Serge Gainsbourg was a true French pop culture renaissance man; poet, singer-songwriter, actor, director and notorious eccentric. Unafraid to experiment widely with both his art as well as cultural conventions, he drunkenly once told Whitney Houston “I want to fuck you” on live French television and repeated this sentiment when the program's horrified host tried unsuccessfully to ameliorate the situation. (Check out the incredible footage available at www.youtube.com ). Following his death in March of '91 shortly before his 61st birthday, President Francois Mitterrand compared him to the nineteenth century poet Baudelaire and to the surrealist writer Apollinaire.
Having released over twenty albums in his lifetime while scoring more than forty films, Gainsbourg's place in music history was secured long ago. Clearly, a few big names in today's musical market share an appreciation of Gainsbourg's craft with their willingness to interpret English translations of the master's work on this release. The disc kicks off with the insanely popular English rockers Franz Ferdinand sharing duties with singer Jane Birkin (once married to Gainsbourg) on “A song for Sorry angel,” a great tune for luring in a younger curious set of listeners. Cat Power & Karen Elson do a breathy, sweet version of “I love you (me either),” the song originally banned across Europe for featuring what many interpreted as the sounds of a woman having an orgasm. Jarvis Cocker & Kid Loco do their nicely restrained thing on “I just came to tell you that I'm going.” Portishead even decided to emerge from their indefinite recording hiatus with “Requiem for Anna,” giving it a haunting, cool treatment that clocks in at under three minutes. What happened to Portishead? This is the first new stuff they've officially released since “Roseland NYC Live” in 1998. Maybe they're not meant for the outside world?
Faultline, Brian Molko & Francoise Hardy pound out the creepy “Requiem for a jerk” with just the right amount of circuit-bending aggression to make you believe Gainsbourg's opinion of the deceased. With a delicate spoken-word take on “L'Hotel,” Michael Stipe shows the scope of his abilities by starting with nothing more than a simple drum machine rhythm and expanding his sound with synth & guitar (played by James Iha who also fronts the bonus track “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde with Kazu Makino), a surging string section and spooky falsetto embellishments. Tricky's take on “Goodbye Emmanuelle” retains the pensive, hip vibe of the original with well-mixed vocals by the television actress Megalyn Echikunwoke. The match up of Marianne Faithful with reggae's most notable production team, Sly & Robbie, is nothing short of brilliant. Gainsbourg worked with the duo and Rita Marley in 1978, recording his own version of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise,” calling it “Aux Armes et cetera.” On its release, Gainsbourg received death threats from French right-wing extremists for what they deemed inappropriate lyrics.
“Boomerang 2005” by Gonzales, Feist & Dani is the only song that takes into account Gainsbourg's interest in rap, a genre he explored briefly in his own unique way. Carla Bruni, model/singer and heiress to a tire manufacturing fortune, strums a lovely guitar while beautifully articulating the reflective lyrics of “Those little things,” making all the ironic Leonard Cohen cover tunes you ever heard sound downright amateurish in comparison.
There are a few more tracks by Marc Almond & Trash Palace, The Rakes, The Kills, Placebo and Nina Persson & Nathan Larson to add some additional bulk, but the stand-outs are easily distinguished by just letting this album play from beginning to end. With the wide cross-cultural range of artists and the ambitious scope of this project, credit must be given to Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, Christian Fevret and Timothee Verrecchia, the masterminds behind this album. Hopefully, “Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited” will bring the music of the late French arts agent provocateur to a wider American audience. |