He's Good-Bad, But He's Not Toxic - Serge Gainsbourg

When my nephew, a few years ago, told me he was listening to a lot of Serge Gainsbourg, I nearly choked. My only knowledge of this French musical god was a sanitized-for-radio version of 1969's "Je t'aime... moi non plus," duet with Jane Birkin. He recorded that in '68 with Bridget Bardot, but she asked him not to release it at the time . Actually, Gainsbourg was quite the Bohemian. Born Lucien Ginsburg, his Jewish family suffered under the Nazi occupation, he romped through a career of sex, outrages, black humor and political incorrectness. His reggae version of La Marseillaise outraged both French conservatives and Bob Marley. He released a song with his daughter called Lemon Incest Unfortunately, he became a wasted alcoholic dirty old man, acting out his dysfunction in public and died in 1991 at age 62. (E.G. appearing on a live TV show with Whitney Houston, he announced, "I want to fuck her.") Nevertheless, he managed to do some interesting things I have not yet heard, such as two reggae albums and two electronica.

Back to our story: although I still couldn't get past the bad French "rock 'n' roll" I was open to suggestion. What my nephew laid on me was this little gem of musical kitsch. The BB of the title is, of course, Brigitte Bardot.

The title track starts the album off with a rousing guffaw, as Gainsbourg savages Dvorak's 9^th Symphony, (From the New World).

Next, Comic Strip cleverly plays with onomatopoetic (Wow! I spelled that right on the first try!) words in the strips (graphic literature, for you younger lot).

Ford Mustang is another fave. I guess a pattern is forming here. It has a somewhat menacing major-minor progression in the piano and legato string part. Then it gets whacky. The things the woman is saying are a riot. Lots of double entendre, bang, Mus (left) tang (right), pick-up, etc. Sample lyrics: It embraces/ The plane/ "Mus" left/ "Tang" to the right/... A bottle/ Fluid Make-up/ A flash/ A Browning/ And a pick-up/ A collection/ D'Edgard Poe/ A Zippo lighter. A little scary? Or nonsense?

BB, herself appears on Bonnie and Clyde, a song telling the story of the bandit/lovers that has enjoyed quite a career as a cover for loads of diverse artists. The hoots on the right side are a real (what else?) hoot. The song, itself holds some charms.

The rest of the album I am not too fond of. But c'est simplement moi.