The Serge is Working

Today I am missing the Mrs. in a big way as she is on a long-planned trip to Paris with her mother, sister and sister-in-law. But self-pity isn’t part of the Rock Turtleneck lexicon. Here we’re all about the music.

And when I think of French pop music, two words spring immediately to mind: Serge Gainsbourg.

Gainbourg was a real-life French Austin Powers. With ears the size of a baby elephant, a lazy eye and horrible teeth, he nonetheless had an awe-inspiring power to bed some of the world’s most beautiful women, including Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin (seen, and I mean seen, below).

Much of his chick-magnet abilities lay in his talent as a genuine pop visionary. He invented a super-sexy, sensuous, erotic brand of lounge bistro disco, that has held up surprisingly well and has influenced U2, R.E.M., Beck and fellow French pop stars Air. He's like Burt Bacharach with a baguette.

My favorite Gainsbourg track is 1968s “Bonnie and Clyde” an inexplicable, irresistable duet with Bardot that's an ode to the famous lovers/bankrobbers and, more significantly, the sheer fabulousness of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who played Bonnie & Clyde in the briliant film from the same time. You can find the track, and many other musical bon-bons on the fine Serge compilation Comic Strip.


The most notorious shot in Serge's canon is is "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" (also on Comic Strip), a slice of erotica that was so scandalous due to Birkin's cooing sighs of pleasure that the Vatican weighed in, calling it immoral. What more recommendation do you need?