Serge Gainsbourg

The International Cult of Serge

Paris 

10/12/2003 - 

Revered by everyone from Portishead and PJ Harvey to Beck and Placebo – and covered by everyone from Donna Summer to Judge Dread! – Serge Gainsbourg has posthumously won the international recognition he craved. Thanks to electronic remixes, dub re-releases and Jane Birkin's Arabesque reworkings of his songs, the pastis-swilling, Gitane-smoking provocateur has become the stuff of music legend.

In a recent interview with French newspaper Le Monde (08/08/2003) Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg's former lover and muse, revealed how the Gallic star was disappointed by his reception across the Channel. "Serge got depressed when no-one recognised him on the King's Road (in London)," says Birkin, "No-one came up and asked for his autograph so he decided to head home to France, saying he'd rather be a king in his own kingdom than a 'little prince' elsewhere." Gainsbourg made one famous incursion on the U.K. charts, of course, rocketing to the no.1 spot in 1969 with his aural orgasm Je t'aime moi non plus. Since that notorious climax sales of Gainsbourg records have been negligible, however. And a mere 15,000 copies of the export 'best of' compilation Initials SG have been pre-bought by stores across the Channel.

Sylvie Simmons, author of A Fistful of Gitanes, the first Gainsbourg biography in English, claims that despite poor record sales the Gitanic icon is currently enjoying posthumous cult status in the U.K. "Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of Pulp and Brett Anderson from Suede are both big Gainsbourg fans," says Simmons, "They're not just into Gainsbourg's music either; they're impressed by his style as well. They love the fact he was so cool and witty and had this slightly arrogant side to him, too." The fact that Gainsbourg elevated scandal into an art form has been instrumental in ensuring the posthumous 'cult of Serge', too. Burning a 500-franc note on live TV and telling Whitney Houston he wanted "to f... her" on French prime time have become the stuff of music legend. Brian Molko, lead singer of American indie band Placebo, and U.S. hipster Beck have both cited Gainsbourg as an inspirational provocateur.

The cult of Gainsbourg has also spread to Eastern Europe where Alexander Michailidis, programme director of Prague's Radio One, claims fans tend to fall into one of two categories. "There are those that know Gainsbourg from the 50s and 60s, a period when French culture had a big influence in eastern Europe," Michailidis says. "But there's also a new generation of fans broadly speaking between 25 and 30 who live in main cities like Prague who have discovered his work through remixes. There was a mini Gainsbourg boom here after I Love Serge made people want to go back and rediscover the originals."

I Love Serge, an album of electronic remixes featuring everyone from Howie B to The Orb, has also proved influential in Australia. Kate Welsman – aka Systa bb – who works as a DJ on Melbourne's state-run radio PBS is a committed Gainsbourg fan, but claims the French provocateur remains "an acquired taste" Down Under. "Gainsbourg's songs are never played on commercial radio here," she says, "but you occasionally hear them on the public airwaves and the I Love Serge series certainly got his music across to dancefloors in some of the more underground clubs. For me Gainsbourg is unique among artists in that any French person I've ever met can sing at least one of his songs. But although Gainsbourg is an integral part of the French consciousness I don't think he translates easily to other cultures."

One of the reasons for this is evidently the language barrier. As British journalist Robert Chalmers once put it, "Gainsbourg was cursed by an attribute which proved a more powerful hindrance to rock stardom than being born blind, tone-deaf or dead; that most fatal of adjectives, French." Given the long-held prejudice in English-speaking countries that French just isn't a rock'n'roll language and the multiple layers of meaning in your average Gainsbourg song, the essence of Serge was bound to get lost somewhere in translation. This has not deterred Australian musician and songwriter Mick Harvey from bringing out two groundbreaking cover albums of Gainsbourg songs, however. Harvey (of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fame) released Intoxicated Man in 1995 and went on to follow this up with Pink Elephants in 1997.

Working with a team of translators who explained all the "weird literary references and strange things running through the songs," Harvey came up with original English versions of classics such as Bonnie & Clyde, Je t'aime moi non plus (I Love You…Nor Do I) and Le Poinçonneur des Lilas (The Ticket Puncher). He cites the dark, disturbing ditty about the suicidal subway worker as one of his favourite tracks on Pink Elephants. "I see it as a worker's song, a lament for the lot of the average man with a boring job." As for the notorious Je t'aime moi non plus Harvey says he hopes his version brings out the deep irony of Gainsbourg's lyrics. "Everyone's always assumed it was some straightforward moan and groan eroto-pop classic… but it's much, much more than that really. It's a very bizarre song… The French have always understood how subversive Gainsbourg was but it's been a mystery to anyone who doesn't speak French."

Whether fans discover Gainsbourg on the dancefloor underground or reinterpret the dark sarcasm of his songs via Pink Elephants, one thing's for sure and that is that the Gitane-smoking legend's flame is set to burn for a long time yet.

Albums:
Jane Birkin Arabesque (EMI)
Initials SG export (Mercury/Universal)
Various I Love Serge/Electronica (Universal Music)
Mick Harvey Intoxicated Man (Mute)
Mick Harvey Pink Elephants (Mute)

Biography:
A Fistful of Gitanes, Sylvie Simmons (Helter Skelter)

Julie  Street