaught of French rudeness I had always heard about. To my pleasant surprise it was quite the opposite! The majority treated us as they treated everyone else, with decency and respect, and some were quite friendly and helpful. It was like any major city in the world as far as people go, maybe a few bad apples, but the great majority friendly and talkative if you're friendly to them!
As far as the sights to see in that historic beacon, man, one of the best in the world!
Wow, what would Berlin's "Sex, I'm a..." have done back then?
Le Roi Est Mort @ 6:
Joie de vivre!
She's not, he's not.
nothing like flubbing the punch line
She's HOT, he's not.
Yeah Gainsbourg was known to be ugly, but he since he was one of the greatest artist and songwriters in modern music, it did help to score with chicks. and he had no shame whatsoever, so yes he had a very strong charisma and a way with girls that made many jealous. Btw I think more americans stars would look like that if they didn't do all their artificial anti-aging cures (Bo-tox etc), + being an alcoholic and a drug user left scars on Gainsbourg.
I remember a show on french tv (TF1 I think) with Withney Houston, Gainsbourg and a french TV-anchor (Michel Drucker).
So after Drucker presents Gainsbourg to Houston, Gainsbourg starts ranting about "she's beautifull" etc. and ends with "I want to fuck her". Of course Whitney is shocked and the anchor tries to save things and doesn't translate in french what Gainsbourg just said, all to no avail. This has become a classic :
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bMdXi6f5KRg
Ugly like hell (he was no young Alain Delon), but a genious.
Now about whispering voices and the racist ranting about why do all French songs sounds like this? They don't, it's was just the way Gainsbourg song (a heavy smoker). Why do the Doors all sound like Jim Morrison is singing, well they do because he is singing.
Yay. I love Gainsbourg. That Histoire De Melody Nelson album is one my faves. I also highly recommend Sylvie Simmons' book about him, A Fistful Of Gitanes.
I was living in Europe at the time that song came out. I was 17 and studying in the southern part of the Netherlands. I first heard it on a public bus and liked it. My girlfriend adored the song and played it often on her phonograph. I don't remember much of an ado but it was the Netherlands and the song was a 'French Song'...which allowed a different set of rules.
Le Roi Est Mort @ 10:
Not really. Firstly, the video is filmed in Paris..go there. If you cannot find love and eroticism there you probably would fail to find mosquitoes in the Amazon. I am an American guy but let me risk the manly thing and say that French men and to a lesser extent Italian men just know how to do it. It;s not so much that beautiful language as body language and really liking women. They like women.
Try this...in any language: the next time a woman leaves your dining table stand when she returns. Don't 'act' the stand, mean it. It works like that.
Sure its difficult to find the Bistro ambiance to do "French Love" in the USA but if try real hard to will get what you need..or take the lady to France. I just took my wife to Barcelona (I know its in Spain!!!) but it worked well. This November it will be Paris and Nice..cant go wrong in Provence!.
orangehairboy @ 8:
Dude..don't be too American. The guy wrote that song....are you getting it?
Serge is a GOD!
Be sure to seek out on DVD Anna the original musical comedy for television he made back in 1966 starring Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Serge lui-meme et Marianne Faithfull.
OK. Whatever. I think the song is trash, at best, performed by a couple of amateurs. By the way, she's got terrible teeth and can't act.
But. How is it this bourgeois pond scum from the 60s is given pride of place but John McCain is criticized for quoting Dr No? (I haven't watched the ad - life is too short.) Sauce for the goose, etc.
Perhaps Serge Gainsbourg was a gentleman, but perhaps he was also a some kind of a genius pervert. Here is France Gall and "Les Sucettes" 1966:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_srJGOkFE
Terrific.
Easily one of the worst songs of all time.
A classic guilty pleasure.
The remix by The Vibrators is also quite, ummm...well, let's just say it makes a good soundtrack to a memory of a rainy afternoon tangled in the sheets with a favorite somebody...i'm at a loss for suitable adjectives
Le Roi Est Mort @ 3:
Ah, oui - la belle Charlotte.
God, I love this song.
Gainsbarre's later version with Bardot on this piece is no slouch either.
It's just a gorgeous song.
I took a night bus through Java in 1980-mumble.
1. The airconditioning was so high I almost froze.
2. The driver had this song on a loop (8-track?) at top volume for the entire ride.
I still shiver when I hear it.
Nicole, you've been impressing me quite a bit with your LNMC posts lately!
L'Anamour
orangehairboy @ 8:
Gainsbourg was French by birth, but Lucien Ginsburg's parents were Russian Jews who fled the Bolsheviks in 1919 (of course only to find trouble again with the Nazis in wartime Paris.)
Someone mentioned Histoire de Melody Nelson, which to my thinking is one of the greatest concept albums of all time (although it's very short in time!) Fans will be happy to know that the entire album was made into a conceptual French television special starring Gainsbourg and Birkin, and this generous Youtube user has kindly posted the whole program in track sequence http://www.youtube.com/user/Gemear (go to the near the beginning of the list.) The record is a small masterpiece, arranged by Jean Claude Vannier. Many years later it was revealed that the album was recorded in London with the cream of the UK session musician crop: Vic Flick and Big Jim Sullivan on guitar, Douggie Wright on drums, and the amazing Herbie Flowers on bass (Bowie's "Space Oddity," David Essex' "Rock On," Lou Reed's "Walk On the Wild Side.")
Wisterley @ 28:
Gosh, you are so "with it", as the kids say.
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