Dalida was the star, Gainsbourg the piano player. Lovely Italian-French collaboration from the completely forgotten »L’inconnue de Hongkong« (1963).
Gainsbourg
Metal Gainsbourg
No, it’s not a joke. Swedish goth metalband Therion just released an album with covers of French 60s and 70s popsongs. Featuring a few Gainsbourg-tracks: Poupée de cire, Initials BB and Les Sucettes. Among tracks made famouse by Sylvie Vartan, Marie Laforet and others (see tracklist here). Therion’s not the first loud band to cover Gainsbourg (see FN Guns’ Les Sucettes, Rummelsnuff’s Bonnie & Clyde, for instance), but Therion’s versions are hilarious. Unintentionally, I guess, but still. Their ‘Initials BB’ is okay, but try ‘n keep a straight face while listening to this. Then imagine a corpsepainted, leather-clad crowd banging their heads to it. Even their fans aren’t sure what to think of it.
As a teen I listened to a lot of hardrock and metal (Judas Priest, Motörhead, Metallica, etc), but when I hear Therion, I think of the bestest metalparody ever.
Therion – Initials BB
Françoise/ Serge
Actually, I like Depardieu’s slightly sleazoid version from Quand j’étais chanteur best, but Françoise’s voice could turn even a Gainsbourg song into an anthem of innocence.
Mustang vs Gainsbourg
French neo-rockabilly trio recorded an EP with reprises of old tunes, songs by Brassens, Don Cavalli, Patrick Coutin and yes, our Serge. Most of the time, these cover-EPs consist of throwaway versions, recorded just for fun, material to keep the fans happy. Mustang Reprend is just that – the arrangement of Brassens’ Je me suis fait tout petit is fine, Coutin’s J’aime regarder les filles doesn’t have the bite of the original and Chez les Yé-Yé does swing ferociously, but lacks the contempt of Gainsbourg, your honour. Still, I’ve heard worse.
Mustang – Chez les yé-yé
Video of Serge’s original HERE
Bâtard Pop XXIII: Serge NTM
I’m aware it’s kind of a sacrilege here, but I always thought that Serge’s Je suis venu te dire is a fat bummer of a song. Now mash-up entrepreneur Tom Haggen – featured at FS already here – has provided the rough edge the tune always lacked, fusing Serge’s goodbye ditty with the vocals of 1995’s Come Again by Saint-Denis-based hip hoppers Suprême NTM, the abbreviation standing for Nique ta mère, French slang for a not too well-mannered MILF fornication. Haggen’s amalgam has class and style, and his blogsite is well worth checking out, including a wow blend of disco legends KC & The Sunshine Band and L.A. rapper Ke$ha. Video here, mp3 below, and shake yours as well.
Tom Haggen – Je suis venu te dire que je reviens
Tom Haggen – Shake Shake Shake!
Gainsbourg Degenerado
Peruvian blog Revista 69 asked twelve bands and artists from Spain and Latin-America to cover a Gainsbourg track. The exhilirating result is downloadable for free (HERE, scroll down to where it says ‘Descargar’). The bands deconstructed the tracks, added electronics, jazz-elements, latin percussion and what not. There isn’t a bad cover here, I really dig the surfed up-version by Los Protones and the chillwaved Color Café by Algodon Egipcio. I wish that Lido Pimienta (check out this wonderful other track by her) had used less distorted sounds, though. Great initiative by Revista 69, muchas gracias!
Here is a taster by Madame Recamier (pictured) from Mexico: Madame Recamier – Ah, Melody
Alain Chamfort and the girls
Alain Chamfort is a big name in France. He played on hits by Dutronc like Les Playboys and Le Cactus, worked with Véronique Sanson and had Gainsbourg write lyrics for him. He debuted in 1968, released his first album in 1976 and scored big hits. Elles et lui is a duets album, Chamfort revisits old songs with the creme de la creme of French female vocalists: Claire Keim, Keren Ann, Vanessa Paradis, Elodie Frégé, to name but a few. Most songs are great. Take the lovely duet with Elodie, for instance. The original, from 1993, is an overblown, kitschy jazz ballad. Now, the music’s understated, the lyrics stand out and Elodie is doing what she does best. Also very good is Bambou, Chamfort’s duet with Camelia Jordana (a song written by Serge).
Alain Chamfort & Elodie Frégé – L’Ennemi dans la glace
Lou Doillon
I.C.U. is th first single from a new EP (out in June) by Lou Doillon, daughter of Jane Birkin, half-sister of Charlotte Gainsbourg. Go HERE (or here) to see the video. Album’s out in September, produced by Etienne Daho, mixed by Phillipe ‘Cassius’ Zdar.
Amours Perdues
First sight, nice one. A compilation about the life and times of Serge & and highly underrated singer Bébé, titled Lost Loves, of course a reference to Gainsbourg’s Les Amours Perdues. Actually, and we’re in a mild mood today, the album is a bit of a miss: The ten Gainsbourg-sung titles that open the album have nothing to do with BB, and the „cool sounds from her hot scenes“ rehash some pseudo-swelty jazz instros from BB’s early movies; including no vocals, of course, and though the bag includes Brigitte’s version of Sidonie, issued as a flexi disc by Sonorama magazine in 1961, it’s not even a Gainsbourg song, spelled Sidone here – probably the final indicator that the guys at Cherry Red Records already had lost love and interest when they cobbled this cheapo together in one and a half min, the most intriguing tune here being Isabelle Aubret’s (!) version of La chanson de Prévert. And, believe it or not, that’s really a Gainsbourg song.
Isabelle Aubret – La Chanson de Prévert
Brigitte Bardot – Sidonie
Mad Men and Gillian Hills
A sultry version of a Gillian Hills-tune in the first episode of the new Mad Men-season! It’s all over the internet (thanks Taylor for the update!), haven’t been able to find a video yet, ’cause I’d love to see Jessica Paré shimmy to the chanson. I just found that video, see above. Not the first time Mad Men refers to a French tune – in the second season a coffee-commercial based on Gainsbourg’s Couleur Café was used (listen here).
If you compare Parés version with the one by Hills (or Sophia Loren), the Europeans win by a landslide when it comes to sultryness, by the way. Still, a nice touch. Jessica’s version is available on vinyl, by the way.
Jessica Paré – Zou bisou bisou
Gillian Hills – Zou bisou bisou