Jolie mash-up of Jacko’s Beat It and SG’s Comic Strip by the prolific DJ ComaR who already contributed to the superb Je Deteste Serge compilation in 2010. Two tunes obviously made for each other.
Gainsbourg
The Weeknd quotes Gainsbourg
Well, he ís Canadian. So Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd using French lyrics isn’t that strange. On his new (third), free downloadable mixtape, Abel sings a few lines from France Gall’s Laisse Tomber Les Filles (written by Gainsbourg) in his song Montréal. On first listen, I didn’t recognise it, so hat tip to @Rvlanen for bringing this to my attention. The Weeknd is considered by many as a very talented leftfield R&B-singer. Abel is like an emo-punk singer making silky soul. Coeur de Pirate loves The Weeknd too, she covered his Wicked Games. Nope, that’s not a Chris Isaak-cover. The Weeknd did cover Michael Jackson on his new mixtape, and used a Siouxsie & the Banshees sample on an earlier one. Talk about varied influences.
The Weeknd – Montréal
France Gall – Laisse tomber les filles
Hot Hausfrau Entertainment
Once the famous Blue Note label was home of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, or Thelonius Monk. Nowadays, its catalogue features jazz artist impersonators like German so-called entertainer Götz Alsmann. On his new album In Paris, he covers songs by Trenet, Aznavour, Montand, and others, in some rather remarkable style: The band, featuring an extraordinarily obtrusive vibraphonist, swings like a red hot hausfrau changing a vacuum cleaner bag, while Alsmann himself buoyantly chuckles and chortles, guffaws and giggles his way through the chansons, his personal highlight possibly being his version of Serge’s early tongue-in-cheek ditty Cha Cha Cha du Loup – now sounding like Chester the Molester on the loose at some German primary school.
Götz Alsmann – Der Wolf tanzt Cha-Cha-Cha
Je t’aime
Longtime FOFS (Friend of Filles Sourires) Roger Grund send me a rework of the ole’ Je t’aime…moi non plus, mixed with some klezmer-clarinet. It could be the basis of a ‘sick love song’, as Roger puts it. ‘I will consider to add any vocalist’, he adds. And: ‘Particle was compiled in search of the definitive rhythm guitar and is dedicated to the magik of Arthur Greenslade, Serge Gainsbourg, Michel Houellebecq and the now stagnant Circus Contraption.’
So there. Work in progress. Let’s see what happens next.
Roger Grund – Particle
Illustration stolen from HERE
All Roads Lead to Melody 3 – the covers
The list of coverversions from Histoire de Melody Nelson-songs is long, and the interpretations vary. Jazzy, rockin’, pastoral, in various languages – it’s all here. If you know of more versions, please let me know. More on the superb reissue here, more on the use of samples from albumtracks here.
On Youtube:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt covers Melody here
Charlotte Gainsbourg covers Hôtel Particulier here
Dr Brazuk & Mt Crab cover La ballade de Melody Nelson here
Jean-Louis Murat covers La ballade de Melody Nelson here
Benjamin Biolay covers La ballade de Melody Nelson here
Les Provocateurs cover several Melody Nelson-tracks here
Aurèle covers La ballade de Melody Nelson here
Miam Monster Miam & Sopie Galet cover La ballade de Melody Nelson here
NOTE: ALL FILES ARE DOWN
La ballade de Melody Nelson:
Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp
Aidan Bartley (English)
L&A Music
Mick Harvey (English)
Miossec
Placebo (English)
The Serge Gainsbourg Experience (English)
Todd Bishop (instrumental, jazz)
Shahar Even Tzur (Hebrew version)
Fred Frith
Valse de Melody:
Aldo Romano, Baptiste Trotignon & Rémi Vignolo (instrumental, jazz)
Friture Moderne (instrumental, jazz)
Jane Birkin
Noel Akchoté (acapella)
Sasha Andrès & The Recyclers
Shahar Even Tzur (Hebrew version)
Todd Bishop (instrumental, jazz)
En Melody:
Kahimi Karie
Hôtel Particulier:
Michael Stipe (English)
Eric Elmosnino (From the movie Vie Héroique)
Mick Harvey (English)
Giorgio Bassmatti (Basque version)
Les Rita Mitsouko
Shahar Even Tzur (Hebrew version)
Ah, Melody
-M- and General Elektriks played a Melody Nelson-medley on Taratata last week:
Baby Brahms mashup – the video
Remember the Baby Alone in Babylone/Brahms-mashup that dj Von Rosenthal de la Vegaz & Stefan Schmid made for the 5th anniversary of this blog? Turns out that Von Rosenthals vj, Aineko, made a video for it. Nudity involved!
Lulu Gainsbourg & Scarlett Johansson
Poo-doo pa poo-doo! The full version of the Lulu-Scarlett duet is out there, a cut from the upcoming From Lulu to Gainsbourg-album. Shame: Scarlett sings in English. Serge recorded an English version without Brigitte Bardot, with different lyrics. There are various other English versions of Bonnie & Clyde, for instance by The Walkabouts, Steve Wynne & Johnette Napolitano, James Iha & Kazu Makino – all with slightyl different lyrics.
Not sure what to think of Lulu’s and Scarlett’s version, it stays very close to the original, albeit they lost the poo-doo pa poo-doo (or is it whoo-hoo hah-whoo hoo?) effect. Lulu’s singing voice, as Scarlett’s, isn’t very impressive. Another track by Lulu is on the interwebs, one of my favourite SG-tracks, L’Eau à la bouche. Really dig the samba-arrangement. But the voice…hmm. Really looking forward to the album, with vocal help from Rufus Wainwright, Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp, Marianne Faitfull…
Lulu Gainsbourg & Scarlett Johansson – Bonnie & Clyde
Serge Gainsbourg – Bonnie & Clyde (English version)
Shahar Even Tzur
Gainsbourg sung in Hebrew – the tribute album by Israeli popstar Shahar Even Tzur isn’t the first time Serge’s songs are sung in that language, but it still is remarkable. There was a tribute to SG in Israel last year (see here), I don’t think Even Tzur was part of that one. And on Youtube I found this. And this. Shahar translated 10 songs to Hebrew, ranging from Sorry Angel to several Melody Nelson tracks, and gave ‘m a rocking make-over. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.Chez les ye-yes, with it’s klezmer-references, works best.
As you know, Gainsbourg’s real name is Lucien Ginzburg, his parents were Russian jews. Serge taught children of concentration camp survivors (there’s a very moving scene in the Vie Heroique movie about this), wrote a pro-Israel track in 1967, at the start of the 6 Day War. There’s of course the Rock Around the Bunker-album, a concept-album about Nazi occupation. But judaism or overt jewish references were never a big part of Gainsbourgs work. To be honest, I only found out Serge was a jew when John Zorn released his tribute-album in 1997. My guess is that the Israeli-tributes have little to do with judaism, but more with the quality of Serge’s songs. Sung in Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, Dutch or Hebrew, they’re still brilliant.
I’ve been trying to find more info about the Serge-tribute by Shahar, but I don’t read Hebrew and there’s a lot of articles to be found anyway. If you know more, please leave a comment.
Shahar Even Tzur – Chez les ye-yes
See Shahar play Serge covers live here and here. Listen to the full album on Spotify.
Delphine Volange
Delphine Volange – for a husky singing French fille, that’s a great stage name. On par with Vanessa Paradis, Marina Celeste and Charline Rose. Posted about Delphine’s first single last year. The follow-up is just released, the b-side sports another version of her duet with Bertrand Belin (see original version and gorgeous video here). That can mean two things: she hasn’t written much new material, or she’s using Belin again to get in the picture. I wouldn’t mind being used by Delpine (ahem). But let’s not get carried away here. Or wait, let’s do. Because she wrote Hôtel Chopin together with the great Jean-Claude Vannier. There sure is Gainsbourgian flavour to the song (Je suis venu te dire springs to mind), not sure if there’s a musical reference to Chopin as well, like Serge did here. With her Barbara Carlotti-like voice, Delphine sure makes me look forward to that album.
Delphine Volange – Hotel Chopin