Gainsbourg sung by…

Release of 4-CD set Mister Melody

Paris 

01/03/2006 - 

Mister Melody - a 4-CD boxed set featuring a staggering 98 songs - gives fans the chance to discover Gainsbourg's work through his performers, who have ranged from 'chanson' stars Frères Jacques to French pop king Etienne Daho. These albums tell the story of a prolific songwriter and composer who was as generous as he was gifted.

The release of Mister Melody might perhaps best be described as the crowning glory of music celebrations commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of Serge Gainsbourg's death. This exceptional boxed set offers new insight into the work of the French genius, serving up a whole string of hits as well as lesser-known treasures and curious paradoxes. Listening to the 98 songs, presented on four CDs in chronological order, you can hear Gainsbourg shaping his art to the aesthetic and commercial canons of the day, breaking out of the mould to explore radical new forms and the "Gainsbarre" of the final years sticking two fingers up to the establishment.

The list of singers who performed Gainsbourg's work in the early years reads like the ideal French address book. They include some of the hottest talent-discoverers and new writer promoters of the day such as Michèle Arnaud (who championed Gainsbourg as one of her young proteges), Pia Colombo and Catherine Sauvage. Then, of course, there were the legendary 'chanson' stars Les Frères Jacques, used to performing songs penned by prestigious authors such as Prévert, Kosma, Raymond Queneau and Henri-Georges Clouzot or absurd fantasy pieces such as La Confiture. Les Frères Jacques, famous for appearing on stage dressed in tights and performing songs with exaggerated mime movements, gave the still marginal Gainsbourg one of his earliest career breaks. For it was this troupe that brought Le Poinçonneur des Lilas to mainstream attention in 1958.

Another legendary French 'chanson' icon, Juliette Gréco, helped pave Gainsbourg's way to fame. The Left Bank muse, used to performing songs written by the likes of Sartre, Queneau, Desnos and Mauriac, also took work from young up-and-coming talents including Jacques Brel, Guy Béart – and Serge Gainsbourg. Gréco was the first singer to bring out an entire album of Gainsbourg songs, the famous Gréco chante Gainsbourg. The album, released in October 1958, included Il était une oie, Les Amours perdues, L’Amour à la papa and La Jambe de bois (Friedland), almost entirely censored by the French broadcasting corporation's "listening committee." Gréco went on to record L'Accordéon (1962) and La Javanaise (1963), both of which would rank among Gainsbourg's greatest classics.

In Gainsbourg's early years, his songs tended to merge into the musical landscape of the day, although he did come up with a number of outstanding musical gems such as the 1959 Mes petites odalisques recorded by a pre-folk Hugues Aufray as a full-on jazz track featuring vibraphone and squealing brass section. Jean-Claude Pascal performed an unforgettable version of Les Oubliettes (in the same vein as Yves Montand singing Les Feuilles mortes) in 1961 and Petula Clark brought the house down the following year with an inimitable country-variété mix on Vilaine fille, mauvais garçon.

The early 60s found Gainsbourg taking the French charts by storm via blonde baby-faced France Gall (Laisse tomber les filles, Poupée de cire, poupée de son, Attends ou va-t-en, Baby Bop, Teenie Weenie Boppie) and sex kitten Brigitte Bardot (Je me donne à qui me plaît, La Belle et le Blues, L’Appareil à sous, Harley Davidson, Contact and a number of duets with Gainsbourg himself). Gainsbourg may have owed much of his success to female performers, but this did not stop him indulging, from time to time, in the same arrogant misogyny that ran through his own early albums. Quand tu t’y mets performed by Les Mercenaires makes no attempt to hide its boorishness and on Les Petits boudins, recorded by Dominique Walter, Gainsbourg's cynicism reached new heights as he vaunted the merits of going out with fat girls because you didn't have to get involved! Then there was his unexpected incursion into funk - Hip hip hip hurrah performed by Claude François – and its controversial line about "burning women."

The compilation ends on Comme un boomerang, with the posthumous version recorded by Etienne Daho and Dani. Interestingly enough, this takes the spotlight off Gainsbourg's muse and former partner Jane Birkin, placing her in a continuous line of other performers – although the essential role she played in Gainsbourg's work is honoured with nine songs ranging from Jane B to Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve. On another note, we can only regret that Mister Melody includes just one song Gainsbourg penned for Jacques Dutronc (the superb and ultimately little-known Bras mécanique). And there is absolutely no trace of any of his collaborations with Alain Chamfort (although, to be fair, this is probably due to the difficulties of putting together a set of tracks recorded for different labels).

At the end of the day Mister Melody more than lives up to its title, containing as it does some incredible music gems such as three songs recorded by Jean-Claude Brialy and one by Eddy Mitchell for the musical Anna. Then there's an ultra-chic (but ultimately vocally disastrous) recording by Nico of the theme song from the film Strip-tease, the English version of Comic Strip featuring Gainsbourg and Bardot, a number of songs by Mireille Darc and a handful of instrumentals including an extract from the soundtrack of the film Les Volets verts which prefigures the melody to Gainsbourg's scandalous Je t’aime moi non plus. Mister Melody is, in short, the perfect complement to the complete works of Serge Gainsbourg that any serious fan already owns.

Serge Gainsbourg Mister Melody (Mercury/Universal) 2006

Bertrand  Dicale

Translation : Julie  Street