Serge Gainsbourg

[peerke]

A cursory listen reveals that it's a lot of fragments and live performances. Some unreleased songs. Interesting stuff.

Could you post a tracklist for this one, please. I am interested.

[peerke]

He wrote a late-sixties' hit for France Gall (sp? Zelil?) called "Sucette" (lollipop) which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, all about giving blowjobs - fairly explicitly. The great joke was that Ms. Gall, a particularly dim example of manufactured French popstarlet, wasn't in on the joke when she recorded it (nor, apparently, for some time after). So there was this innocent blonde la-la-la-ing a nagging piece of pop fluff all about oral sex on the TV ...

(Waits for corrections from Zelil ...)

She wouldn't talk to him for years after he told the thruth on a TV show.  I think she even stopped her career for a while.

Some three or four years later he wrote another song for her: 'Les ballons' (The balloons). She recorded it and it was relased as a single.
Then he revealed that the original title was 'Les tettons' (The tits)!

[harveyw]

The aforementioned "Polnareff's" is way better than pretty much anything Serge recorded, on a musical level at least. A truly astounding record, your education in French pop (or music in general, if I'm to be honest) is incomplete without it.
Jonathan, you should investigate the rest of Michel P's music (at least his 60s-early 70s output) immediately!

[Fantastico!]

The aforementioned "Polnareff's" is way better than pretty much anything Serge recorded, on a musical level at least. A truly astounding record, your education in French pop (or music in general, if I'm to be honest) is incomplete without it.
Jonathan, you should investigate the rest of Michel P's music (at least his 60s-early 70s output) immediately!

Thanks Harvey!
I find it to be absolutely breath-taking indeed.   "Petite Petite" in itself is one of the greatest songs ever written.  The arrangement and vocals are absolutely thrilling--on par or greater than Bacharach.

[harveyw]

I find it to be absolutely breath-taking indeed.   "Petite Petite" in itself is one of the greatest songs ever written.  The arrangement and vocals are absolutely thrilling--on par or greater than Bacharach.

The thing I love most about Polnareff's is its total waywardness; leaping from aching romanticism to all-out pop onslaught to breakbeat ultra-funk in the space of a breath. Actually, I lie. The thing I love most about Polnareff's is its complete love of melody. I can't think of a more tune-driven LP (perhaps I'll forget about "Hey You Woman").
In this age where any loner folk-singer-songwriter, any forgotten 60s psych-ster is reissued with a "lost classic" tag, it truly baffles me why this album isn't held in higher regard by the pop cognoscenti. I love Serge, I really do, but in all honesty Polnareff's makes Melody Nelson look half-baked.

[Jason]

A cursory listen reveals that it's a lot of fragments and live performances. Some unreleased songs. Interesting stuff.

Could you post a tracklist for this one, please. I am interested.

My disc doesn't have any artwork with it. I don't know any track titles.

[Jason]

Jonathan, there's so much to Gainsbourg, man. Between his pop material to his jazz material to his reggae, the man seemingly did everything. Just like the Beach Boys.

[I. Spaceman]

The aforementioned "Polnareff's" is way better than pretty much anything Serge recorded, on a musical level at least. A truly astounding record, your education in French pop (or music in general, if I'm to be honest) is incomplete without it.
Jonathan, you should investigate the rest of Michel P's music (at least his 60s-early 70s output) immediately!

I couldn't disagree more.

[Jason]

I'm with Ian. Unflinchingly. Serge is THE giant of French pop, in my opinion.

[I. Spaceman]

Comparing Polnareff to Gainsbourg is like comparing Bacharach to Zappa. The only reason people compare them is because they're French. Ridiculous.

[Jason]

Ian, did you want me to hook you up with those tracks?

[I. Spaceman]

Yeah, man! Let's PM dis.

[Jason]

Ian, did you know that there are double disc versions of Aux Armes Et Caetera and Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Etoiles available? They have tons of remixes, but the problem is that the albums themselves are remixed. They all sound different. What a rip, man.

[I. Spaceman]

Yep, similar situation to the Who. Wow, I get a bunch of killer outtakes, but I don't get the original album the way it was meant to be heard? Great.

[Jason]

I'll probably end up buying them just to be "complete", but Evguenie Sokolov without the fart noises is a scary thought. The fart noises make the song, in my opinion.

[I. Spaceman]

Making Serge PC by removing "objectionable" elements, even in a bonus-track fashion, is offensive and maddening.

[Jason]

EXACTLY! It's compromising the integrity of the man's work. Those fart noises were what the man intended, can't his wishes be respected by the staff who put out these atrocities?

[harveyw]

Comparing Polnareff to Gainsbourg is like comparing Bacharach to Zappa. The only reason people compare them is because they're French. Ridiculous.

Ridiculous indeed. However, I wasn't comparing the two artists, just saying I preferred one artist's work to the other's. Even so, I'd say "Polnareff's" and "Melody Nelson" were fairly comparable, as they were released within a few weeks of each other, both are (partly-autobiographical?) concept albums, and both uniquely "French" records. Admittedly the two LPs sound very different, but c'mon, French culture -particularly pop culture- is unlike any other; of course French artists can be compared with each other.
Have you heard "Polnareff's"? Or, eg "Le Bal Des Laze" Ian? If not, you really ought to.

[Jason]

I've heard those, Harvey. Great stuff.

[harveyw]

Now that's weird. When I type "a u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l", it's displayed as "autocadelaical". What on earth...?

[Jason]

Damn you, filter!

Kidding.

[Jason]

Listening to Rock Around The Bunker now. Probably Serge's best, in my opinion.

[I. Spaceman]

I love that damn album.

[Jason]

That album is so intelligent and so biting, I can't help but love it. AMG called it an "acerbic reclamation of a Jew's own humanity". Very good description.

[I. Spaceman]

In one of the most subversive careers in music history, THE most subversive move. "Nazi Rock", I mean come on. Only Steely Dan were more dangerous, IMO.